Introduction to YAML: Creating a Kubernetes Deployment (2024)

By Chris BlumFebruary 21, 2019

Originally posted on Mirantis.com.

There’s an easier and more useful way to use Kubernetes to spin up resources outside of the command line: creating configuration files using YAML. In this article, we’ll look at how YAML works and use it to define first a Kubernetes Pod, and then a Kubernetes Deployment.

YAML basics

It’s difficult to escape YAML if you’re doing anything related to many software fields – particularly Kubernetes, SDN, and OpenStack. YAML, which stands for Yet Another Markup Language, or YAML Ain’t Markup Language (depending who you ask) is a human-readable text-based format for specifying configuration-type information. For example, in this article, we’ll pick apart the YAML definitions for creating first a Pod, and then a Deployment.

Using YAML for K8s definitions gives you a number of advantages, including:

Convenience:You’ll no longer have to add all of your parameters to the command line
Maintenance:YAML files can be added to source control, so you can track changes
Flexibility:You’ll be able to create much more complex structures using YAML than you can on the command line

YAML is a superset of JSON, which means that any valid JSON file is also a valid YAML file. So on the one hand, if you know JSON and you’re only ever going to write your own YAML (as opposed to reading other people’s) you’re all set. On the other hand, that’s not very likely, unfortunately. Even if you’re only trying to find examples on the web, they’re most likely in (non-JSON) YAML, so we might as well get used to it. Still, there may be situations where the JSON format is more convenient, so it’s good to know that it’s available to you.

Fortunately, there are only two types of structures you need to know about in YAML:

Lists
Maps

That’s it. You might have maps of lists and lists of maps, and so on, but if you’ve got those two structures down, you’re all set. That’s not to say there aren’t more complex things you can do, but in general, this is all you need to get started.

YAML maps

Let’s start by looking at YAML maps. Maps let you associate name-value pairs, which of course is convenient when you’re trying to set up configuration information. For example, you might have a config file that starts like this:

---apiVersion: v1kind: Pod

The first line is a separator, and is optional unless you’re trying to define multiple structures in a single file. From there, as you can see, we have two values, v1and Pod, mapped to two keys, apiVersion and kind.

This kind of thing is pretty simple, of course, and you can think of it in terms of its JSON equivalent:

{ "apiVersion": "v1", "kind": "Pod"}

Notice that in our YAML version, the quotation marks are optional; the processor can tell that you’re looking at a string based on the formatting.

You can also specify more complicated structures by creating a key that maps to another map, rather than a string, as in:

---apiVersion: v1kind: Podmetadata: name: rss-site labels: app: web

In this case, we have a key, metadata, that has as its value a map with 2 more keys, nameand labels. The labelskey itself has a map as its value. You can nest these as far as you want to.

The YAML processor knows how all of these pieces relate to each other because we’ve indented the lines. In this example I’ve used 2 spaces for readability, but the number of spaces doesn’t matter – as long as it’s at least 1, and as long as you’re CONSISTENT. For example, nameand labelsare at the same indentation level, so the processor knows they’re both part of the same map; it knows that appis a value for labelsbecause it’s indented further.

YAML lists

YAML lists are literally a sequence of objects. For example:

args: - sleep - "1000" - message - "Bring back Firefly!"

As you can see here, you can have virtually any number of items in a list, which is defined as items that start with a dash (-) indented from the parent. So in JSON, this would be:

{ "args": ["sleep", "1000", "message", "Bring back Firefly!"]}

And of course, members of the list can also be maps:

---apiVersion: v1kind: Podmetadata: name: rss-site labels: app: webspec: containers: - name: front-end image: nginx ports: - containerPort: 80 - name: rss-reader image: nickchase/rss-php-nginx:v1 ports: - containerPort: 88

So as you can see here, we have a list of containers”objects”, each of which consists of a name, an image, and a list of ports. Each list item under portsis itself a map that lists the container Port and its value.

