Plain-English definitions of the Kubernetes application terms for CKAD study. Simplified for learning; the official Kubernetes documentation is authoritative.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Pod | The smallest deployable unit; one or more containers sharing a network and storage. |
| Multi-container pod | A pod running helper containers (e.g., sidecar) alongside the main one. |
| Deployment | Manages a replicated set of pods and rolling updates. |
| Job | Runs a pod to completion for a batch task. |
| CronJob | Runs a Job on a schedule. |
| Service | A stable network endpoint for a set of pods. |
| Ingress | Routes external HTTP/S traffic to services. |
| ConfigMap | Non-secret configuration injected into pods. |
| Secret | Sensitive data injected into pods. |
| SecurityContext | Security settings (user, privileges) for a pod or container. |
| ServiceAccount | An identity for processes running in a pod. |
| Liveness probe | A check that restarts a container if it is unhealthy. |
| Readiness probe | A check that controls whether a pod receives traffic. |
| Resource requests/limits | The CPU/memory a container requests and is capped at. |
| NetworkPolicy | Rules controlling traffic between pods. |
| Rolling update | Replacing pods gradually to avoid downtime. |
| Canary deployment | Releasing to a small share of traffic first. |
| Volume | Storage attached to a pod. |
| kubectl | The command-line tool to build and deploy on the cluster. |