Building a Kubernetes 1.36 Cluster from Binary: Architecture & Components Guide

Overview

This article introduces a hands-on guide to building a Kubernetes 1.36 cluster from binary files, focusing on a single control plane (master) with multiple worker nodes. The binary installation method helps deeply understand the interaction and configuration of core Kubernetes components.

Kubernetes Architecture and Components

Kubernetes (K8s) is a container orchestration platform with core goals: automatic deployment, automatic scaling, service discovery, load balancing, self-healing, rolling updates, and high availability management.

Node Types

Master Node : Management (control) node, analogous to company management.

Node (Worker/Minion) : Worker node that runs workloads, analogous to frontline employees.

Component Categories

Control Plane Components : Manage cluster state.

Node Components : Run on each worker node.

Addons : Extend cluster functionality.

Control Plane Components

The control plane manages the entire cluster. Key components include:

kube-apiserver : Frontend for the Kubernetes API.

kube-controller-manager : Runs controller processes.

kube-scheduler : Assigns pods to nodes.

etcd : Consistent key-value store for cluster data.

The following diagrams illustrate the control plane architecture and component interactions.

This article is part of a 55-page PDF guide covering complete practical steps for binary deployment.