There are many different ways you can bootstrap Kubernetes clusters, with various degrees of complexity. Modern Kubernetes installers automate manual tasks but generally, the more they abstract away complexity, the more opinionated they are — and that restricts your choice.

Cluster API is different. This hot Kubernetes sub-project is one of the most flexible and efficient tools for managing the Kubernetes lifecycle, whether used for deployments, upgrades or scaling operations.

In this talk, we’ll demystify Cluster API by introducing its different components and digging into key concepts, including Cluster API Provider (CAP) and Cluster API Bootstrap (CAB).

We’ll explore an example of a high availability (HA) cluster deployed in a public cloud and show how you can manage it using GitOps principles.

You’ll get familiar with the infrastructure provider components and see how to upgrade, scale the cluster, and perform day 2 operations.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of how Cluster API can simplify the creation and management of Kubernetes clusters across different infrastructure platforms. You’ll also gain practical knowledge of how to apply GitOps principle to Cluster API and extend the Kubernetes API with Custom Resource Definitions and reconciliation loops.