Namespace

What is a Namespace?

• A Kubernetes namespace provides a scope for object names

• Instead of placing all resources in a single namespace, they can be divided into multiple namespaces

• Separate namespaces allow the same resource name to be used multiple times across different namespaces

Why Namespaces are needed

• Using multiple namespaces allows complex systems with many components to be separated into smaller individual groups

  • Used to isolate resources in multi-tenant environments

  • Resource names only need to be unique within a namespace

    • Two different namespaces can have resources with the same name

  • Most resource types belong within a namespace, but some do not

    • One of them is the node, which is global and does not belong to a single namespace

• Namespaces can be used to separate unrelated resources into non-overlapping groups

  • If multiple users or groups are using the same Kubernetes cluster and each manages their own resources, they should use their own unique namespaces

    • This way, there is no need to be careful about modifying or deleting other users' resources!

• In addition to isolating resources, namespaces are also used to allow specific users access to designated resources and to limit the computing resources available to individual users

Creating Namespaces and Managing Objects

Creating a Namespace

Since a namespace is a Kubernetes resource, it can be created by submitting a YAML file to the Kubernetes API server

1. Creating a namespace from a YAML file

ex) Creating a namespace named chloe

Create the chloe-namespace.yaml file

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
 name: chloe

Send the file to the Kubernetes API server using the kubectl command

kubectl create -f choe-namespace.yaml

2. Creating a namespace with the kubectl create namespace command

You can quickly create a namespace using the kubectl create namespace command

ex)

kubectl create namespace chloe

Most object names must comply with the rules specified in `RFC1035`

This means they can contain letters, numbers, dashes (-), and dots (.)!

However, namespaces and some other resources cannot contain dots (.)!

Why? Because they must not contain DNS address names!

Understanding the isolation provided by Namespaces

Using namespaces allows you to separate objects into distinct groups and work with resources within a specific namespace, but it does not provide isolation for running objects

ex)

• When different users deploy pods in different namespaces, you might think that those pods are isolated from each other and cannot communicate, but that is not necessarily the case!

• Whether a namespace provides network isolation depends on the networking solution deployed with Kubernetes

• If the networking solution does not provide isolation between namespaces, and a pod in namespace A knows the IP address of a pod in namespace B, there are no restrictions on sending traffic such as HTTP requests to the other pod!

When using VPC CNI

Refer to CNI plugin for Kubernetes networking over AWS VPC