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K8S vs. K3S ​

K3S ​

K3s is a lightweight, certified Kubernetes distribution designed by Rancher Labs for resource-constrained environments, such as edge, IoT, and development environments. It's a simplified Kubernetes ditribution which strips down some less commonly used features of Kubernetes to make it lightweight and easy to deploy.

Pros ​

  • Lightweight: Significantly reduced resource footprint, making it suitable for edge devices, IoT, and development environments.
  • Easy to Deploy: Simplified setup process, with a single binary that includes all dependencies.
  • Lower Maintenance: Easier to manage and maintain compared to full-fledged Kubernetes.
  • Embedded SQLite: Uses SQLite as the default datastore, though it supports external databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and etcd.

Cons ​

  • Limited Features: Some advanced features available in Kubernetes may be limited or not present in K3s.
  • Smaller Community: While growing, the community and ecosystem around K3s are smaller compared to Kubernetes.
  • Scalability: While capable, it is not designed to handle the same scale as Kubernetes, making it less suitable for very large deployments.
  • K3s does not currently support any other database than SQLite or more than a master on a master node

When to Use K3s ​

  • Resource-Constrained Environments: For edge computing, IoT, or environments with limited resources (e.g., Raspberry Pi clusters).
  • Development and Testing: For local development or CI/CD environments where simplicity and low overhead are priorities.
  • Small to Medium Deployments: For small to medium-sized clusters where the full complexity of Kubernetes is not required.
  • Ease of Use: When you need a simpler, more user-friendly setup and maintenance process.

K8S ​

K8S is the standard and full-featured container orchestration platform, originally developed by Google and now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It's designed to manage a large number of nodes and containers, making it suitable for enterprise-scale deployments.

Pros ​

  • Rich Ecosystem: Extensive support for third-party tools and a vast number of community-contributed extensions.
  • Enterprise Features: Offers advanced features such as custom resource definitions (CRDs), namespaces, network policies, and more.
  • Scalability: Can handle thousands of nodes and tens of thousands of pods.
  • Community and Support: Large community, robust documentation, and enterprise support from multiple vendors.

Cons ​

  • Complexity: High complexity and steeper learning curve. Requires significant expertise to manage and maintain.
  • Resource Intensive: Requires substantial resources (CPU, memory, etc.), making it less suitable for edge devices or resource-constrained environments.
  • Setup and Maintenance: Setting up a Kubernetes cluster can be complex, and managing it requires continuous maintenance.

When to Use Kubernetes (K8s) ​

  • Large Scale Deployments: When managing large-scale, enterprise-level deployments with much more nodes.
  • Advanced Features: When you need advanced Kubernetes features, such as complex networking, custom controllers, or extensive use of CRDs.
  • High Availability and Fault Tolerance: For applications requiring high availability and robust fault tolerance mechanisms.
  • Extensive Ecosystem: When you need to leverage a wide array of third-party tools and integrations available in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Conclusion ​

As a conslusion, we can use K8S for production environments and K3S for dev or CI environments.