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k3s vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
k3s: Lightweight Kubernetes. 5 less than k8s (by Rancher Labs). Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server; Kubernetes: Manage a cluster of Linux containers as a single system to accelerate Dev and simplify Ops. Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.
k3s and Kubernetes can be primarily classified as "Container" tools.
Some of the features offered by k3s are:
- ARM64 and ARMv7 support
- Simplified installation
- SQLite3 support
On the other hand, Kubernetes provides the following key features:
- Lightweight, simple and accessible
- Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid
- Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable
k3s and Kubernetes are both open source tools. Kubernetes with 55.1K GitHub stars and 19.1K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than k3s with 7.81K GitHub stars and 483 GitHub forks.
Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:
- GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
- Respectively Git as revision control system
- SourceTree as Git GUI
- Visual Studio Code as IDE
- CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
- Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
- SonarQube as quality gate
- Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
- VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
- Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
- Heroku for deploying in test environments
- nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
- SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
- Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
- PostgreSQL as preferred database system
- Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)
The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:
- Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
- Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
- Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
- Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
- Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
- Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
Pros of k3s
- Lightweight4
- Easy2
- Open Source1
- Scale Services1
- Replication Controller1
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution161
- Simple and powerful126
- Open source102
- Backed by google75
- The right abstractions56
- Scale services24
- Replication controller19
- Permission managment9
- Simple7
- Supports autoscaling7
- Cheap6
- Self-healing4
- No cloud platform lock-in4
- Reliable4
- Open, powerful, stable3
- Scalable3
- Quick cloud setup3
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice3
- Backed by Red Hat2
- Cloud Agnostic2
- Runs on azure2
- Custom and extensibility2
- Captain of Container Ship2
- A self healing environment with rich metadata2
- Golang1
- Easy setup1
- Everything of CaaS1
- Sfg1
- Expandable1
- Gke1
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Cons of k3s
Cons of Kubernetes
- Poor workflow for development14
- Steep learning curve12
- Orchestrates only infrastructure6
- High resource requirements for on-prem clusters3