How to: Learn Kubernetes Cluster Setup & Administration
**Kubernetes Cluster Setup**

As DevOps engineers, it is very important to learn every component and cluster configuration. While there are many options to deploy a Kubernetes cluster, It is always better to learn to deploy multi-node clusters from scratch.

With multi-node clusters, you can learn about all the concepts like Cluster security, High Availability, Scaling, Networking, etc.

It gives you the feeling of working on a real-world project. It will also help you in interviews and you can be confident about production-level cluster configurations.

Following are my cluster setup suggestions.

1. **Kubernetes the Hard Way**: I would suggest you start with Kubernetes the hard way set up. It helps you understand all the configurations involved in bootstrapping a kubernetes cluster. If you want to work on production clusters, this lab will help you a lot. The setup is based on google cloud. You can use the $300 free credits to complete the lab.

2. **Kubeadm Cluster Setup**: Learning kubeadm cluster setup helps you in Kubernetes certification preparation. Also, it helps you automate Kubernetes cluster setup with best practices.

3. **Minikube**: If you want to have a minimal development cluster setup, minikube is the best option.

4. **Kind**: Kind is another local development Kubernetes cluster setup.

5. **Vagrant Automated Kubernetes**: If you prefer to have a multi-VM-based local Kubernetes cluster setup, you can try the automated vagrant setup that uses Kubeadm to bootstrap the cluster.

**Learn About Cluster Configurations**

Once you have a working cluster, you should learn about the key cluster configurations. This knowledge will be particularly helpful when working in a self-hosted Kubernetes setup.

Even if you use a managed Kubernetes cluster for your project, there may be certain cluster configurations that you need to modify.

For example, if you set up a cluster in a hybrid network, you may need to configure it with an on-premises private DNS server for private DNS resolution. This can be done via CoreDNS configuration.

Also, having a solid understanding of cluster configurations will help you with Kubernetes certifications (CKA & CKS) where you need to troubleshoot cluster misconfiguration and issues.