What is Kubernetes API Server?
The central management component of Kubernetes that exposes the Kubernetes API.
The Kubernetes API Server (kube-apiserver) is the front-end of the Kubernetes control plane. All communication in a cluster goes through it — kubectl commands, internal components, and external clients all talk to the API server. It validates and processes REST requests, then writes to etcd. The API server also handles authentication (certificates, tokens), authorization (RBAC), and admission control. Running multiple API server replicas provides high availability.
More Kubernetes Terms
Admission Controller
A Kubernetes plugin that intercepts API requests before objects are persisted.
Auto Scaling
Automatically adjusting the number of compute resources based on demand.
ClusterIP
The default Kubernetes Service type that exposes a service on an internal cluster IP.
ConfigMap
A Kubernetes object for storing non-sensitive configuration data as key-value pairs.
Controller Manager
Kubernetes control plane component running control loops to maintain desired state.
CoreDNS
The default DNS server in Kubernetes clusters for service discovery.
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