AIS
Kubernetes Hands-On · free daily series

Learn Kubernetes on a real cluster.

Every episode is a real terminal session: commands typed live on a real Kubernetes cluster, recorded and narrated, one a day. Sixty episodes, from your first cluster to a production checklist.

Get the free field guide → Watch on YouTube →

New episode every morning at 7:30 AM Pacific.

A navigator's chart table at night: the Kubernetes Hands-On field guide on an old sea chart, with brass dividers, a compass, a magnifier and a lantern; rolled charts, a telescope and a globe behind

Episodes

Four parts of fifteen. Each title turns into a link the morning its episode goes public.

K8S 031Nov 3, 2026

Kubernetes RBAC Explained: Roles, Bindings and can-i

Part 3 · Secure by default Watch on YouTube →
K8S 030Nov 2, 2026

Kubernetes Autoscaling: HPA Under Real Load

Part 2 · Running real apps Watch on YouTube →
K8S 029Nov 1, 2026

Kustomize Tutorial: One Base, Many Environments

Part 2 · Running real apps Watch on YouTube →
K8S 028Oct 31, 2026

Helm Tutorial: Install, Upgrade and Roll Back a Chart

Part 2 · Running real apps Watch on YouTube →
K8S 027Oct 30, 2026

Kubernetes Gateway API: Route Traffic by Host and Path

Part 2 · Running real apps Watch on YouTube →
K8S 026Oct 29, 2026

Blue-Green and Canary Deployments in Kubernetes

Part 2 · Running real apps Watch on YouTube →

Part 1 · Kubernetes from zero

  1. 01 Kubernetes Tutorial for Beginners: Your First Cluster Heals Itself
  2. 02 Docker Containers Explained: Run, Inspect and Stop a Container
  3. 03 Dockerfile Tutorial: Build Your Own Container Image
  4. 04 Run Your Own Image in Kubernetes: kind and a Local Registry
  5. 05 Kubernetes Pods Explained: Run, Describe, Logs and Exec
  6. 06 Kubernetes Labels and Selectors: How Kubernetes Finds Your Pods
  7. 07 Kubernetes Deployments: Rolling Updates and Rollbacks
  8. 08 Kubernetes Services Explained: ClusterIP, DNS and Load Balancing
  9. 09 Reach Your App From Outside: kubectl port-forward vs NodePort
  10. 10 Kubernetes Namespaces: Organize and Isolate Workloads
  11. 11 Kubernetes ConfigMaps: Environment Variables vs Mounted Files
  12. 12 Kubernetes Secrets: Why Base64 Is Not Encryption
  13. 13 kubectl apply, diff and explain: Declarative Kubernetes
  14. 14 Kubernetes Probes: Liveness, Readiness and Startup
  15. 15 Kubernetes Requests and Limits: OOMKilled and Pending, Live

Part 2 · Running real apps

  1. 16 Multi-Node Kubernetes With kind: Where Do Pods Land?
  2. 17 Kubernetes Node Affinity and Pod Anti-Affinity
  3. 18 Kubernetes Taints and Tolerations Explained
  4. 19 Kubernetes Topology Spread Constraints: Even Pods Across Zones
  5. 20 Kubernetes Persistent Volumes: Data That Survives a Pod
  6. 21 Kubernetes StatefulSets: Stable Names and Storage
  7. 22 Kubernetes Jobs and CronJobs: Run Tasks to Completion
  8. 23 Kubernetes DaemonSets: One Pod on Every Node
  9. 24 Kubernetes Init Containers and Native Sidecars
  10. 25 Kubernetes Rolling Updates: maxSurge and maxUnavailable
  11. 26 Blue-Green and Canary Deployments in Kubernetes
  12. 27 Kubernetes Gateway API: Route Traffic by Host and Path
  13. 28 Helm Tutorial: Install, Upgrade and Roll Back a Chart
  14. 29 Kustomize Tutorial: One Base, Many Environments
  15. 30 Kubernetes Autoscaling: HPA Under Real Load

