The latest Kubernetes release is expanding the ecosystem from Linux only, to support for Windows containers.
Kubernetes 1.14, the latest version, is the first Kubernetes release of 2019. It will come with 31 enhancements—10 of which are moving to stable, 12 are in beta, while 7 are net new. But the most important enhancement is the production-level support for Windows Nodes.
For years, Kubernetes has been all about managing workloads using Linux containers. But the project is now making a major shift by graduating support for managing Windows containers from beta to stable.
“This is the culmination of a tremendous amount of work over the past year across a number of Kubernetes Special Interest Groups (SIGs) including Windows, Node, and Architecture. The result is that Kubernetes, the de facto most popular open source container orchestration platform for Linux, now comes to Windows,” wrote Derek Carr, Senior Software Engineer, Red Hat, in a blog post.
Enterprises will now be able to add Windows nodes as worker nodes and schedule Windows containers. This will eliminate the need for enterprises to choose separate orchestration platform for Windows applications and Linux applications. It will help them increase operational efficiency across their deployments, regardless of operating system.
Enabling Windows containers in Kubernetes will bring support for Windows Server 2019 for worker nodes and containers, support for out of tree networking with Azure-CNI, OVN-Kubernetes, and Flannel. Further, it will improve the support for pods, service types, workload controllers, and metrics/quotas. The improvements are aimed to match the capabilities delivered for Linux containers.
Furthermore, Kubernetes 1.14 brings kubectl plugins from beta to stable release. This will enable developers to write Go code and extend kubectl with new commands.
Kubernetes team mentioned that they have rewritten the documentation of kubectl from the ground up with a focus on managing Resources using declarative Resource Config. The kubectl has now got new logo and mascot.
Also read: Red Hat collaborates with public cloud giants to launch Kubernetes marketplace
Kubernetes 1.14 is now available on GitHub for download. It can also be installed using kubeadm.
