Demystifying
Kubernetes

A gentle introduction for Drupal developers — Dockerfiles, local dev, and cloud deployment. No prior Kubernetes experience required.

Jordan Koplowicz

The Plan

1. What is Kubernetes, and why should Drupal developers care?
2. The Dockerfile — your options, anatomy, and key decisions
3. Running Kubernetes locally — and what about DDEV & Lando?
4. Deploying to the cloud — registry, cluster, manifests, TLS
5. Persistent storage — PVCs, S3, and the files/ gotcha
6. The database question — in-cluster vs. managed
7. Bonus: open-source starter kit & real-world cost breakdown

What Is Kubernetes?

• A container orchestrator — it runs your Docker containers, decides where they live, and keeps them alive
• Open source, originally from Google, now the industry standard
• Scales automatically — more traffic? Kubernetes spins up more copies of your app
  • Horizontal vs. vertical scaling
• Self-healing — crashed container? It restarts it without you lifting a finger

Kubernetes + Drupal

• Consistency — the same container runs locally, in staging, and in production. No more "works on my machine"
• Hosting flexibility — DigitalOcean, AWS, GCP, Azure — all speak Kubernetes. You're not locked in
• Scalability — handle traffic spikes by scaling your Drupal pods horizontally
• GitOps-ready — your entire infrastructure lives in code, next to your Drupal codebase
• On-Prem — for when you're not allowed to use Pantheon, Acquia

The Dockerfile —
Your Options

We'll focus on building your own — it's not as scary as it sounds.

Anatomy of a Drupal Dockerfile

Key Decisions to Make

• Base image — php:8.3-fpm-alpine is small and fast; -bookworm has more system libs available
• PHP extensions — Drupal needs pdo_mysql, gd, opcache, apcu; add more for your modules
• Nginx vs Apache — run as a sidecar container, or bake Nginx in with a custom entrypoint
• Build vs runtime — run Composer during build?
• Non-root user — always run the app as a non-root user in production

Kubernetes on
Your Laptop

What About DDEV
& Lando?

• DDEV and Lando are excellent — purpose-built for Drupal local dev, zero config friction
• They are not competitors to Kubernetes — they run Docker under the hood anyway
• Use DDEV/Lando for day-to-day development — Xdebug, `drush`, Mailhog — it all just works
• Use Kubernetes for staging and production — or when you need to test your deployment config locally

Deploying to
the Cloud

1. Push your image to a container registry (Docker Hub, DigitalOcean, GitHub Packages)
2. Provision a cluster — DigitalOcean DOKS, AWS EKS, or GKE — all are Kubernetes under the hood
3. Write a Deployment manifest — tells Kubernetes which image to run, how many replicas, resource limits
4. Expose it with a Service + Ingress — route external traffic to your pods, add TLS via cert-manager
5. Apply with kubectl — kubectl apply -f k8s/ and you're live

Persistent Storage

• Containers are ephemeral — when a pod restarts, the filesystem resets. Your files/ directory disappears
• PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) — attach a persistent disk to your pod. Survives restarts
• ReadWriteMany is tricky — multiple pod replicas all need to read/write the same files directory
• Better approach: object storage — use S3 or DigitalOcean Spaces + the Drupal S3FS module. No shared filesystem needed

The Database Question

Open Source
Drupal K8s Starter

I've open-sourced the Dockerfile and Kubernetes manifests I use in production. Everything we've talked about today — in one repo, ready to clone.

Questions? I'll be around after the session — find me, or reach out online.

• Slides & starter kit — github.com/koppieesq/rail-baron
• Drupal.org — drupal.org/u/koppie
• We're hiring! - https://www.tesla.com/careers/search/job/product-manager-vehicle-service-268625