Kubernetes Architecture

Nodes

Node is a machine, physical or virtual one which Kubernetes is installed. Node is a worker machine and that is where containers will be launched by Kubernetes. It was also knows as minion’s in the past.

What if the node which your application is running fails? Obviously your application goes down.

So you need to have more than one node.

Cluster

A cluster is a set of nodes grouped together. This way even one node fails, you have your application still accessible from the other nodes. Moreover having multiple nodes helps in sharing load as well.

Master

Now we have a cluster. But who is responsible for managing the cluster? Who holds the information about the members of the cluster. How are the nodes monitors? When a node fails how do you move the workload of the failed node to another worker node?

That is where the master comes in.

The master is anther node with Kubernetes installed in it and is configured as a Master.