Kubernetes v1.34 | 70 Hands-On Labs | Production-Grade | OpsCart Course
A complete CKA exam preparation course with 70 hands-on labs covering real production scenarios from managing Fortune 500 Kubernetes clusters in a regulated pharmaceutical environment.
Current Status: 5/70 labs complete (7.1%) | Next: Lab 06 - Helm Basics
- Real scenarios from managing 8+ production AKS clusters
- Fortune 500 pharmaceutical compliance requirements
- Security-first approach (HIPAA, SOC2, FDA)
- Cost optimization strategies from $50K/month spend
- ✅ Works on minikube (local, no cloud costs)
- ✅ Works on kubeadm (self-hosted clusters)
- ✅ Addresses AKS/EKS/GKE differences
- ✅ Documents platform challenges (like distroless containers)
- ⭐ Helm & Kustomize (NEW requirement)
- ⭐ Gateway API (replacing classic Ingress focus)
- ⭐ CRDs & Operators (increased emphasis)
- ⭐ CNI/CSI/CRI interfaces (NEW additions)
- Actual issues encountered and solved
- Step-by-step debugging methodology
- Common gotchas documented
- Platform limitations explained (see Lab 05!)
Every lab includes:
- 📖 Comprehensive README with scenarios
- 📋 Quick reference commands
- 🔧 Automated setup/test/cleanup scripts
- ✅ Validation tests
- 💡 Solutions and explanations
- ⏱️ Exam time management tips
Labs: 18 | Progress: 5/18 (27.8%) | Status: In Progress
✅ Lab 01: RBAC Basics (30 min)
✅ Lab 02: RBAC Advanced + Diagrams (40 min)
✅ Lab 03: kubeadm Installation (60 min)
✅ Lab 04: Cluster Upgrade (50 min)
✅ Lab 05: etcd Backup & Restore + Challenges (45 min)
📝 Lab 06: Helm Basics (40 min) ← NEXT
⏸️ Labs 07-18: Helm, Kustomize, HA, CRDs, CNI/CSI/CRI
View complete course strategy →
Labs: 14 | Status: Pending
Service types, Ingress, Gateway API, NetworkPolicies, CoreDNS
Labs: 11 | Status: Pending
Deployments, StatefulSets, Jobs, Scheduling, Autoscaling
Labs: 7 | Status: Pending
Volumes, PV/PVC, StorageClasses, Dynamic provisioning
Labs: 20 | Status: Pending
Pod/Node/Cluster troubleshooting, debugging, monitoring
Experience:
- 6+ months working with Kubernetes
- Comfortable with Linux command line
- Basic understanding of containers
Hardware:
- 8GB+ RAM (16GB recommended)
- 4+ CPU cores
- 50GB free disk space
Software:
- Docker Desktop (or Docker)
- kubectl (v1.34+)
- minikube (v1.30+)
# 1. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/opscart/production-cka
cd production-cka
# 2. Set up 3-node minikube cluster
cd setup
chmod +x minikube-setup.sh
./minikube-setup.sh
# 3. Verify setup
kubectl get nodes
# Should show: opscart, opscart-m02, opscart-m03 (all Ready)
# 4. Start with Lab 01
cd ../labs/cluster-architecture/01-rbac-basics
cat README.md# Each lab follows this pattern:
cd labs/cluster-architecture/XX-lab-name/
# 1. Read the lab
cat README.md
# 2. Run setup
./scripts/setup.sh
# 3. Complete tasks manually
# Follow README.md instructions
# 4. Validate your work
./scripts/test.sh
# 5. Check solution if needed
cat solutions/SOLUTION.md
# 6. Clean up
./scripts/cleanup.shlabXX-topic-name/
├── README.md # Main instructions (scenarios, tasks, tips)
├── QUICK-REFERENCE.md # Command cheat sheet
├── manifests/ # YAML files
├── scripts/
│ ├── setup.sh # Automated setup
│ ├── test.sh # Validation (automated tests)
│ └── cleanup.sh # Remove lab resources
└── solutions/
└── SOLUTION.md # Step-by-step solutions
- Format: Performance-based (hands-on tasks)
- Duration: 2 hours
- Questions: 15-20 tasks
- Passing Score: ~74%