For completeness, let’s quickly look at the JSON equivalent:

{ "apiVersion": "v1", "kind": "Pod", "metadata": { "name": "rss-site", "labels": { "app": "web" } }, "spec": { "containers": [{ "name": "front-end", "image": "nginx", "ports": [{ "containerPort": "80" }] }, { "name": "rss-reader", "image": "nickchase/rss-php-nginx:v1", "ports": [{ "containerPort": "88" }] }] }}

As you can see, we’re starting to get pretty complex, and we haven’t even gotten into anything particularly complicated! No wonder YAML is replacing JSON so fast.

So let’s review. We have:

maps, which are groups of name-value pairs
lists, which are individual items
maps of maps
maps of lists
lists of lists
lists of maps

Basically, whatever structure you want to put together, you can do it with those two structures.

Creating a pod using YAML

OK, so now that we’ve got the basics out of the way, let’s look at putting this to use. We’re going to first create a Pod, then a Deployment, using YAML.

If you haven’t set up your cluster and kubectl, go ahead and check out this article series on setting up Kubernetes before you go on. It’s OK, we’ll wait….

Back already? Great! Let’s start with a Pod.

Creating the pod file

In our previous example, we described a simple Pod using YAML:

{ "apiVersion": "v1", "kind": "Pod", "metadata": {apiVersion: v1kind: Podmetadata:name: rss-sitelabels:app: webspec:containers:- name: front-endimage: nginxports:- containerPort: 80- name: rss-readerimage: nickchase/rss-php-nginx:v1ports:- containerPort: 88

Taking it apart one piece at a time, we start with the API version; here it’s just v1. (When we get to deployments, we’ll have to specify a different version because Deployments don’t exist in v1.)

Next, we’re specifying that we want to create a Pod; we might specify instead a Deployment, Job, Service, and so on, depending on what we’re trying to achieve.

Next we specify the metadata. Here we’re specifying the name of the Pod, as well as the label we’ll use to identify the pod to Kubernetes.

Finally, we’ll specify the actual objects that make up the pod. The specproperty includes any containers, storage volumes, or other pieces that Kubernetes needs to know about, as well as properties such as whether to restart the container if it fails. You can find a complete list of Kubernetes Pod properties in the Kubernetes API specification, but let’s take a closer look at a typical container definition:

.. spec:  containers:  - name: front-end  image: nginx  ports:  - containerPort: 80 - name: rss-reader ...

In this case, we have a simple, fairly minimal definition: a name(front-end), the imageon which it’s based (nginx), and one port on which the container will listen internally (80). Of these, only the name is really required, but in general, if you want it to do anything useful, you’ll need more information.

You can also specify more complex properties, such as a command to run when the container starts, arguments it should use, a working directory, or whether to pull a new copy of the image every time it’s instantiated. You can also specify even deeper information, such as the location of the container’s exit log. Here are the properties you can set for a Container:

name
image
command
args
workingDir
ports
env
resources
volumeMounts
livenessProbe
readinessProbe
lifecycle
terminationMessagePath
imagePullPolicy
securityContext
stdin
stdinOnce
tty

Now let’s go ahead and actually create the pod.

Creating the pod using the YAML file

The first step, of course, is to go ahead and create a text file. Call it pod.yamland add the following text, just as we specified it earlier:

--- apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: rss-site labels: app: web spec: containers: - name: front-end image: nginx ports: - containerPort: 80 - name: rss-reader image: nickchase/rss-php-nginx:v1 ports: - containerPort: 88

Save the file, and tell Kubernetes to create its contents:

> kubectl create -f pod.yamlpod "rss-site" created

As you can see, K8s references the name we gave the Pod. You can see that if you ask for a list of the pods:

> kubectl get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE rss-site 0/2 ContainerCreating 0 6s

If you check early enough, you can see that the pod is still being created. After a few seconds, you should see the containers running:

> kubectl get podsNAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGErss-site 2/2 Running 0 14s

