vsz

I’m a Product Manager on GKE, and I spend a lot of my time with platform teams who are tired of the node pool tax. You sit down to “just run a workload,” and somehow you’re back in the console hand-crafting a node pool: pick a machine type, set min and max, decide on Spot or on-demand, wire up taints and labels, and pray you guessed the shape right. Then traffic changes, or that machine family runs out of capacity in your zone, and you’re back doing it again.

[Image attribution: Dan Maharry ] Last time, we looked at Google Cloud Code’s “Run as Kubernetes” - aka Skaffold - as an elegant way to develop and iterate a Kubernetes application locally. We saw how Skaffold configuration could be used to abstract the build and local deployment process. But we were left with aching questions like:

[Cover Image: my old FJ60] Until recently, I drove an old 80s FJ60 Land Cruiser. Cool, you say? Yes, it was. It was also a lot of work. I did most of that work myself including a carburetor rebuild, head rebuild, radiator, knuckle rebuild, brakes, wiring - you name it. And I learned an awful lot in that process; not just about the Land Cruiser but also about cars, their maintenance, and the tools involved. There was joy, there were tears, too.

[Cover Image: “adam wallride” by Rob React is licensed under CC BY 2.0] Skate or die # Do you remember learning to ride a bicycle or a skateboard? I remember as a kid in the 80s giving skating a try when it became popular (again). Board? Check. Pads? Check. Vans? Check. Helmet? Nah, come on, it was the 80s. Skill? Please. And I remember those first few times out on the board being pretty awkward (and painful). But I persevered and after a few months at it I could pass as semi-cool in the neighborhood.

Welcome to the Zzzz blog # I’ve created this blog to document my journey into the cloud universe. Special emphasis on DevOps, but I’ll veer here and there. I won’t get overly serious. My goal is to make this a worthwhile stop for others on a learning journey.