New on DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Fresh Features & 1-Click Apps

It’s our privilege to help you run your containerized apps with DigitalOcean Kubernetes, and we’re always eager to hear your feedback about the product. To that end, we thought we’d provide an update on some of our projects that address common customer comments.

As of today, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, which we affectionally call "DOKS," now supports cluster autoscaling, tokenized authentication, minor version upgrades, and the latest Kubernetes release (version 1.15). In addition, you can now install the first Kubernetes 1-Click Apps from the DigitalOcean Marketplace.

Automatically scale your cluster to ensure fast performance while controlling costs

It’s common to use Kubernetes to run your app as a collection of loosely coupled services, with each service being scalable independently of others. Each service typically corresponds to a pool of identically sized nodes (Droplets on DOKS), with each node executing an instance of the same containerized service. One challenge, then, becomes provisioning and deprovisioning nodes so that you have an appropriate number – enough that your service runs quickly, but not so many that you’re wasting lots of money.

That’s why we’ve enhanced DOKS to support automatic horizontal scaling based on CPU and memory usage triggers. When you enable autoscaling, DOKS continuously monitors CPU and memory usage within your node pools. The service then automatically adds nodes when your application requires more resources. DOKS will, conversely, deactivate nodes when your application’s load declines, saving you money.

At present, you can enable autoscaling through the CLI and API. The UI is coming soon.

Connect to your Kubernetes clusters with an access token (or with certificates)

We know that many of you who have used DOKS have felt the pinprick of disappointment each time you’ve had to download a new certificate to connect to your clusters.

With today’s release, you can now connect to your DigitalOcean Kubernetes clusters using your DigitalOcean API access token, in addition to the previously supported certificates. Unlike certificates that expire weekly and cannot be revoked by project administrators, access tokens are owned by individual users, do not expire, and can be revoked instantly by admins. We hope that you enjoy this easier, more manageable method of connecting to your clusters.

Seamlessly upgrade your Kubernetes clusters to new minor versions, including 1.15

The Kubernetes project continues to evolve quickly with the recent release of 1.15, introducing 25 new enhancements focused on continuous improvement and extensibility.

We enhanced DigitalOcean Kubernetes to support 1.15 a few weeks ago. As of today, you can upgrade your cluster to the latest minor version via the DigitalOcean control panel or API. Note that in order to upgrade minor releases (eg 1.14 to 1.15), you must first apply the latest patches to your cluster.

Easily deploy software to your cluster with the first of our Kubernetes 1-Click Apps

Manually setting up software on Kubernetes clusters can be a time-consuming and tricky process as you need to install and configure your application across several nodes.

That’s why we’re pleased to introduce the first of our Kubernetes 1-Click Apps in DigitalOcean Marketplace. With Kubernetes 1-Click Apps, you can easily create clusters that run preconfigured container images, as specified by a kubectl configuration or a Helm chart – all in a single click.

DigitalOcean Marketplace now includes seven Kubernetes 1-Click Apps specifically built for deployment in Kubernetes clusters:

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Linkerd

An ultralight service mesh for Kubernetes that gives you observability, metrics, reliability, and security without requiring any code changes.

Monitoring Stack

An integrated stack – composed of Prometheus, Grafana, and metrics-server – for Kubernetes cluster monitoring.

OpenFaaS

A Functions as a Service framework for building serverless functions with Docker and Kubernetes.

Metrics Server

An open source stack that gives you fast, simple access to cluster resource usage data, such as CPU and memory usage.

Moon

An enterprise Selenium WebDriver browser automation solution for Kubernetes.

1Password SCIM Bridge

A service that automates common administrative tasks using the 1Password SCIM protocol to connect with existing identity providers

Netdata

A highly optimized monitoring agent that provides real-time insights using highly interactive web dashboards.

If you’re a software vendor interested in listing your application in the DigitalOcean Marketplace, see our instructions for submitting your app.

Spin up your Kubernetes clusters today

We hope that you’re excited by the enhancements we’re announcing today, and we promise we’ve got much more in store.

In the meantime, we hope you’ll give DOKS a try. Or, if you’re a business interested in learning more about how DOKS can help you achieve your goals, we invite you to contact our sales team.