Training Course: Introduction to Kubernetes - December 4, 2026
Join us on Friday, December 4th from 13:00 - 17:00 in the Central Library
Register here: https://indico3-jsc.fz-juelich.de/event/349/overview
The course
Containers have made it easy to package software together with all its dependencies. But once an application consists of several containers, needs to run on multiple machines or has to stay available around the clock, managing them by hand quickly becomes tedious and error-prone. This is where Kubernetes comes in.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source platform for orchestrating containers. Instead of starting and supervising each individual container, you describe the desired state of your application, for example "three instances of my web service, reachable on port 80" and Kubernetes takes care of making it happen and keeping it that way.
Why use it?
- Self-healing: Crashed containers are restarted and failed nodes can be replaced automatically.
- Scalability: Applications can be scaled up or down manually or automatically based on load.
- Zero-downtime updates: New versions are rolled out gradually and can be rolled back if something goes wrong.
- Declarative configuration: Everything is defined in files that can be versioned, reviewed and reused.
- Portability: The same setup runs on a laptop, an on-premise cluster or in the cloud.
Typical use cases:
- Web applications and APIs that need to be highly available
- Databases and message brokers alongside the services that use them
- Batch jobs and recurring tasks
- Automated deployments as part of CI/CD pipelines
Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of containers (e.g. Docker, Podman, etc.)
- Basics in how to use a Linux terminal
- Laptop (Linux, Windows+WSL, MAC), with permission to install programs (or access to a VM)
- Docker installed (k3d is used for the hands-on parts)
Want to learn more?
Join the JuRSE team for a 4-hour hands-on introduction to Kubernetes led by Marcel Schröder from ICE-1