How-to guides

If you have a specific goal, but are already familiar with Kubernetes, our How-to guides are more specific and contain less background information. They’ll help you achieve an end result but may require you to understand and adapt the steps to fit your specific requirements.

Installation

Installation follows a very similar pattern on all platforms, but some minor differences must be addressed in each case. You may also want to customize the installation of your Canonical Kubernetes nodes.

• Install
  • ... from a snap
  • ... with a custom bootstrap configuration
  • ... with Multipass
  • ... in LXD
  • ... in air-gapped environments
  • ... in development environments
  • ... with custom worker configuration
  • Uninstall the snap

Networking

Canonical Kubernetes comes with default networking features for a fully functioning cluster. More advanced features can be enabled by a few configuration steps.

• Networking
  • Use default DNS
  • Use default network
  • Use default Ingress
  • Use default load balancer
  • Use default gateway
  • Use an alternative CNI
  • Enable Dual-Stack networking
  • Set up an IPv6-only cluster
  • Configure proxy settings

Storage

Specific storage needs of your cluster can be met by setting up persistent storage or replacing the default datastore with an external one such as etcd.

• Storage
  • Use default storage
  • Use Ceph storage
  • Use cloud storage
• Use an external datastore

Security

Harden your cluster according to industry standards.

• Security
  • Hardening guide
  • CIS assessment
  • DISA STIG assessment

Cluster upgrades and refreshes

• Manage upgrades
• Refresh Kubernetes Certificates
• Use intermediate CAs with Vault

Manage images

Manage cluster images directly through containerd.

• Manage images

Cluster back up and restore

• Back up and restore

Monitoring and troubleshooting

Sometimes things go wrong and you need to troubleshoot. Having observability set up on your cluster can greatly increase the rate at which a problem is identified and solved.

• Set up cluster observability
• Recover a cluster after quorum loss
• Troubleshooting
• Get support

Enhanced Platform Awareness

EPA utilizes server hardware capabilities in the Canonical Kubernetes cluster. It exposes technologies such as HugePages, CPU pinning, SR-IOV and more.

• Set up Enhanced Platform Awareness

Contribute

Contribute to the Canonical Kubernetes project! Add to the code, documentation or both!

• Contribute

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Other documentation types

Our Reference section is for when you need to check specific details or information such as the command reference or release notes.

Alternatively, the Tutorials section contains step-by-step tutorials to help guide you through exploring and using Canonical Kubernetes.

For a better understanding of how Canonical Kubernetes works and related topics such as security, our Explanation section helps you expand your knowledge and get the most out of Kubernetes.

Finally, our Reference section is for when you need to check specific details or information such as the command reference or release notes.