- Cost: $445 (includes 2 attempts + 2 killer.sh simulations)
- Valid: 3 years from passing
✅ kubernetes.io/docs
✅ kubernetes.io/blog
❌ Google, Stack Overflow, notes, other sites
Cluster Architecture: 25% → 30 minutes
Services & Networking: 20% → 24 minutes
Workloads: 15% → 18 minutes
Storage: 10% → 12 minutes
Troubleshooting: 30% → 36 minutes
Weeks 1-2: Cluster Architecture (18 labs)
Weeks 3-4: Workloads & Scheduling (11 labs)
Weeks 5-6: Services & Networking (14 labs)
Week 7: Storage (7 labs)
Weeks 8-9: Troubleshooting (20 labs)
Week 10: Review & Practice Exams
Every lab uses realistic scenarios:
- Pharmaceutical company with FDA compliance
- Multi-tenant AKS clusters (8+ in production)
- 500+ cores, 2TB+ memory management
- HIPAA, SOC2, FDA validation requirements
- Cost optimization ($50K+/month AWS/Azure spend)
Lab 05 Example: etcd Backup & Restore
- ✅ Works on minikube (with docker cp workaround)
- ✅ Works on kubeadm (standard kubectl cp)
- 📝 Documents 4 major challenges encountered
- 💡 Explains distroless containers
- 🎯 Exam-ready commands for kubeadm
- Inline comments in all scripts
- Detailed troubleshooting sections
- Common issues and solutions
- Production best practices
- Exam tips and time budgets
Shamsher Khan
- Role: Senior DevOps Engineer @ GlobalLogic (Hitachi Company)
- Experience: 15+ years in IT, 5+ years Kubernetes
- Production: Managing 8+ AKS clusters for Fortune 500 pharma
- Scale: 500+ cores, 200+ applications, 50+ developers
- Community:
- IEEE Senior Member
- DZone Core Member (1000+ subscribers)
- OpsCart.com technical blog
- Open-source contributor
Connect:
- 🌐 Blog: opscart.com
- 💼 LinkedIn: Shamsher Khan
- 📝 DZone: @shamsherkhan
- 🐙 GitHub: @opscart
production-cka/
├── README.md # This file
├── COURSE-STRATEGY.md # Complete 70-lab roadmap
├── setup/
│ ├── minikube-setup.sh # 3-node cluster setup
│ └── requirements.md # Prerequisites
├── labs/
│ ├── cluster-architecture/ # 18 labs (25% of exam)
│ ├── networking/ # 14 labs (20% of exam)
│ ├── workloads/ # 11 labs (15% of exam)
│ ├── storage/ # 7 labs (10% of exam)
│ └── troubleshooting/ # 20 labs (30% of exam)
└── docs/
└── kubectl-cheatsheet.md # Quick reference
This is a living course! Contributions welcome:
- 🐛 Report issues or bugs
- 💡 Suggest improvements
- 📝 Share your learning experience
- ⭐ Star the repo if it helps you!
MIT License - Free for personal use and learning.
Attribution appreciated when sharing or adapting content.
- killer.sh (included with exam registration)
- This course (70 hands-on labs)
- Your own minikube cluster
Overall: 5/70 labs complete (7.1%)
By Domain:
- Cluster Architecture: 5/18 (27.8%) ████████░░░░░░░░░░
- Services & Networking: 0/14 (0.0%) ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
- Workloads: 0/11 (0.0%) ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
- Storage: 0/7 (0.0%) ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
- Troubleshooting: 0/20 (0.0%) ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Time Invested: ~4 hours
Estimated Remaining: ~52 hours
# Clone and begin your CKA journey
git clone https://github.com/opscart/production-cka
cd production-cka
./setup/minikube-setup.sh
# Start with Lab 01
cd labs/cluster-architecture/01-rbac-basics
cat README.mdQuestions? Open an issue or visit opscart.com
⭐ Star this repo if it helps your CKA preparation!
Last Updated: March 2026 | CKA v1.34 Curriculum