CKA Notes – Upgrade a Kubernetes Cluster – 2024…
Continuing with my Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam preparations we’re now going to take a look at upgrading a Kubernetes cluster.
Explorer note (2026): the cluster upgrade is a CKA task you can rehearse on vDan. The node maintenance topic of the Kubernetes YAML Explorer has the cordon, drain and uncordon sequence with the kubeadm upgrade order (control plane first, then each worker), the etcd snapshot and restore topic covers the backup you take before the upgrade, and the PodDisruptionBudget topic explains why a drain can hang. The commands themselves, kubectl drain, cordon and uncordon, are in the kubectl CLI Interactive Mindmap with every flag. Timed practice: drain a node for maintenance and snapshot etcd and restore it.
