Cluster Components
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| API Server | Front‑end for all control‑plane communication |
| Scheduler | Assigns Pods to Nodes based on resources |
| Controller Manager | Runs core controllers (ReplicaSet, Deployment, etc.) |
| etcd | Distributed key‑value store for cluster state |
| kubelet | Agent that runs on each worker node |
| kube‑proxy | Handles network routing on each node |
Hands‑on Lab
1️⃣ Install minikube locally.
2️⃣ Run minikube start.
3️⃣ Deploy a simple nginx Deployment.
4️⃣ Expose it via a Service and verify with kubectl port-forward.