Overview

Kubernetes is cornerstone of our infrastructure strategy, stands as a reliable platform for container orchestration. Beyond a tool, it's a platform enabling infrastructure engineers to adopt software development paradigms. Envision a 'grab bag' of infrastructure modules, akin to software libraries, assembled in various configurations. These modules, designed for cohesive operation within Kubernetes' orchestration layer, transform your infrastructure into a versatile engineering playground.

In the heart of this ecosystem lie tools and operators that fortify our setup, making it robust and conducive for blockchain applications:

  • Metal LB: A load-balancer, vital for routing traffic efficiently across our cluster, ensuring high availability and reliability of our blockchain nodes.

  • Cert Manager: Manages SSL certificates, crucial for secure communication within and beyond our cluster.

  • Linkerd: A service mesh, enhancing network communication among various services, providing crucial features like load balancing, service discovery, and monitoring.

  • NGINX: As an Ingress controller, it manages external access to the services, a pivotal role for the operability of our blockchain applications.

  • External DNS: Automates DNS configurations, ensuring our services are reachable via human-readable domain names, simplifying access.

  • Rook with StatefulSets and Ceph operator: Orchestrates storage resources, a critical aspect for maintaining the state and data of our blockchain applications.

  • Prometheus: Our monitoring backbone, Prometheus collects metrics, enabling us to monitor the performance and health of our infrastructure.

  • FluentBit: A log processor and forwarder, ensuring we have insight into system and application behaviors through logging.

The steep learning curve of Kubernetes is undeniable, yet the ecosystem has matured substantially. Tools for deploying, managing, and monitoring Kubernetes clusters have evolved considerably since it's inception, becoming more user-friendly. This guide endeavors to simplify the Kubernetes journey, presenting independent operators with best practices, reusable patterns, and a prescriptive approach to ease complexity. The objective is clear: to equip you with the confidence to manage your blockchain application stack, regardless of your familiarity with Kubernetes.