DevOps engineers face many challenges when running Kubernetes clusters. Operational requirements demand tools for automation, provisioning, centralized logging and monitoring, and security. Developers demand tools for CI/CD, software development, data science, and managing modern deployment strategies like canary or blue/green deployments. Commercial tools and services can help with all of these, but often come with enterprise pricing. Open source to the rescue!

Fortunately, in each of these areas, open source tools provide capabilities that match or exceed the capabilities of their commercial equivalents. Furthermore, Kubernetes greatly decreases the operational expense of self-hosting these tools, when compared to using a SaaS or running on VMs or bare metal. Often the most challenging task is selecting the right tool chain among the thousands of tools available on GitHub.

Come to this lightning talk to hear about the tool chain I use to run and operate Kubernetes clusters. All of the tools presented are free and open-source. Aimed at both developers and operators, this talk is packed with nuggets, hints, and links to each of the projects. Don’t worry–the links are available in the slides!