Chapter 11. Kubernetes SIGs, Incubation Projects, and the CNCF
In this chapter, we're going to discuss how to get involved in the softer, social side of the Kubernetes ecosystem. We'll go into detail on how the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) works, and the various efforts being made to orchestrate open source software at a global level. There's interest in our ecosystem at every level, from the individual contributor all the way up to the Fortune 100 mega-corporation.
We'll explore how the CNCF and its predecessors, the Linux and Apache Foundations, guide interest and contributions into the people and software economy. Some of the key areas will manage governance, tracking, and processes that are designed to keep people, process, and technology evolving in a sustainable, reliable model. In this chapter, we'll explore several key areas:
- How is the community around the Kubernetes ecosystem constructed? How is it different from the traditional Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) or...
In order to move quickly through this chapter, you should make sure that you have a GitHub account set up, with SSH key and account details configured correctly. Why is this important, you may ask? Well, to get involved with the CNCF, and the Linux or Apache Foundations, you'll need a way to browse, consume, and contribute to code. Git is the underlying tool and process that's used to participate, so we'll make sure here that our toolset is correctly set up before proceeding to the higher level topics.
You can sign up for GitHub and once you've added the account, you can review the help area in the GitHub Guides section of the website at https://guides.github.com/. For our purposes in this chapter, you'll need to set up an SSH key in order to start cloning, signing, and committing code.
If you're on Windows, you'll need to use Git Bash, or something similar, to generate a key. You can download Git Bash from https://gitforwindows.org/.
Install the software first, and then...
As a refresher, let's remind ourselves about the entire Kubernetes system, so we can understand conceptually where the ecosystem referred to in this chapter sits:
In this chapter, we're talking about the top, greenest layer in the preceding diagram. This layer is made up of hundreds of companies and products that power the software and frameworks needed to run Kubernetes at scale. You can find the highest level of grouping of this layer in a couple of places:
- The first place to check is the Kubernetes Community GitHub repository:
- You can find the repository at https://github.com/kubernetes/community, and it's a good starting point for anyone who's interested in joining the code-powered portions of the Kubernetes system. In the preceding diagram, consider the layers nucleus through interface, that is, layers one through four. Here's where we'll find the Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which will allow us to branch us out into the ecosystem layer where we can explore the supporting...
In addition to all the players mentioned previously, there is a set of complementary SIGs that meet regularly to discuss issues and opportunities from within a given focus area of the Kubernetes ecosystem. From within those SIGs, there are sub-bounded working groups that aim to accomplish a specific goal. There are also sub-projects that further cut up the interest space, and committees, which are there to define meta-standards and address community-wide issues.
Here's a list of the current SIGs in operation, with the current chairs and meeting schedules:
