Kubernetes Learning Path | Version 3.

50 days from zero to

hero with Kubernetes
Kubernetes is taking the app development world by storm. By 2022, more
than 75% of global organizations will be running containerized applications
in production.1 Kubernetes is shaping the future of app development and
management—and Microsoft wants to help you get started with it today.

This guide is meant for anyone interested in learning more about Kubernetes.
In just 50 days, you’ll understand the basics of Kubernetes and get hands-on
experience with its various components, capabilities, and solutions, including
Azure Kubernetes Service. Go from zero to hero with Kubernetes to set your
company up for future app development success.

1Gartner. “6 Best Practices for

Creating a Container Platform

Last updated May 2020 Strategy.” April 23, 2019.​
50 days from zero to hero with Kubernetes
Click the bubbles to access that resource

Day 21-28
Architectures Day 33-50
Day 1 and patterns Operational best
practices for Kubernetes
A Kubernetes Story: Day 6-15 Learn the basics of designing
Phippy Goes to the Zoo Azure Kubernetes microservices apps, AI apps, With an eBook from Brendan

Tag along with Phippy

Service core concepts and distributed systems in a Burns, a series of 11 articles,
pair of illustrative articles and and one webinar, go beyond
and Zee for an educational Learn about the core concepts Day 1 with best practices for
an eBook from Brendan Burns.
adventure about Kubernetes. of AKS, like infrastructure 27 minutes; 160 pages. Day 2 operations. 277-page
6 minutes. components and access, in eBook; 65 minutes to read; 64
six short articles. 45 minutes. minutes to watch.

Day 29-32
Day 2-5 Workshop: Deploy a
Kubernetes basics video multi-container application
series with Brendan Burns
Get step-by-step training for
Build a strong Kubernetes Day 16-20 creating a Kubernetes cluster,
foundation in these 18 videos setting up a CI/CD pipeline using
Technical, on-demand
led by Kubernetes cofounder AKS, and more in this hands-on
Brendan Burns. 115 minutes.
Kubernetes webinars
learning experience. 1 workshop.
Take a deep dive into Kubernetes
with eight on-demand webinars from
expert engineers, product managers,
and developers. 462 minutes.
Step 1
•

Day 1
A Kubernetes Story: Phippy Goes to the Zoo

Tag along with Phippy the giraffe and her niece, Zee
the zebra, as they explore various components of
Kubernetes, from pods to deployments, in this fun,
lighthearted, educational adventure.
Click to read the story
6 minutes

here
 Step 2
•••

Day 2-5
Kubernetes basics video series

Join Kubernetes cofounder Brendan Burns for a series

of lightboard video demonstrations that answer your
general Kubernetes questions. Throughout the series,
Brendan teaches you about containers, components,
deployments, the scheduler, and more.
Click for video series playlist Click for Kubernetes intro
18 videos = 115 minutes, 21 seconds 1 video = 6 minutes, 28 seconds | 1 article = 3 minutes

here
 Step 2
•••

Why you should care Understand serverless Overview of common

about containers with Kubernetes Kubernetes scenarios
Utilize underlying resources more Learn the difference between Use Kubernetes for purposes beyond
efficiently with this lightweight, immutable serverless Kubernetes and microservice delivery, such as batch
infrastructure for application deployment serverless on Kubernetes analytics and workflows
6 minutes, 29 seconds 7 minutes, 54 seconds 3 minutes, 43 seconds

How the Kubernetes How volumes and storage

How Kubernetes works
scheduler works work in Kubernetes
Get to know key components
including pods, deployments, See how scheduler uses predicates
Find out about emptyDir, persistent
replica sets, and the scheduler or hard constraints and priorities or
volume, and persistent volume claim
soft constraints to make decisions
5 minutes, 35 seconds 5 minutes, 40 seconds
7 minutes, 35 seconds

How Kubernetes Setting up a Kubernetes The basics of stateful

deployments work build pipeline applications in Kubernetes
Upgrade applications running Watch a demonstration of Understand the role that replica sets,
in a Kubernetes cluster reliably security and associated checks persistent volumes, and persistent volume
and with zero downtime and balances claims play in stateful app development
6 minutes, 35 seconds 6 minutes, 25 seconds 7 minutes, 6 seconds

here
 Step 2
•••

Understand secrets Getting production ready Getting started with

management in Kubernetes in Kubernetes monitoring and alerting
Securely deploy and manage sensitive Put Kubernetes services into production, Set up and customize alerts and
information such as passwords and plus see why CI/CD, monitoring, and monitoring for apps, and integrate
certificates failover planning are important metrics to operate apps more reliably
5 minutes, 5 seconds 5 minutes, 44 seconds 7 minutes, 6 seconds

How Kubernetes and How service meshes How pods and the pod
config management work work in Kubernetes lifecycle work in Kubernetes
Learn management practices and topics Get a quick overview of services meshes, Understand what happens when you
like ConfigMaps, rollout of configurations, what they provide, and why you would create a pod—the atomic unit of
and templating want one in your application scheduling
6 minutes, 53 seconds 6 minutes, 21 seconds 7 minutes, 47 seconds

Understand role-based Simple app management on Customizing, extending API

access control in Kubernetes Kubernetes with operators with admission controllers
Ensure that people working on a project Adopt a cloud-native paradigm for Add new and unique capabilities to your
don’t interfere with each other’s work by managing apps in clusters and simplify cluster by modifying how API objects are
setting up a proper RBAC system management with core operator concepts validated or created
7 minutes, 14 seconds 5 minutes, 40 seconds 6 minutes, 22 seconds

here
 Step 3
••

Day 6-15
Azure Kubernetes Service core concepts

Learn how infrastructure components, access and

identity, security, network, storage, and scaling
function in AKS in these technical articles. Each
article covers a specific topic and only takes a few
minutes to read, so you can understand the basics
of Kubernetes in no time.
Click for access to all articles Click for introductory module
6 articles = 45 minutes 6 module units = 25 minutes

here
 Step 3
••

Clusters and workloads Network concepts for apps

See how infrastructure components like Provide networking to your applications
the control plane, nodes, and node pools in AKS, including services, Azure virtual
work in AKS—along with workload networks, ingress controllers, and network
resources like pods and sets policies
15 minutes 9 minutes

Access and identity

Authenticate and assign permissions in Storage options for apps
AKS using Kubernetes service accounts, Store applications in AKS using volumes,
AAD integration, role-based access persistent volumes, storage classes, and
control, Roles and ClusterRoles, and persistent volume chains
RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings 6 minutes
4 minutes

App and cluster security Scaling options for apps

Safeguard your applications in AKS with Scale applications in AKS using manual
master components security, node scale, horizontal pod autoscaler (HPA),
security, cluster upgrades, network cluster autoscaler, and Azure Container
security, and Kubernetes secrets Instance (ACI) integration
5 minutes 6 minutes

here
 Step 4
••

Day 16-20
Kubernetes training webinars

Take a deep dive into specific Kubernetes use

cases in these technical, on-demand webinars
led by distinguished engineers, program
managers, and developers. Plus, hear answers
to real-life questions from others who are
learning and applying Kubernetes.
8 webinars = 462 minutes
6 article, 45 minutes

here
 Step 4
••

Get Kubernetes up Apply best practices for Manage microservices with Kubernetes anywhere
and running cluster management Azure API Management with Azure Arc Preview
See where to begin and find out how to Learn about multi-tenancy, logical Get comprehensive examples and learn Manage, govern, and secure your
simplify day-to-day operations with a isolation with namespaces, and cluster when and why to use API Management in Kubernetes clusters across on-premises,
managed Kubernetes service and image security to use AKS optimally your organization edge, and cloud environments
50 minutes 60 minutes 60 minutes 50 minutes

Project design and layout for Build event-driven containers Secure Kubernetes clusters Manage Kubernetes clusters
successful Kubernetes apps with Azure Functions Keep your AKS cluster running with the with built-in best practices
Prepare your application for Kubernetes Take advantage of events on any latest OS security updates and Kubernetes Learn how Azure solutions can identify
and organize for a weekly or daily release cloud-native application with these releases as well as secure pod traffic and potential issues and provide actionable
following these file system layouts architectures, patterns, and best practices access to sensitive credentials recommendations for your clusters
64 minutes 60 minutes 58 minutes 60 minutes

here
 Step 5
••

Day 21-28
Architectures and patterns

Learn the basics of designing microservices

applications and AI applications using machine
learning operations (MLOPs)—complete with
architecture diagrams—in a pair of short articles.
Then, check out an eBook from Brendan Burns
for building reliable, efficient distributed systems.
Click for deployment strategies
1 article = 3 minutes | 1 video = 6 minutes, 35 seconds

here
 Step 5
••

Microservices applications
See how infrastructure components
like the control plane, nodes, and node
pools —along with workload resources
like pods and sets—work in AKS
19 minutes

AI applications with MLOps

Implement a continuous integration and
continuous delivery (CI/CD) and retraining
pipeline for an AI application using Azure
DevOps and Azure Machine Learning
8 minutes

Distributed systems eBook

Understand the repeatable, generic
patterns and reusable components that
make developing distributed systems
easier, so you can free up your time to
focus on more strategic initiatives
160 pages

here
 Step 6
•

Day 29-32
Workshop: Deploy a multi-container
application

Get step-by-step training for creating a Kubernetes

cluster, deploying a microservices-based application,
and setting up a CI/CD pipeline using AKS in this
hands-on learning experience.
Click to access
11 workshop modules = 145 minutes

here
 Step 7
•••

Day 33-50
Operational best practices for Kubernetes

Go beyond Day 1 with best practices for Day 2 operations.

Start with an eBook from Brendan Burns to review practical
Kubernetes deployment skills, then dive into best practices,
from network security to creating a CI/CD pipeline, collected
from real-world deployments of Kubernetes and written by
subject matter experts.

Click for eBook Click for all best practices

277 pages 11 articles = 65 minutes | 1 webinar = 64 minutes

here
 Step 7
•••

Cluster isolation Authentication, authorization

• Plan for multi-tenant clusters and • Authenticate cluster users with AAD
separation of resources • Control access to resources with RBAC
• Use logical or physical isolation in • Use a managed identity to authenticate
your AKS clusters themselves with other services
3 minutes 6 minutes

Basic scheduler features Cluster security, upgrades

• Provide a fixed amount of resources • Secure API server access and
• Limit impact of scheduled maintenance container access to resources
• Check for missing pod resource • Upgrade an AKS cluster and
requests and limits keep nodes up to date
5 minutes 9 minutes

Advanced scheduler features Container security

• Use taints and tolerations to limit pods • Scan for and remediate image
• Give preference to pods to run on vulnerabilities
certain nodes • Trigger and redeploy container images
• Split apart or group pods together when a base image is updated
7 minutes 2 minutes

here
 Step 7
•••

Network connectivity Resource management

for developers
• Compare network models • Understand resource requests, limits
• Plan for IP addressing, connectivity • Learn ways to develop and deploy
• Distribute traffic using load balancers, applications with Dev Spaces, VS Code
ingress controllers, or a WAF • How to use the kube-advisor tool
9 minutes
6 minutes

Storage and backups Pod security

for developers
• Determine what storage is available • Limit access to processes and services
• Correctly size AKS nodes for storage using pod security context
performance • Authenticate with other Azure resources
• Learn to back up, secure data volumes • Retrieve credentials from a digital vault
6 minutes
5 minutes

Business continuity
• Plan for AKS clusters in multiple regions
• Route traffic across multiple clusters
• Use geo-replication for image registries
• Replicate storage across regions
7 minutes

here
Looking for more?
What is Kubernetes? What is a container?
Get the Kubernetes basics, from how Learn why you should care about
it works to why you should use it containers, complete with use cases

Kubernetes on Azure Free trial

Read about Microsoft’s approach to Get 12 free months of Azure services,
Kubernetes including Azure Kubernetes Service

Click here to go back to the learning path

© 2020 Microsoft. Last updated May 2020. All rights reserved. This document is for informational purposes
only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information presented here.