Container Platforms Administration with Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift Training Course

Day 1 – Containers and Image Management

Introduction to Container Platforms

• Comparing traditional application deployment with container-based approaches
• Distinguishing between containers and virtual machines
• Understanding container runtimes and engines
• The specific roles of Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift
• Standard container platform architectures
• Workflows for development, testing, and production

Working with Containers

• Executing and managing containers
• The container lifecycle
• Starting, stopping, and deleting containers
• Running commands within containers
• Managing environment variables
• Port mapping techniques
• Reviewing container logs
• Inspecting resource usage and processes

Building Container Images

• Understanding image structure and layers
• Creating Dockerfiles and Containerfiles
• Selecting appropriate base images
• Including application dependencies
• Defining entry points and default commands
• Utilizing image caching
• Strategies for minimizing image size
• Creating reproducible images

Container Registries

• Differences between public and private registries
• Tagging and versioning strategies for images
• Pushing and pulling images
• Image authentication mechanisms
• Image retention policies and cleanup
• Basic security considerations for images

Container Networking and Storage

• Fundamental concepts of container networking
• Bridge networking configurations
• Exposing ports
• Inter-container communication
• Bind mounts and volumes
• Handling persistent container data
• Backup strategies

Hands-on Exercises

• Running and inspecting containers
• Building a custom application image
• Configuring ports and environment variables
• Publishing an image to a registry
• Storing persistent data externally

Day 2 – Kubernetes Architecture and Workloads

Kubernetes Fundamentals

• The purpose of container orchestration
• Overview of Kubernetes architecture
• Control plane components
• Worker node functions
• API server operations
• Scheduler mechanisms
• Controller roles
• Managing cluster state vs. desired state
• Interacting with the cluster via kubectl

Kubernetes Resources

• Pods
• ReplicaSets
• Deployments
• Namespaces
• Labels and annotations
• Selectors
• Declarative resource definitions
• YAML manifests

Deploying Applications

• Creating and managing Deployments
• Scaling workloads
• Updating container images
• Executing rolling updates
• Performing rollbacks
• Reviewing deployment history
• Restarting workloads
• Managing application replicas

Application Configuration

• ConfigMaps
• Secrets
• Environment variables
• Configuration files
• Decoupling application code from configuration
• Managing environment-specific settings

Resource Management

• CPU and memory requests
• CPU and memory limits
• Resource quotas
• Limit ranges
• Scheduling implications
• Diagnosing resource-related failures

Hands-on Exercises

• Deploying a containerized application
• Creating and modifying Kubernetes manifests
• Scaling an application
• Executing a rolling update and subsequent rollback
• Configuring applications using ConfigMaps and Secrets
• Applying resource requests and limits

Day 3 – Kubernetes Networking, Storage, and Security

Kubernetes Networking

• Cluster networking model
• Pod-to-pod communication
• Service discovery mechanisms
• DNS resolution within the cluster
• ClusterIP services
• NodePort services
• LoadBalancer services
• Ingress concepts
• Patterns for application exposure

Network Policies

• Regulating traffic between workloads
• Ingress and egress rules
• Namespace-based traffic control
• Testing network connectivity
• Troubleshooting service communication

Persistent Storage

• Ephemeral vs. persistent storage
• Volumes
• PersistentVolumes
• PersistentVolumeClaims
• StorageClasses
• Dynamic provisioning
• Access modes
• Reclaim policies
• Storage solutions for stateful applications

Kubernetes Access Control

• Authentication and authorization principles
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Roles and ClusterRoles
• RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings
• Service accounts
• Implementing least-privilege access
• Inspecting effective permissions

Workload Security

• Security contexts
• Running containers as non-root
• Linux capabilities
• Read-only filesystems
• Secret management
• Image provenance
• Common configuration risks

Hands-on Exercises

• Exposing an application via Kubernetes services
• Configuring ingress
• Restricting traffic with network policies
• Provisioning persistent storage
• Setting up RBAC permissions
• Running workloads with appropriate security contexts

Day 4 – Working with OpenShift Environments

Introduction to OpenShift

• OpenShift as a Kubernetes-based application platform
• Kubernetes resources in the context of OpenShift
• OpenShift cluster architecture
• Projects and namespaces
• Platform users and service accounts
• Navigating the web console
• Using the OpenShift CLI

Managing Projects and Access

• Creating and managing projects
• Assigning user permissions
• Project-level roles
• Administrative access controls
• Resource quotas
• Limit ranges
• Service accounts
• Reviewing project resources

Deploying Applications

• Deploying container images
• Creating application workloads
• Managing deployments
• Scaling applications
• Updating application versions
• Performing rollbacks
• Managing application configuration
• Working with secrets

Application Exposure

• Services in OpenShift
• Routes
• TLS concepts
• Internal vs. external application access
• Hostnames and certificates
• Diagnosing route and service issues

Storage in OpenShift

• Persistent Volume Claims
• StorageClasses
• Attaching storage to workloads
• Stateful workloads
• Storage access permissions
• Troubleshooting volume mounting

Scheduling and Node Management

• Labels and selectors
• Node selectors
• Taints and tolerations
• Affinity and anti-affinity concepts
• Workload placement strategies
• Cordoning and draining nodes
• Node maintenance considerations

Hands-on Exercises

• Accessing an OpenShift environment
• Creating and configuring a project
• Deploying and exposing an application
• Configuring user and service-account access
• Attaching persistent storage
• Scaling and updating a running workload

Day 5 – Operations, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting

Platform Monitoring

• Monitoring cluster and application health
• Resource metrics
• Node health status
• Workload status
• Capacity and resource utilization
• Identifying performance bottlenecks

Logging and Events

• Container logs
• Pod logs
• Previous container logs
• Kubernetes events
• Application and platform messages
• Filtering and interpreting operational data

Health Checks

• Startup probes
• Readiness probes
• Liveness probes
• Designing effective health endpoints
• Diagnosing probe failures
• Preventing unnecessary application restarts

Troubleshooting Workloads

• Pending pods
• Image pull failures
• Crash loops
• Misconfigured environment variables
• Failed mounts
• Insufficient resources
• Permission errors
• Service and route connectivity issues
• DNS problems
• Application startup failures

Operational Security

• Reviewing permissions
• Service account usage
• Secure credential handling
• Image security practices
• Network isolation
• Platform access auditing
• Applying the principle of least privilege

Maintenance and Lifecycle Management

• Routine platform checks
• Node maintenance
• Application backup considerations
• Configuration backup
• Update planning
• Change management
• Testing updates
• Rollback planning
• Disaster recovery concepts

Final Practical Workshop

Participants will complete an end-to-end operational scenario:

• Build and tag a container image.
• Publish the image to a registry.
• Deploy the application to Kubernetes or OpenShift.
• Configure application settings and credentials.
• Expose the application.
• Attach persistent storage.
• Configure access permissions.
• Add health checks.
• Scale and update the application.
• Diagnose and resolve an introduced failure.

Course Format

• Interactive lectures and technical discussions.
• Instructor-led demonstrations.
• Extensive hands-on exercises.
• Scenario-based administration and troubleshooting workshops.
• Practical work in container, Kubernetes, and OpenShift environments.

Course Customization Options

• The course can be adapted to the participant's existing infrastructure, cloud provider, and container tooling.
• The balance between Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift topics can be adjusted according to the team's experience.
• Practical exercises can be tailored to the organization's applications, deployment processes, and operational requirements.

Trademark Notice

OpenShift is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. This independently developed training is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Red Hat.