A Kubernetes Deployment is a crucial resource object that provides a declarative approach to managing application updates, rollbacks, and scaling. Deployments allow you to define an application's lifecycle, ensuring your desired state is always maintained by controlling the creation and replacement of Pods.

Step 1: Creating Your First Deployment

Let’s begin by setting up a simple Deployment that runs an Nginx web server.

Write the Deployment YAML Configuration

First, create a YAML file named deployment.yaml with the following content:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-deployment
  labels: 
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.17
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

Apply the Deployment

To create the Deployment, run:

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Once applied, you can verify the status of your Deployment, ReplicaSets, and Pods:

kubectl get deploy
kubectl get rs
kubectl get pod

To check the current Nginx version running in a specific Pod, use:

kubectl describe pod <podname>

Step 2 : Updating the Deployment

With your Deployment up and running, let's update the Nginx version from nginx:1.17 to nginx:1.18.

Open the deployment.yaml file and update the Nginx image tag:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  labels: 
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.18
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

Apply the updated Deployment:

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Verify the updated Deployment and Pods:

kubectl get deploy
kubectl get pod

To confirm the Nginx version has been updated:

kubectl describe pod <podname>

Step 3 : Rolling Back the Deployment

Kubernetes makes it easy to roll back to a previous version of your Deployment.

Listing ReplicaSets:

Identify the ReplicaSet associated with the version you want to roll back to:

kubectl get rs

Performing the Rollback

To roll back to the previous version:

kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-deployment

Verify the rollback by checking the ReplicaSets and Pods:

kubectl get rs
kubectl get pod

Check the Nginx version to ensure the rollback was successful:

kubectl describe pod <podname>

Now, Check the nginx version,

Step 4 : Clean up

Once you're done, you can clean up the resources:

kubectl delete deploy nginx-deployment

Conclusion

Kubernetes Deployments provide a powerful way to manage the lifecycle of your applications. With the ability to easily update, roll back, and scale your applications, Deployments are an essential tool for any Kubernetes user