k0s 0.12 Released
We are proud to announce k0s — the zero friction Kubernetes — version 0.12 is now released! The highlights of this release are the support for air-gap installation and the optimization for the single-node clusters. In addition, you’ll find a number of other enhancements and fixes. Learn more about new features and enhancements below or see the full change log. Get started today!
Support for Air-Gap Installation
The support for air-gap installation makes it possible to deploy k0s without the internet access. All the needed images are packaged beforehand into a single OCI bundle. During the cluster bootstrap phase the bundled images are imported by the worker node and started without a need to fetch any images from the internet.
With the air-gap installation it’s possible to run your cloud native applications in an isolated environment. One key reason could be high requirements in the application and data security. Another reason could be strict firewall policies, which don’t permit outbound access. Regardless of the possible reasons, starting from this release you can use k0s to run air-gapped Kubernetes. For more information, see the tutorial for k0s air-gap.
Single-Node Optimization
k0s can now be started with a new ‘ — single’ argument, which improves the performance of the single-node cluster. What actually happens is that k0s automatically starts the controller and worker on a single node without the processes like the controller leader election, the worker-controller connectivity and the k0s join control api. All those are needed for the distributed cluster, but not for the single node use case. Moreover, etcd as the default data store is unnecessarily heavy for this purpose. That’s why we have changed the default data store from etcd to kine/sqlite for the optimized single-node cluster. For multi-node clusters there will be no changes.
The single-node optimization makes k0s even more powerful Kubernetes distribution than before. We have seen that some Kubernetes distributions in the market are targeted only for the large cloud environments and some only for the small test deployments. We think that it’s possible to create a powerful and yet easy-to-use Kubernetes distribution for multiple use cases, from small single-node development clusters to large scale high-availability clusters. The users of k0s can benefit from running the same distribution in all their environments. This can greatly reduce the application deployment complexity and in general decrease the developer friction.
Updated Upstream Components
- Kubernetes 1.20.5
- Alpine Linux 3.13 (the base layer for k0s container image)
Community Updates
Since the previous release we have got several commits from the community. Special thanks to gliptak and jewertow. This work is very much appreciated!
New blog post
- Installing k0s (Kubernetes all-inclusive distribution) in Portuguese
http://blog.aeciopires.com/instalando-o-k0s-distribuicao-kubernetes-all-inclusive/
As a gentle reminder: if you are not yet following us on Twitter, please do it now! Also, please join the k0s Slack channel (hosted by our friends at Lens IDE community) to hear the latest news, discussions and provide your feedback.
About k0s
k0s is zero friction Kubernetes distribution. It provides a unique mix of simplicity, security and modularity. k0s is 100% open source and free of charge, for any purpose. The k0s open source project is backed by a number of Kubernetes, Docker and Linux ecosystem pioneers. It combines experience with all the best innovations and ideas in the ecosystem to create a pure kubernetes distribution that is slim, modern & fresh while maximizing the developer happiness. https://k0sproject.io
