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Pod vs Deployment

Hands-on example​

Assume:

  • A working Kubernetes cluster
  • kubectl is configured

Initial state​

No resources exist.

kubectl get pods
kubectl get deployments
No resources found in default namespace.
No resources found in default namespace.

Step 1: Create a Pod directly​

kubectl run demo-pod --image=nginx --restart=Never
pod/demo-pod created

Verify.

kubectl get pods
NAME       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
demo-pod   1/1     Running   0          5s

Step 2: Delete the Pod​

kubectl delete pod demo-pod
pod "demo-pod" deleted

Check again.

kubectl get pods
No resources found in default namespace.

What changed:

  • The Pod is permanently gone

What did not change:

  • Nothing recreated it

Step 3: Create a Deployment​

kubectl create deployment demo-deploy --image=nginx
deployment.apps/demo-deploy created

Verify.

kubectl get pods
NAME                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
demo-deploy-6f7c8d9f6b-abcde   1/1     Running   0          5s

Step 4: Delete the Deployment Pod​

Delete the Pod created by the Deployment.

kubectl delete pod demo-deploy-6f7c8d9f6b-abcde
pod "demo-deploy-6f7c8d9f6b-abcde" deleted

Check Pods again.

kubectl get pods
NAME                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
demo-deploy-6f7c8d9f6b-fghij   1/1     Running   0          5s

What changed:

  • The original Pod was deleted
  • A new Pod was created automatically

What did not change:

  • The Deployment stayed the same

Key observation​

  • Use Pods only for debugging or one-off tasks
  • Use Deployments for anything that must stay running