Part 3 · Secure by default

  1. 31 Kubernetes RBAC Explained: Roles, Bindings and can-i
  2. 32 Kubernetes Service Accounts: What Your Pods Can Do
  3. 33 Kubernetes ClusterRoles: view, edit and admin
  4. 34 Audit Kubernetes RBAC: Find Over-Privileged Accounts
  5. 35 Kubernetes Network Policies: Default Deny, Then Allow
  6. 36 Kubernetes Egress Network Policies: Allow DNS, Block the Rest
  7. 37 Kubernetes Pod Security Standards: Enforce Restricted
  8. 38 Kubernetes securityContext: Harden Every Container
  9. 39 Kubernetes Secrets in etcd: Why Encryption at Rest Matters
  10. 40 Container Image Security: Digests, Tags and Scanning
  11. 41 Kubernetes Admission Policies With CEL: Block Bad Deployments
  12. 42 Kubernetes ResourceQuotas and LimitRanges
  13. 43 Kubernetes Audit Logs: See Who Did What
  14. 44 Kubernetes Users and kubeconfig: Certificates and Contexts
  15. 45 Kubernetes Security Review: Fix a Risky Workload

Part 4 · Operate and debug

  1. 46 Fix CrashLoopBackOff in Kubernetes: Logs, Events and Exit Codes
  2. 47 Fix ImagePullBackOff: Tags, Registries and Pull Secrets
  3. 48 Why Is My Pod Pending? Kubernetes Scheduling Failures
  4. 49 Debug Kubernetes Services: Empty Endpoints and DNS
  5. 50 kubectl debug: Ephemeral Containers and Node Debugging
  6. 51 Kubernetes Events and Logs Across Many Pods
  7. 52 Kubernetes Node Maintenance: Cordon, Drain and PDBs
  8. 53 Kubernetes Graceful Shutdown: preStop Hooks and SIGTERM
  9. 54 Back Up Kubernetes: etcd Snapshots and Manifests
  10. 55 Kubernetes API Deprecations: Find Old APIs Before an Upgrade
  11. 56 Kubernetes Monitoring Basics: kubectl top and metrics-server
  12. 57 GitOps With Argo CD on a Local Cluster
  13. 58 Right-Size Kubernetes Pods: Requests From Real Usage
  14. 59 Kubernetes Multi-Tenancy: Namespaces, RBAC, Quotas, Policies
  15. 60 Kubernetes Production Checklist: 20 Checks on One App

The free field guide

Every command from the series, with what it does, one section per episode. Download it now with no email required, or join the list to get each new section as the series airs.

Kubernetes Hands-On Field Guide

Every command from the series, with what it does. It grows as new episodes air.

Download the PDF →

Get each new section by email.

The field guide plus a short note as new episodes air. Free.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Episode 1 · Your first cluster heals itself

kind create cluster --name demo --wait 60s Create a local Kubernetes cluster inside Docker, and wait until it is ready.
kubectl get nodes List the machines in the cluster and whether each one is Ready.
kubectl get pods -n kube-system See the cluster's own parts (API server, etcd, scheduler, DNS) running as pods.
kubectl create deployment web --image=nginx:alpine --replicas=3 Ask for three copies of a web server.
kubectl get pods -w Watch pods change state live. Ctrl+C stops watching.
kubectl get deployment,replicaset,pods See the chain: a deployment owns a replica set, which owns the pods.
kubectl delete pod POD_NAME Delete one pod. The replica set starts a replacement within seconds.
kubectl delete pods -l app=web Delete every pod with that label. All of them are replaced.
kubectl scale deployment web --replicas=5 Change how many copies you want.
kubectl delete deployment web --cascade=foreground Remove the app for real: nothing asks for the pods any more, so none come back.
kind delete cluster --name demo Delete the whole cluster.

Episode 2 · Docker containers explained

docker pull nginx:alpine Download an image: a packaged filesystem plus a default command.
docker images List the images stored on this machine.
docker run -d --name web -p 127.0.0.1:8080:80 nginx:alpine Start a container in the background, with port 8080 on the loopback address mapped to port 80 inside.
docker ps List running containers.
curl -s localhost:8080 | head -n 4 Fetch the page the container serves.
docker logs --tail 2 web Show the last lines the container printed.
docker exec web nginx -v Run a command inside the running container.
docker inspect -f '{{.State.Status}}' web Read one field of everything Docker knows about the container.
docker stop web Stop the container. It stays on disk, exited.
docker ps -a List every container, stopped ones included.
docker rm web Remove a stopped container. The image stays.
docker rm -f blue green Stop and remove running containers in one step.

Kubernetes is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation. Kubernetes Hands-On is an independent series from AIS and is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Linux Foundation.