From here, you can test out the Pod (just as we did in the previous article), but ultimately we want to create a Deployment, so let’s go ahead and delete it so there aren’t any name conflicts:

> kubectl delete pod rss-sitepod "rss-site" deleted

Troubleshooting pod creation

Sometimes, of course, things don’t go as you expect. Maybe you’ve got a networking issue, or you’ve mistyped something in your YAML file. You might see an error like this:

> kubectl get podsNAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGErss-site 1/2 ErrImagePull 0 9s

In this case, we can see that one of our containers started up just fine, but there was a problem with the other. To track down the problem, we can ask Kubernetes for more information on the Pod:

> kubectl describe pod rss-siteName: rss-siteNamespace: defaultNode: 10.0.10.7/10.0.10.7Start Time: Sun, 08 Jan 2017 08:36:47 +0000Labels: app=webStatus: PendingIP: 10.200.18.2Controllers: <none>Containers: front-end: Container ID: docker://a42edaa6dfbfdf161f3df5bc6af05e740b97fd9ac3d35317a6dcda77b0310759 Image: nginx Image ID: docker://sha256:01f818af747d88b4ebca7cdabd0c581e406e0e790be72678d257735fad84a15f Port: 80/TCP State: Running Started: Sun, 08 Jan 2017 08:36:49 +0000 Ready: True Restart Count: 0 Environment Variables: <none> rss-reader: Container ID: Image: nickchase/rss-php-nginx Image ID: Port: 88/TCP State: Waiting Reason: ErrImagePull Ready: False Restart Count: 0 Environment Variables: <none>Conditions: Type Status Initialized True Ready False PodScheduled TrueNo volumes.QoS Tier: BestEffortEvents: FirstSeen LastSeen Count From SubobjectPath Type Reason Message --------- -------- ----- ---- ------------- -------- ------ ------- 45s 45s 1 {default-scheduler } Normal Scheduled Successfully assigned rss-site to 10.0.10.7 44s 44s 1 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{front-end} Normal Pulling pulling image "nginx" 45s 43s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} Warning MissingClusterDNS kubelet does not have ClusterDNS IP configured and cannot create Pod using "ClusterFirst" policy. Falling back to DNSDefault policy. 43s 43s 1 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{front-end} Normal Pulled Successfully pulled image "nginx" 43s 43s 1 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{front-end} Normal Created Created container with docker id a42edaa6dfbf 43s 43s 1 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{front-end} Normal Started Started container with docker id a42edaa6dfbf 43s 29s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{rss-reader} Normal Pulling pulling image "nickchase/rss-php-nginx" 42s 26s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{rss-reader} Warning Failed Failed to pull image "nickchase/rss-php-nginx": Tag latest not found in repository docker.io/nickchase/rss-php-nginx 42s 26s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} Warning FailedSync Error syncing pod, skipping: failed to "StartContainer" for "rss-reader" with ErrImagePull: "Tag latest not found in repository docker.io/nickchase/rss-php-nginx" 41s 12s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} spec.containers{rss-reader} Normal BackOff Back-off pulling image "nickchase/rss-php-nginx" 41s 12s 2 {kubelet 10.0.10.7} Warning FailedSync Error syncing pod, skipping: failed to "StartContainer" for "rss-reader" with ImagePullBackOff: "Back-off pulling image "nickchase/rss-php-nginx""

As you can see, there’s a lot of information here, but we’re most interested in the Events- specifically, once the warnings and errors start showing up. From here I was able to quickly see that I’d forgotten to add the :v1tag to my image, so it was looking for the :latesttag, which didn’t exist.

To fix the problem, I first deleted the Pod, then fixed the YAML file and started again. Instead, I could have fixed the repo so that Kubernetes could find what it was looking for, and it would have continued on as though nothing had happened,.

Now that we’ve successfully gotten a Pod running, let’s look at doing the same for a Deployment.

Creating a deployment using YAML

Finally, we’re down to creating the actual Deployment. Before we do that, though, it’s worth understanding what it is we’re actually doing.

