Steven Selolo - Cloud Engineer

“Think of Kubernetes like running a busy restaurant kitchen. Each dish (container) has to be cooked, plated, and delivered on time. Kubernetes is your head chef making sure nothing burns, nothing gets lost, and every customer leaves happy.”

1: Containers vs Virtual Machines

Before Kubernetes, apps ran in VMs like giving each dish its own personal kitchen. Overkill, expensive, and slow.

Containers changed the game:

Lightweight, portable, and easy to move
Like prepping multiple dishes on the same kitchen counter everyone shares the same tools (OS), but each dish stays separate.

Problem: With 50 dishes to prepare at once, chaos ensues. Who keeps track? Who replaces burnt dishes? Enter Kubernetes.

2: Kubernetes in the Kitchen

Kubernetes is your head chef:

Makes sure every dish (Pod) is cooked and ready on time
Replaces burnt or dropped dishes automatically
Scales up when more customers (traffic) arrive
Ensures dishes that need to be served together arrive together (networking)

3: Hands-On with Rancher Desktop

Install Rancher Desktop
Pick the latest Kubernetes version
Open terminal and check your “kitchen”:

Example output:

kubectl get nodes

Explanation:

Ready = kitchen is open and ready to cook
control-plane = head chef is on duty
VERSION = which Kubernetes recipe you’re using

4: Pods = Plates

Pods = plates. Containers = the food on the plates.
Kubernetes ensures:

Every plate is ready on time
Plates are replaced if dropped
Proper coordination for dishes that need to arrive together

Wrap-Up

Today you:

Learned what Kubernetes is
Understood containers vs VMs
Spun up your first mini-cluster with Rancher Desktop
Saw how Pods work in action

Coming Tomorrow

Day 2, we’ll peek behind the kitchen doors and see how the head chef manages every dish, without chaos or burnt food.