# kOps — Production-Grade Kubernetes Cluster Management

> Create, upgrade, and manage production Kubernetes clusters on AWS, GCE, and other clouds with kOps, the official Kubernetes operations tool.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# kOps — Production-Grade Kubernetes Cluster Management

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install kOps
brew install kops

# Create a cluster on AWS
export KOPS_STATE_STORE=s3://my-kops-state
kops create cluster --name=k8s.example.com --zones=us-east-1a
kops update cluster --name=k8s.example.com --yes

# Validate cluster health
kops validate cluster
```

## Introduction
kOps (Kubernetes Operations) is the official tool for provisioning and managing production-grade Kubernetes clusters on cloud infrastructure. It automates the full lifecycle — creation, upgrades, rolling updates, and teardown — while following best practices for high availability and security. Think of it as kubectl for cluster infrastructure.

## What kOps Does
- Provisions production-ready Kubernetes clusters on AWS, GCE, DigitalOcean, and more
- Manages rolling upgrades of the control plane and worker nodes with zero downtime
- Generates Terraform or CloudFormation output for GitOps-style infrastructure management
- Validates cluster health and configuration drift automatically
- Supports private topology, bastion hosts, and custom networking (Calico, Cilium, Flannel)

## Architecture Overview
kOps uses a declarative state model stored in an S3 bucket (or GCS, etc.). When you run `kops create cluster`, it generates a desired-state spec. The `kops update cluster` command compares the desired state against the actual cloud infrastructure and reconciles differences by calling cloud provider APIs. Node groups are managed as instance groups with independent scaling and upgrade policies.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Store cluster state in S3, GCS, or other supported backends via `KOPS_STATE_STORE`
- Configure instance groups for control plane and worker nodes independently
- Enable private topology with `--topology private` for clusters without public IPs
- Customize networking with `--networking cilium` or `--networking calico`
- Export to Terraform with `kops update cluster --target=terraform` for review workflows

## Key Features
- Full lifecycle management: create, upgrade, scale, and delete clusters
- Highly available control planes with multi-master and multi-AZ support
- Rolling updates that drain and replace nodes without downtime
- First-class Terraform output for infrastructure-as-code pipelines
- Spot instance and mixed instance group support for cost optimization

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **eksctl** — AWS-only, simpler but less customizable than kOps
- **kubeadm** — bootstraps clusters but does not manage cloud infrastructure
- **Rancher** — full management UI but heavier operational overhead
- **Cluster API** — provider-neutral but requires an existing management cluster

## FAQ
**Q: Which cloud providers does kOps support?**
A: AWS has first-class support. GCE, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, and OpenStack are also supported with varying maturity.

**Q: Can I use kOps with an existing VPC?**
A: Yes, you can specify existing VPCs, subnets, and security groups in the cluster spec.

**Q: How does kOps handle Kubernetes version upgrades?**
A: Edit the cluster spec to the target version and run `kops rolling-update cluster --yes`. kOps drains and replaces nodes one at a time.

**Q: Is kOps suitable for development clusters?**
A: Yes, you can create single-node or small clusters, though tools like kind or minikube are lighter for local development.

## Sources
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kops
- https://kops.sigs.k8s.io

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/7a39c111-3997-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source