Kubernetes for Running Applications at Scale
Why Smarter. The Helm chart deploys the same images that students ran in Docker Compose, so the course can start from something familiar and add only what Kubernetes brings: horizontal scaling, ingress, secrets and network policies. Smarter also manages Kubernetes itself, deploying LLMClients and self-hosted models as workloads, which is a good example of an application that talks to the cluster’s API.
Look at. helm/charts/smarter/, and the Kubernetes service layer in
smarter/smarter/apps/infrastructure/.
Read. Smarter on Kubernetes, Kubernetes, Cloud Infrastructure, ADR 003 on Kubernetes.
Exercises.
Install Smarter with the Helm chart on a local cluster, such as kind, minikube or the one built into Docker Desktop, and compare each Kubernetes object with its Docker Compose service.
Load test a deployed LLMClient, and watch the autoscaler add pods.
Write a network policy that stops a pod from reaching the cloud provider’s metadata address.
What it costs. A class that runs Smarter on a managed Kubernetes cluster in the cloud should expect a baseline infrastructure cost of around $350 USD a month, for the cluster, its nodes, the load balancer, the database and the other services that Smarter needs. This grows very slightly with each student: the variable cloud infrastructure cost per student is significantly less than a dollar a month. Model provider charges are separate, and are controlled with Budgets. A local cluster, such as kind or minikube, costs nothing and is enough for most of the exercises above.
Course plans. Three complete, ready-to-teach plans, each with a schedule, graded assignments and rubrics, two capstone projects, recommended texts, further study and technical prerequisites. See Course Formats and Grading for what the formats have in common.
See the Smarter Instructor Guide to install Smarter and set up a class.