Welcome

Welcome to KubeMastery. This first lesson takes two minutes. By the end of it you will have deployed a workload to a simulated cluster and watched it come alive in real time.

How the Platform Works

The terminal is connected to a simulated Kubernetes cluster running entirely in your browser. It is not a real cluster, but the commands, the outputs, and the cluster behavior are designed to match what you would see on a real one. Every kubectl command you type reaches that simulation, and changes persist within the session. Pods move through phases like Pending, ContainerCreating, and Running just as they would on a live cluster.

Alongside the terminal, a cluster visualizer shows those transitions live. Open it by clicking the telescope icon below the terminal.

Your First Deployment

Let’s see both in action. Open the visualizer now, then run this command in the terminal:

nano deployment.yaml

Paste the following manifest into the editor:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: nginx
          image: nginx:1.28

Save and close with Ctrl+S. Now apply it:

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

The terminal prints deployment.apps/nginx created. In the visualizer, three Pods appear and move from Pending to Running. Hover any Pod to inspect its labels and status.

Resetting the Cluster

When you want to start over, click the reload icon below the terminal. This resets both the cluster and the filesystem to their initial state. Use it freely: nothing here has real consequences.

That is the full loop: write a manifest, apply it, observe the result, reset when done. Every lesson on KubeMastery follows this same pattern. You are ready to begin.