K8s, remember, manages container-based resources. In the case of a Deployment, you’re creating a set of resources to be managed. For example, where we created a single instance of the Pod in the previous example, we might create a Deployment to tell Kubernetes to manage a set of replicas of that Pod – literally, a ReplicaSet – to make sure that a certain number of them are always available. So we might start our Deployment definition like this:

--- apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: rss-site spec: replicas: 2

Here we’re specifying the apiVersionas extensions/v1beta1- remember, Deployments aren’t in v1, as Pods were – and that we want a Deployment. Next we specify the name. We can also specify any other metadata we want, but let’s keep things simple for now.

Finally, we get into the spec. In the Pod spec, we gave information about what actually went into the Pod; we’ll do the same thing here with the Deployment. We’ll start, in this case, by saying that whatever Pods we deploy, we always want to have 2 replicas. You can set this number however you like, of course, and you can also set properties such as the selector that defines the Pods affected by this Deployment, or the minimum number of seconds a pod must be up without any errors before it’s considered “ready”. You can find a full list of the Deployment specificationproperties in the Kuberenetes v1beta1 API reference.

OK, so now that we know we want 2 replicas, we need to answer the question: “Replicas of what?” They’re defined by templates:

--- apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: rss-site spec: replicas: 2  template:  metadata:  labels:  app: web  spec:  containers:  - name: front-end  image: nginx  ports:  - containerPort: 80  - name: rss-reader  image: nickchase/rss-php-nginx:v1  ports:  - containerPort: 88

Look familiar? It should; it’s virtually identical to the Pod definition in the previous section, and that’s by design. Templates are simply definitions of objects to be replicated – objects that might, in other circ*mstances, by created on their own.

Now let’s go ahead and create the deployment. Add the YAML to a file called deployment.yamland point Kubernetes at it:

> kubectl create -f deployment.yamldeployment "rss-site" created

To see how it’s doing, we can check on the deployments list:

> kubectl get deploymentsNAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGErss-site 2 2 2 1 7s

As you can see, Kubernetes has started both replicas, but only one is available. You can check the event log by describing the Deployment, as before:

> kubectl describe deployment rss-siteName: rss-siteNamespace: defaultCreationTimestamp: Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:42:14 +0000=Labels: app=webSelector: app=webReplicas: 2 updated | 2 total | 1 available | 1 unavailableStrategyType: RollingUpdateMinReadySeconds: 0RollingUpdateStrategy: 1 max unavailable, 1 max surgeOldReplicaSets: <none>NewReplicaSet: rss-site-4056856218 (2/2 replicas created)Events: FirstSeen LastSeen Count From SubobjectPath Type Reason Message --------- -------- ----- ---- ------------- -------- ------ ------- 46s 46s 1 {deployment-controller } Normal ScalingReplicaSet Scaled up replica set rss-site-4056856218 to 2

As you can see here, there’s no problem, it just hasn’t finished scaling up yet. Another few seconds, and we can see that both Pods are running:

> kubectl get deploymentsNAME DESIRED CURRENT UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGErss-site 2 2 2 2 1m

What we’ve seen so far

OK, so let’s review. We’ve basically covered three topics:

YAML is a human-readable text-based format that let’s you easily specify configuration-type information by using a combination of maps of name-value pairs and lists of items (and nested versions of each).
YAML is the most convenient way to work with Kubernetes objects, and in this article we looked at creating Pods and Deployments.
You can get more information on running (or should-be-running) objects by asking Kubernetes to describethem.

So that’s our basic YAML tutorial. We’re going to be tackling a great deal of Kubernetes-related content in the coming months, so if there’s something specific you want to hear about, let us know.

This post was written by Nick Chase is Head of Technical Content for Mirantis and the presenter of Introduction to YAML: Creating Deployments and other Kubernetes Objects. He is also the author of multiple technical books, including Machine Learning for Mere Mortals.