For developers, writing applications for various operating environments is a major requirement. Kubernetes eliminates the restrictions and extends the capabilities of containers so got a high attention. There are some benefits like discoverability, observability, horizontal scaling and load balancing that Kubernetes offer through its collection of pods that can perform similar functions. You can use a deployment controller to achieve scalability, visibility, time savings and control over versions. Kubernetes tools extend the functionalities and eliminate the imposed restrictions for better performance. Here we’ll see top 11 Kubernetes tools that enhance your development work.
cAdvisor is an open-source tool and maintained by Google. It is used to monitor resource usage and performance. It natively supports Docker and is integrated with Kubelet. This tool can auto-detect all containers in a server, collects, processes and disseminates container information. But it has one weakness, it is limited to store metrics for long term monitoring. cAdvisor’s container abstraction is based on Imctfy, it inherits the nested hierarchical behavior.
It is an open-source tool and you can use it in all popular browsers like Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also. This tool provides a common operational structure for all Kubernetes clusters. Besides it can be considered as a read-only system dashboard for multiple Kubernetes platforms. This tool allows you to navigate between your cluster and monitor nodes seamlessly.
Creation and termination process of pod will be easier if you use this tool. Also it uses Heapster as a data source and render nodes to enable users to indicate overall status and remember that it is not an operational tool. Vertical bar for total memory can be rendered through this tool, while the rendering of individual pods has also been made possible by its developers. Also you can group the system pods and get tooltip data for nodes and pods. But you can not consider it as a replacement for the kubernetes dashboard.
Minikube is an open-source project supported by a great community of developers and many active professionals. It allows you to install and try Kubernetes locally. This tool is a good starting point for Kubernetes exploration. It is available on Windows, Linux and OSX. If you want to use Kubernetes for developing and deploying your application in the local environment, then this tool is best for you. Exploring kubernetes in-depth becomes easy with minikube and it also supports the latest Kubernetes release. This tool allows you to perform operations using a single command and multiple container runtimes like CRI-O, containerd, docker and so it saves a lot of time. You can use Docker API endpoint, that makes the image pushing rapidly and also it can come with Addons for other Kubernetes applications.
This is a troubleshooting and monitoring tool for Docker and Kubernetes clusters. It can automatically generate applications and infrastructure topologies that can help to identify app performance issues easily. You can deploy Weave Scope as a standalone application on your local server/laptop, or you can choose the Weave scope SaaS solution on Weave Cloud. With this tool you can easily group, filter or search containers using names, labels or resource consumption. There is no need of kernel modules, agents, special libraries or coding to integrate Weave Scope with Docker, Kubernetes, DCOS and AWS ECS. You can see metrics, tags, metadata and navigate between processes within containers, services or hosts.
This is Kubernetes tool for security which detects unusual activity in containers. It is derived from Sysdig Project and has become a commercial product. This tool monitors containers with greater focus on kernel system calls. It makes use of a set of rules and these are used to monitor layers of containers. It includes the container itself, application, host and network. One can build unique rules for each of your Kubernetes clusters. These tools can be used across all containers. This security tool also provides native support for container runtimes.
While deploying canonical distribution of Kubernetes on Ubuntu, you will find many canonical products, But in terms of reliability and the number of users, availability of supports, Conjure-up is in the list of best Kubernetes. For automation and self-paced high availability, It comes with Production-grade operator lifecycle management. With just a few commands, you can go through the fundamentals insights of Kubernetes. It gives a simple and consistent experience, and also less YAML will be required while implementing complex-scenarios. One can integrate container and machine-based applications. Also this tool lets you to make legacy apps for a multi-cloud environment.
Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes makes deployment, management and scaling of containerized apps simple for kubernetes. It manages kubernetes infrastructure across various AWS Availability Zones, while automatically detecting and replacing unhealthy control plane nodes and providing on-demand upgrades and patching. It is supported by a great community and one can migrate to EKS apps from any standard Kubernetes. You can integrate AWS app Mesh and consume features, so can get kubernetes native experience. You have to pay for resources per application while you won’t need to provision and monitor servers. For the security purpose, one can isolate application design.
It is an open source event-driven lambda-style programming model designed for Kubernetes and tightly coupled with fabric8 platform. With Funktion, one can create flows to subscribe from over 200 event sources to invoke your function, messaging systems, social media, databases etc.
It manages serverless functions on Docker Swarm or kubernetes where it collects and analyzes metrics. You can package any process inside your function and use it without repetitive coding. It has Prometheus metrics in support means it can automatically scale functions up and down for demand. Also it natively supports a web-based interface where you can try your function. You can use a template store or docker to write services and functions with preferred language and you can trigger events by using AWS, HTTPS or Kafka. One of the biggest reasons for OpenFaas’s popularity is its portability as it can be run on any existing hardware and public or private clouds by using Kubernetes.
It is an open source serverless platform written in Golang language that supports functions in any language. One of the biggest advantage is that it supports AWS Lambda format. You can import functions directly from Lambda and run it where you want to.
This is the best open source Kubernetes tool for development. It allows you to run services locally and connect with remote Kubernetes clusters. It is supported by a wide range of communities that is continuously contributing to the continuous development. Telepresence allows you to use proxy data from Kubernetes clusters to your local environment that will open up the possibility of debugging the Kubernetes cluster. If you want to access Kubernetes services and AWS/GCP resources, make use of this tool so that you will be able to test code before deploying it to the cluster. It provides an opportunity to count local code as a normal pod within your Kubernetes cluster and local development of single service. One can use it on OS like Linux and Mac OS X.
While developing software with Kubernetes you must know some security best practices. Know these best practices at- Kubernetes Security Best Practices That You Must Know.