Kubernetes Basics: Running Pods – Complete Tutorial

This tutorial will guide you from the very basics to running, viewing, and managing Pods — the smallest and most fundamental building block in Kubernetes. By the end, you’ll understand what Pods are, how to create them, and how to work with them in a real cluster.

📋 Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A running Kubernetes cluster (can be local: Minikube, Kind, or cloud-based: EKS, GKE, AKS)
• kubectl installed and configured to connect to your cluster
• Basic understanding of containers (e.g., Docker)

✅ Check your setup:

kubectl version --short
kubectl cluster-info

1. What is a Pod?

A Pod is Kubernetes’ core execution unit. It represents:

• A single running process in your cluster (or tightly coupled group of processes)
• One or more containers that share:
  • Networking (same IP address, localhost)
  • Storage volumes
  • Linux namespaces and cgroups

Key facts:

• Pods are ephemeral — they are created, destroyed, and replaced; never “updated” in place.
• Usually you don’t create standalone Pods directly — you use controllers like Deployments or StatefulSets — but understanding Pods is essential.

2. Running a Pod: Imperative Way

The simplest way to run a Pod is with an imperative command — you tell Kubernetes what to do directly.

Example: Run an Nginx Pod

kubectl run nginx-pod --image=nginx:alpine