Kubernetes Components [page]deterministic

This page provides a high-level overview of the essential components that make up a Kubernetes cluster.

 — The components of a Kubernetes cluster

## Core Components

A Kubernetes cluster consists of a control plane and one or more worker nodes. Here's a brief overview of the main components:

### Control Plane Components

Manage the overall state of the cluster:

[kube-apiserver](/docs/concepts/architecture/#kube-apiserver) : The core component server that exposes the Kubernetes HTTP API.

[etcd](/docs/concepts/architecture/#etcd) : Consistent and highly-available key value store for all API server data.

[kube-scheduler](/docs/concepts/architecture/#kube-scheduler) : Looks for Pods not yet bound to a node, and assigns each Pod to a suitable node.

[kube-controller-manager](/docs/concepts/architecture/#kube-controller-manager) : Runs [controllers](#gloss:controller) to implement Kubernetes API behavior.

[cloud-controller-manager](/docs/concepts/architecture/#cloud-controller-manager) (optional) : Integrates with underlying cloud provider(s).

### Node Components

Run on every node, maintaining running pods and providing the Kubernetes runtime environment:

[kubelet](/docs/concepts/architecture/#kubelet) : Ensures that Pods are running, including their containers.

[kube-proxy](/docs/concepts/architecture/#kube-proxy) (optional) : Maintains network rules on nodes to implement [Services](#gloss:service).

[Container runtime](/docs/concepts/architecture/#container-runtime) : Software responsible for running containers. Read [Container Runtimes](/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes/) to learn more.

Your cluster may require additional software on each node; for example, you might also run [systemd](https://systemd.io/) on a Linux node to supervise local components.

## Addons

Addons extend the functionality of Kubernetes. A few important examples include:

[DNS](/docs/concepts/architecture/#dns) : For cluster-wide DNS resolution.

[Web UI](/docs/concepts/architecture/#web-ui-dashboard) (Dashboard) : For cluster management via a web interface.

[Container Resource Monitoring](/docs/concepts/architecture/#container-resource-monitoring) : For collecting and storing container metrics.

[Cluster-level Logging](/docs/concepts/architecture/#cluster-level-logging) : For saving container logs to a central log store.

## Flexibility in Architecture

Kubernetes allows for flexibility in how these components are deployed and managed. The architecture can be adapted to various needs, from small development environments to large-scale production deployments.

For more detailed information about each component and various ways to configure your cluster architecture, see the [Cluster Architecture](/docs/concepts/architecture/) page.