kubernetes-patterns
Kubernetes deployment patterns and best practices. Use when creating Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, configuring pods, services, deployments, or troubleshooting K8s clusters.
When & Why to Use This Skill
This Claude skill provides a comprehensive library of Kubernetes deployment patterns and industry best practices. It streamlines the creation of production-ready K8s manifests, Helm charts, and security configurations, enabling developers and DevOps engineers to build, scale, and troubleshoot containerized applications with enterprise-grade stability and security.
Use Cases
- Architecting production-ready deployments with optimized resource limits, health probes, and rolling update strategies to ensure zero-downtime updates.
- Standardizing application packaging using modular Helm chart structures that support multi-environment configurations (Dev/Prod).
- Implementing robust security layers using Network Policies for traffic isolation and RBAC for fine-grained access control.
- Configuring high-availability and auto-scaling mechanisms using Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPA) and Pod Disruption Budgets (PDB).
- Accelerating incident response and cluster debugging with a curated set of kubectl troubleshooting commands and diagnostic workflows.
| name | kubernetes-patterns |
|---|---|
| description | Kubernetes deployment patterns and best practices. Use when creating Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, configuring pods, services, deployments, or troubleshooting K8s clusters. |
Kubernetes Patterns
Best practices for Kubernetes deployments and cluster management.
Deployment Patterns
Production-Ready Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: app
labels:
app: myapp
version: v1
spec:
replicas: 3
selector:
matchLabels:
app: myapp
strategy:
type: RollingUpdate
rollingUpdate:
maxSurge: 1
maxUnavailable: 0
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: myapp
version: v1
spec:
serviceAccountName: myapp-sa
securityContext:
runAsNonRoot: true
runAsUser: 1000
fsGroup: 1000
containers:
- name: app
image: myapp:1.0.0
imagePullPolicy: Always
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
resources:
requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 128Mi
limits:
cpu: 500m
memory: 512Mi
livenessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /health/live
port: 8080
initialDelaySeconds: 15
periodSeconds: 10
failureThreshold: 3
readinessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /health/ready
port: 8080
initialDelaySeconds: 5
periodSeconds: 5
failureThreshold: 3
securityContext:
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
capabilities:
drop:
- ALL
env:
- name: POD_NAME
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
volumeMounts:
- name: tmp
mountPath: /tmp
- name: config
mountPath: /etc/config
readOnly: true
volumes:
- name: tmp
emptyDir: {}
- name: config
configMap:
name: myapp-config
affinity:
podAntiAffinity:
preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
- weight: 100
podAffinityTerm:
labelSelector:
matchLabels:
app: myapp
topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
topologySpreadConstraints:
- maxSkew: 1
topologyKey: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
whenUnsatisfiable: ScheduleAnyway
labelSelector:
matchLabels:
app: myapp
Service Configuration
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: myapp
labels:
app: myapp
spec:
type: ClusterIP
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
name: http
selector:
app: myapp
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: myapp
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rate-limit: "100"
spec:
tls:
- hosts:
- myapp.example.com
secretName: myapp-tls
rules:
- host: myapp.example.com
http:
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: myapp
port:
number: 80
Helm Chart Structure
mychart/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
├── values-dev.yaml
├── values-prod.yaml
├── templates/
│ ├── _helpers.tpl
│ ├── deployment.yaml
│ ├── service.yaml
│ ├── ingress.yaml
│ ├── configmap.yaml
│ ├── secret.yaml
│ ├── serviceaccount.yaml
│ ├── hpa.yaml
│ └── pdb.yaml
└── charts/
values.yaml Best Practices
# values.yaml
replicaCount: 3
image:
repository: myapp
tag: "" # Set by CI/CD
pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
resources:
requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 128Mi
limits:
cpu: 500m
memory: 512Mi
autoscaling:
enabled: true
minReplicas: 3
maxReplicas: 10
targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 70
podDisruptionBudget:
enabled: true
minAvailable: 2
serviceAccount:
create: true
annotations: {}
ingress:
enabled: true
className: nginx
annotations: {}
hosts:
- host: chart-example.local
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
Resource Management
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
name: myapp
spec:
scaleTargetRef:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
name: myapp
minReplicas: 3
maxReplicas: 20
metrics:
- type: Resource
resource:
name: cpu
target:
type: Utilization
averageUtilization: 70
- type: Resource
resource:
name: memory
target:
type: Utilization
averageUtilization: 80
behavior:
scaleDown:
stabilizationWindowSeconds: 300
policies:
- type: Percent
value: 10
periodSeconds: 60
scaleUp:
stabilizationWindowSeconds: 0
policies:
- type: Percent
value: 100
periodSeconds: 15
Pod Disruption Budget
apiVersion: policy/v1
kind: PodDisruptionBudget
metadata:
name: myapp
spec:
minAvailable: 2 # or use maxUnavailable: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: myapp
Security Patterns
Network Policy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
name: myapp-network-policy
spec:
podSelector:
matchLabels:
app: myapp
policyTypes:
- Ingress
- Egress
ingress:
- from:
- namespaceSelector:
matchLabels:
name: ingress-nginx
- podSelector:
matchLabels:
app: frontend
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 8080
egress:
- to:
- podSelector:
matchLabels:
app: database
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 5432
- to: # Allow DNS
- namespaceSelector: {}
podSelector:
matchLabels:
k8s-app: kube-dns
ports:
- protocol: UDP
port: 53
RBAC Configuration
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
name: myapp-sa
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
name: myapp-role
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
resources: ["configmaps"]
verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
- apiGroups: [""]
resources: ["secrets"]
resourceNames: ["myapp-secrets"]
verbs: ["get"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
name: myapp-rolebinding
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: myapp-sa
roleRef:
kind: Role
name: myapp-role
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
Troubleshooting Commands
# Check pod status and events
kubectl get pods -l app=myapp -o wide
kubectl describe pod <pod-name>
kubectl logs <pod-name> --previous
# Debug networking
kubectl run debug --rm -it --image=nicolaka/netshoot -- /bin/bash
kubectl exec -it <pod> -- curl localhost:8080/health
# Check resource usage
kubectl top pods -l app=myapp
kubectl top nodes
# View HPA status
kubectl get hpa myapp -o yaml
# Check events
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20