Kubernetes for .NET Developers

Duration: 3 days

Hands-on workshop for developers and software architects (with a .NET focus) to design, containerize, deploy, and operate applications on Kubernetes. Builds on the Docker workshop as a prerequisite.

Audience

• .NET developers and architects deploying services to Kubernetes
• Teams standardizing on containers, microservices, or cloud-native practices

Prerequisites

• Docker fundamentals (see docker-en.md)
• Basic C#/.NET and REST/HTTP familiarity
• Kubernetes CLI access (kubectl) and a local or cloud cluster (kind/AKS/minikube)

Learning Goals

• Understand core Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, ReplicaSets, Services, Ingress)
• Package .NET apps into images and deploy via manifests and Helm
• Configure apps with ConfigMaps/Secrets and environment variables
• Expose services with Ingress and manage traffic
• Add health probes, resource limits/requests, and autoscaling (HPA)
• Observe applications with logs, events, and metrics
• Apply rollout strategies (rolling updates, blue/green, canary)

Outline

1. Kubernetes fundamentals
   • Control plane vs. nodes; declarative model; reconciliation loop
   • Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments; Services (ClusterIP/LoadBalancer)
2. Building and packaging .NET apps
   • Container images (multi-stage) and image registries
   • Using dotnet publish for containers; image tagging/versioning
3. Configuration and secrets
   • ConfigMaps, Secrets, env vars, mounted files; secret management practices
   • Connection strings and appsettings patterns for .NET
4. Networking and ingress
   • Service types; DNS in-cluster
   • Ingress controllers and routing basics
5. Health, resources, and scaling
   • Liveness/readiness probes for .NET apps
   • Resource requests/limits; Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)
6. Deployments and rollouts
   • Rolling updates, rollbacks
   • Blue/green and canary concepts (Helm/labels/Ingress approaches)
7. Observability
   • Logs, events, kubectl diagnostics
   • Metrics (Prometheus-compatible), basic dashboards
   • Readiness for OpenTelemetry/Tracing integration
8. Tooling and workflows
   • kubectl basics; kubectl apply/rollout/logs/exec
   • Helm charts (values, templates) for .NET services
   • CI/CD considerations for image build, scan, deploy
9. Aspire-assisted deployments
   • Using the Aspire CLI to deploy services to Kubernetes
   • Configuring AppHost to emit Helm charts and wire environment/config
   • Combining Aspire models with existing manifests/Helm releases

Hands-on Labs

• Build and push a .NET service image (from Docker workshop base)
• Deploy a Deployment + Service; verify with kubectl and port-forwarding
• Add ConfigMap/Secret-based configuration; consume in the .NET app
• Configure liveness/readiness probes and resource requests/limits
• Expose via Ingress and validate routing
• Scale with HPA and observe behavior under load
• Perform a rolling update and rollback
• Use the Aspire CLI to deploy the service to Kubernetes and inspect the release
• Configure AppHost to generate Helm charts and apply them to the cluster

Outcomes

• Working Kubernetes manifests/Helm chart for a .NET service
• Practical skills for configuring, scaling, and exposing .NET apps on Kubernetes
• Confidence using kubectl/Helm and applying health, config, and rollout best practices