Kubernetes architecture overview

Kubernetes architecture is built around a master-slave (control plane-worker node) model that allows for the efficient deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications across a cluster of machines. The architecture is highly modular, allowing for flexibility and extensibility.

Kubernetes comes with a client-server architecture. It consists of master and worker nodes, with the master being installed on a single Linux system and the nodes on many Linux workstations. The master node, contains the components such as API Server, controller manager, scheduler, and etcd database for stage storage. kubelet to communicate with the master, the kube-proxy for networking, and a container runtime such as Docker to manage containers.

A Kubernetes cluster consists of a control plane plus a set of worker machines, called nodes, that run containerized applications. Every cluster needs at least one worker node in order to run Pods.

The worker node(s) host the Pods that are the components of the application workload. The control plane manages the worker nodes and the Pods in the cluster. In production environments, the control plane usually runs across multiple computers and a cluster usually runs multiple nodes, providing fault-tolerance and high availability.