A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a tweet from Brendan Burns mentioning that the 2nd edition of “Kubernetes: Up & Running” is available. Because I enjoyed the initial release of the book some years ago, I bought a copy and read it. Brendan Burns, Joe Beda, and Kelsey Hightower updated their popular book “Kubernetes: Up & Running” to provide a good Kubernetes introduction for developers. On less than 300 pages, you will learn what Kubernetes is and which needs it addresses.

Have you never heard of Docker or terms like OCI? No problem, you learn enough about it to get started.

You want to know the differences between self-operated Kubernetes clusters and Kubernetes as a Service (KaaS) to identify which is better for you and your team? Or you ever wanted to know how you can organize distributed, containerized applications in source-control to support independent geo-distributed deployments? Topics like these are covered in the book, as well.

Of course, all essential building blocks are explained conceptionally and demonstrated practically. It’s that kind of book, which motivates you to dive more in-depth on your own. They explain concepts and do quick demos. Demos that you can use as a starting point for self-paced learning to transfer the knowledge to your application. I enjoyed the chapter on extending Kubernetes. They guide you through the process of creating your custom CRD and leverage serverless to implement a custom Admission Webhook.

The book is excellent for application developers with no or only a few knowledge of Kubernetes and containerized application development in general. If you’re an experienced Kubernetes user, you may find some tips, and you can update your experience if you haven’t done Kubernetes in the past years. Fun fact, you will also find out how Brendan managed it to save money for his first C64 and how to set up your Kubernetes cluster on a set of Rasberry Pis for less than $300.

If you stumbled upon my review and want to buy a copy, I would appreciate it if you use one of the following affiliate links and support me a bit. Buy classic book on Amazon, buy Amazon Kindle Edition now.

Have fun with the book.