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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Container Registry
  4. Container Tools
  5. Kubernetes vs Test Kitchen

Kubernetes vs Test Kitchen

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Stacks61.2K
Followers52.8K
Votes685
Test Kitchen
Test Kitchen
Stacks246
Followers45
Votes15
GitHub Stars1.9K
Forks582

Kubernetes vs Test Kitchen: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this comparison, we will highlight the key differences between Kubernetes and Test Kitchen.

  1. Scalability: Kubernetes is designed for managing large, complex applications and scaling them effortlessly. It can handle thousands of containers across multiple nodes efficiently. On the other hand, Test Kitchen is primarily focused on testing infrastructure code and cookbooks, making it more suitable for smaller-scale operations and development environments.

  2. Purpose: Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It provides a robust infrastructure for running production workloads in a highly available and scalable manner. Test Kitchen, on the other hand, is a tool used for testing infrastructure code and configuration management systems such as Chef, Puppet, and Ansible.

  3. Environment: Kubernetes is typically used in production environments where high availability, scalability, and resilience are critical requirements. It is suitable for complex applications that need to be deployed across a cluster of servers. Test Kitchen, on the other hand, is more commonly used in development and testing environments to ensure the correctness of infrastructure code before deploying it to production.

  4. Complexity: Kubernetes is a complex platform with a steep learning curve, requiring knowledge of containerization concepts, networking, storage, and more. It is best suited for experienced DevOps engineers and system administrators. Test Kitchen, on the other hand, is relatively easier to set up and use, making it more accessible to developers and testers who are primarily focused on infrastructure testing.

  5. Community Support: Kubernetes has a large and active community of developers, contributors, and users who continually enhance and improve the platform. This vibrant community ensures a wide range of resources, documentation, and support options for users. Test Kitchen, while also having a supportive community, may not be as extensive or diverse as the Kubernetes community due to its narrower focus on testing infrastructure code.

  6. Integration: Kubernetes integrates seamlessly with various tools and platforms in the container ecosystem, such as Docker, Helm, and Prometheus, offering a comprehensive solution for deploying and managing containerized applications. Test Kitchen, on the other hand, is more focused on integration with configuration management tools like Chef, Puppet, and Ansible, providing a testing environment for infrastructure code developed using these tools.

In Summary, Kubernetes and Test Kitchen differ in scalability, purpose, environment, complexity, community support, and integration capabilities.

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Advice on Kubernetes, Test Kitchen

Simon
Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

DecidedonGitHubGitHubGitHub PagesGitHub PagesMarkdownMarkdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

  • @{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
  • Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
  • @{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
  • @{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
  • @{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
  • @{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
  • @{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
  • @{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
  • @{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
  • @{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
  • @{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
  • @{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
  • @{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
  • @{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
  • @{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
  • @{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

  • Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
  • Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
  • Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
  • Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
  • Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
  • Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
12.8M views12.8M
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Test Kitchen
Test Kitchen

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Test Kitchen has a static, declarative configuration in a .kitchen.yml file at the root of your project. It is designed to execute isolated code run in pristine environments ensuring that no prior state exists. A plugin architecture gives you the freedom to run your code on any cloud, virtualization, or bare metal resources and allows you to write acceptance criteria in whatever framework you desire.

Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
1.9K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
582
Stacks
61.2K
Stacks
246
Followers
52.8K
Followers
45
Votes
685
Votes
15
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 166
    Leading docker container management solution
  • 130
    Simple and powerful
  • 108
    Open source
  • 76
    Backed by google
  • 58
    The right abstractions
Cons
  • 16
    Steep learning curve
  • 15
    Poor workflow for development
  • 8
    Orchestrates only infrastructure
  • 4
    High resource requirements for on-prem clusters
  • 2
    Too heavy for simple systems
Pros
  • 6
    Automated testing
  • 4
    Detect bugs in cook books
  • 2
    Integrates well with vagrant
  • 2
    Can containerise tests in Docker
  • 1
    Integrates well with puppet
Integrations
Vagrant
Vagrant
Docker
Docker
Rackspace Cloud Servers
Rackspace Cloud Servers
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure
Google Compute Engine
Google Compute Engine
Ansible
Ansible
Google Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes Engine
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, Test Kitchen?

Jenkins

Jenkins

In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.

Travis CI

Travis CI

Free for open source projects, our CI environment provides multiple runtimes (e.g. Node.js or PHP versions), data stores and so on. Because of this, hosting your project on travis-ci.com means you can effortlessly test your library or applications against multiple runtimes and data stores without even having all of them installed locally.

Codeship

Codeship

Codeship runs your automated tests and configured deployment when you push to your repository. It takes care of managing and scaling the infrastructure so that you are able to test and release more frequently and get faster feedback for building the product your users need.

CircleCI

CircleCI

Continuous integration and delivery platform helps software teams rapidly release code with confidence by automating the build, test, and deploy process. Offers a modern software development platform that lets teams ramp.

Rancher

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

TeamCity

TeamCity

TeamCity is a user-friendly continuous integration (CI) server for professional developers, build engineers, and DevOps. It is trivial to setup and absolutely free for small teams and open source projects.

Docker Swarm

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Drone.io

Drone.io

Drone is a hosted continuous integration service. It enables you to conveniently set up projects to automatically build, test, and deploy as you make changes to your code. Drone integrates seamlessly with Github, Bitbucket and Google Code as well as third party services such as Heroku, Dotcloud, Google AppEngine and more.

wercker

wercker

Wercker is a CI/CD developer automation platform designed for Microservices & Container Architecture.

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