Kubernetes Fundamentals for Developers

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Kubernetes orchestrates containers at scale. Full stack developers do not need to be cluster admins, but understanding Pods, Deployments, and Services helps you debug production issues.

Core Objects

Pod: One or more containers that share networking and storage.
Deployment: Declarative updates for Pods (replicas, rolling updates).
Service: Stable network endpoint to reach Pods (ClusterIP, LoadBalancer).

A Minimal Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: api
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: api
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: api
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: api
          image: myregistry/api:1.2.0
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000

Local Development

Use minikube or kind to run clusters locally. Skaffold and Tilt sync code into running Pods for faster iteration.

Docker for Developers: Containerizing Your Node.js App

Sat, 30 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Docker packages your application and its dependencies into a portable image. For Node.js APIs and React frontends, containers ensure dev, CI, and production environments behave the same way.

A Production-Ready Dockerfile

Multi-stage builds keep images small:

FROM node:20-alpine AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules
ENV NODE_ENV=production
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]

docker-compose for Local Dev

Pair your API with PostgreSQL or Redis: