Review, "Kubernetes Anti-Patterns" (Packt, 2024)

Recently, I’ve been studying for a new Kubernetes certification, so I was excited to get a chance to read “Kubernetes Anti-Patterns”( Packt , 2024) by Govardhana Miriyala Kannaiah ?? . The book discusses finding anti-patterns, adopting best practices to move forward, and then charting a path forward through continuous improvement. Chock full of strategic thoughts and principles, the text focuses on understanding the Kubernetes system. This book could be a practical starting point if you haven’t used Kubernetes before.?

The starting point addresses that anti-patterns are those elements that seem effective but degrade operations during execution.? An example might be, if I put my lemonade stand in the middle of the road, traffic from both directions will have to stop and buy lemonade; however, one can see how this might be a bad idea in practice.? Ten anti-patterns are listed, including misusing configuration maps or secrets, monolithic containerization, lack of resource limits and quotas, ignoring pod health probes, and bloated container images.? Each of these is accompanied by a way to diagnose what might happen if not resolved. Further, the text includes why these decisions may have been chosen.

The next section looks at how to fix these anti-patterns when they appear.? Not for the first time, this area heavily emphasizes the DevOps cycle for flow, feedback, and improvement.? Many of the best practices mirror suggestions from existing Kubernetes documentation, but the author does identify ten use-cases with problems, solutions, and implementation to resolve various issues. ? The last chapter in this section discusses some good strategies for optimization, such as limiting image size, maximizing network functionality, proactive health checks, and autoscaling.

The book concludes by looking at feedback loops for continuous improvement, highlighting key Kubernetes areas where the tools can provide critical information.? The author suggests that Kubernetes can do things like disaster recovery, financial policy, and audits more effectively.? Summing up the entire book, three strategies are suggested: understand the foundations of Kubernetes, embrace the community, and adopt continuous improvement.

My chief complaint is the lack of substance throughout.? The ideas are good, but there isn’t enough on the implementation side to drive success. For example, one of the real-world use cases states that the problem is a lack of monitoring.? I’ve encountered this often and would start with observability strategies, identifying the architecture, designating places to store logs, traces, and metrics, coordinating dashboards, and highlighting services within K8s to satisfy those needs.? The book’s suggestion boils down to fixing the anti-patterns.? It does mention dashboards, anomaly detection, and customer experience but does not state how to achieve it through the Kubernetes solution.

“Kubernetes Anti-Patterns”( Packt, 2024)? was interesting but lacked the meat I was expecting.? Once the various anti-patterns were introduced, I was expecting detailed discussions about how anti-patterns occur where it occurred, with screen shots, code snippets, and various tools to resolve the issues.? Instead, while clear on high-level Kubernetes, the book stays on that level.? It provides an excellent look but lacks substance for the Kubernetes practitioner.? It is like looking at food pictures; one can imagine how it must taste, but licking the paper will never be the same.? If you are unfamiliar with Kubernetes, this can help you learn the basics, if you are more than a beginner, you can skip this one.?

Dr. Mark Peters is a Senior Director of Solutions Architecture (Raft), responsible for integrating theoretical and physical options into tailored customer deliveries. Self-styled DevOps junkie, he recently published “Confident DevOps” (2024, Kogan Page. He served 22 years as a US Air Force Intelligence officer on everything from fighters and drones to satellites.? A cybersecurity expert, he holds multiple certifications, a Ph.D. in Information Technology (Capella), and a Strategic Security Doctorate (Henley-Putnam). He authored "Cashing in on Cyberpower" analyzing a decade of cyber-attacks and has a forthcoming book,? “Mastering Enterprise Platform Engineering” (Packt, Sep-2024). ? A frequent reviewer for industry-leading books, he has written 100+ reviews and articles.