Steven Selolo - Cloud Engineer

Yesterday you set up your kitchen. Today, let’s meet the team running it the ones making sure every order comes out hot and correct.

The Kitchen Hierarchy

Every restaurant has a hierarchy. Kubernetes is no different. Here’s your kitchen management team (aka the control plane):

API Server → Head Chef
Every order goes through the head chef. They approve, adjust, and delegate.
etcd → Recipe Book
The one true record. Ingredients, methods, customer preferences all stored here.
Scheduler → Kitchen Planner Decides which station (worker node) cooks which dish (Pod). Keeps things balanced.
Controller Manager → Sous-Chef
Spots mistakes, fixes burnt dishes, and keeps everything running smoothly.
CoreDNS → Kitchen Intercom
When you yell “Table 5, Chicken Curry!”, it makes sure the right station hears you.

Check Who’s Working

Run this to see the control plane components in action:

Sample output:

Everything is alive and cooking.

kubectl get pods -n kube-system

Talking to the Head Chef

Want to see the full menu of what Kubernetes can serve? Ask the head chef directly:

This command lists every “dish” Kubernetes knows how to make Pods, Services, Deployments, Jobs, and more. Think of it as reading the restaurant’s full menu.

kubectl api-resources

Peeking at the Recipe Book

If you’re feeling brave, let’s peek at what’s inside the recipe book (etcd).

The output might look a bit like your ouma’s handwritten recipes messy at first, but once you know how to read it, it’s pure gold.

kubectl get pods -A -o yaml | head -20

Wrap-Up

Today you:

Met the head chef, sous-chef, and planners of Kubernetes
Checked who’s running your kitchen with kubectl get pods -n kube-system
Asked the head chef for the menu of resources
Peeped at the recipe book to see how Pods are defined

Coming Tomorrow

Tomorrow, we leave the manager’s office and step onto the kitchen floor.
You’ll deploy your first dish (Pod) and see how Kubernetes keeps it cooking.