CKA Exam Prep
CKA Exam Glossary - 40 Terms
Search the terminology pack for Certified Kubernetes Administrator. Use these definitions with the study guide and practice questions.
D
- DaemonSet
- A controller that ensures a Pod runs on all or selected nodes, commonly used for node-level services.
- Deployment
- A workload resource that manages stateless applications and supports declarative updates and rollbacks.
- DNS resolution
- The process of translating domain names into IP addresses, often required for application connectivity.
E
- egress
- Network traffic leaving a Pod or workload toward other destinations.
- emptyDir
- An ephemeral volume type that stores data for the lifetime of a Pod on a node.
G
- Gateway API
- A Kubernetes API for defining and managing service networking using Gateway and Route resources.
- GatewayClass
- A cluster-scoped resource that defines a class of Gateways implemented by a specific controller.
H
- HTTPRoute
- A Gateway API resource that defines HTTP routing rules and attaches traffic policies to a Gateway.
I
- Ingress
- A Kubernetes resource that manages external HTTP and HTTPS access to Services using routing rules.
- ingress
- Network traffic entering a Pod or workload from other sources.
K
- kubectl
- The Kubernetes command-line tool used to create, inspect, update, and manage cluster resources.
- kubectl drain
- A kubectl command used to safely evict workloads from a node before maintenance.
- kubelet
- The node agent that runs on each Kubernetes node and ensures containers are running as specified.
- kustomization.yaml
- The configuration file used by Kustomize to define resources, patches, labels, namespaces, and other transformations.
- Kustomize
- A Kubernetes configuration customization tool that modifies manifests using overlays without templates.
N
- namespace
- A logical partition in a Kubernetes cluster used to isolate resources and policies.
- NetworkPolicy
- A Kubernetes resource that controls allowed ingress and egress traffic for Pods based on selectors and ports.
O
- ordered startup/shutdown
- A StatefulSet behavior where Pods are started and terminated in a controlled sequence.
- overlay
- A Kustomize layer that customizes a base configuration for a specific environment or use case.
P
- Pending
- A Pod phase indicating the Pod has been accepted but cannot yet run, often due to scheduling constraints.
- persistent storage
- Storage that retains data beyond the lifecycle of an individual Pod.
- PersistentVolumeClaim
- A user request for persistent storage that is bound to a matching PersistentVolume.
- pod labels
- Key-value metadata attached to Pods, used for selection, grouping, and policy targeting.
- Pod Security Admission
- A built-in admission controller that enforces Pod Security Standards at the namespace level.
- Pod Security Standards
- Predefined security policy profiles such as privileged, baseline, and restricted for Pod configurations.
- preemption
- The eviction of lower-priority Pods so higher-priority Pods can be scheduled when resources are limited.
- PriorityClass
- A resource that assigns scheduling priority to Pods and influences preemption behavior.
R
- replicas
- The desired number of identical Pod instances maintained by a controller.
- resource requests
- The minimum CPU and memory amounts a container asks for to be scheduled on a node.
- rollback
- The process of reverting a workload such as a Deployment to a previous revision.
- rolling update
- A deployment strategy that gradually replaces old Pods with new ones to minimize downtime.
- rollout history
- The revision history of changes made to a Deployment, used for auditing and rollback.
S
- Service
- A Kubernetes resource that exposes a stable network endpoint for a set of Pods.
- stable pod names
- Predictable and persistent Pod names assigned by StatefulSet to maintain identity across restarts.
- StatefulSet
- A workload resource for stateful applications that need stable identities, ordered deployment, and persistent storage.
- StorageClass
- A resource that defines storage provisioning parameters and behavior for persistent volumes.
T
- TCP port 80
- The standard port typically used for HTTP traffic over TCP.
- TLS termination
- The handling of TLS encryption at the ingress or gateway layer before forwarding traffic to backend services.
V
- volumeBindingMode
- A StorageClass setting that controls when persistent volume binding and provisioning occur.
W
- WaitForFirstConsumer
- A volume binding mode that delays PVC binding until a Pod using the claim is scheduled.
About These Definitions
These definitions are loaded from the shared release pack. Use them with the study guide and practice questions to connect vocabulary to exam scenarios.