Application Lifecycle Management Section Introduction

In this section we cover application lifecycle management for Kubernetes workloads. You’ll learn how to safely evolve running applications, configure them, scale them to meet demand, and use Kubernetes primitives to keep them healthy. We cover four core areas:

Rolling updates and rollbacks (how to change a live application without downtime)
Configuring applications (using secrets and configuration primitives)
Scaling applications (manual and automated scaling strategies)
Self‑healing applications (probes, ReplicaSets, and Deployments)

A presentation slide titled "Application Lifecycle Management" with a vertical list of four numbered items: Rolling Updates and Rollbacks in Deployments, Configuring Applications, Scale Applications, and Self‑Healing Applications. The left side has a dark blue panel with the title and the right side is mostly white with the numbered points.

If you’ve already completed a Kubernetes application-focused course (for example the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer), several concepts below will feel familiar — in particular rolling updates, ConfigMap/Secret usage, and basic scaling. If so, you may prefer to focus on the hands‑on exercises in this lesson.

If you already understand rolling updates and rollbacks, configuration methods (like ConfigMap and Secret), scaling strategies, and basic self‑healing primitives (readiness/liveness probes, ReplicaSet, Deployment), consider prioritizing the exercises in this lesson to practice real-world scenarios quickly.

Summary of topics and where to find the relevant Kubernetes primitives and commands:

Topic	Key Kubernetes primitives / objects	Quick example
Rolling updates & rollbacks	`Deployment`, `ReplicaSet`	Update an image: `kubectl set image deployment/my-app my-app=nginx:1.19` — rollback: `kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app`
Configuring applications	`ConfigMap`, `Secret`, environment variables, volume mounts	Mount a `ConfigMap` or inject env: use `envFrom: - configMapRef: name: my-config`
Scaling applications	`Deployment` replicas, `HorizontalPodAutoscaler` (HPA)	Scale manually: `kubectl scale deployment my-app --replicas=5` — create HPA: `kubectl autoscale deployment my-app --min=2 --max=10 --cpu-percent=70`
Self‑healing applications	`readinessProbe`, `livenessProbe`, `ReplicaSet`	Example probe snippet: `readinessProbe: { httpGet: { path: /healthz, port: 8080 }, initialDelaySeconds: 5 }`

Links and references

Introduction

Core Concepts

Scheduling

Logging & Monitoring

Application Lifecycle Management

Cluster Maintenance

Security

Storage

Networking

Design and Install a Kubernetes Cluster

Install "Kubernetes the kubeadm way"

Troubleshooting

Helm Basics (2025 Updates)

Kustomize Basics (2025 Updates)

Other Topics

Mock Exams

Application Lifecycle Management Section Introduction

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