Kubernetes Architecture Explained: Control Plane and Worker Node Components

Kubernetes clusters are divided into a Control Plane (master) and Worker Nodes, each running distinct processes to manage containerized applications. The Control Plane consists of the API Server, Scheduler, Controller Manager, and etcd, which together handle request validation, Pod scheduling, cluster state recovery, and configuration storage. Worker nodes run containerd as the container runtime, Kubelet to manage Pod lifecycles, and Kube-proxy to handle networking and load balancing between services. The API Server acts as the sole entry point to the cluster, authenticating and routing all requests before passing them to the appropriate components. etcd functions as the cluster's key-value brain, tracking state changes such as Pod crashes and available resources, though it does not store actual application data.