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Hands-on Lab·Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

Kustomize with kubectl

Kustomize is built into kubectl, which makes it the one packaging tool guaranteed to be available on the exam. It layers changes over unmodified YAML - no placeholders, no template language - so the base stays a manifest you can apply on its own. A base and one overlay are built here, rendered locally first, and then applied with a single flag.

Application Deployment Guide 20 of 44 Intermediate

Written against the versions above. `commonLabels` is deprecated in favour of `labels`, and the captured output warns about it twice. The reason to care is not tidiness: `commonLabels` injects into `spec.selector` as well as the metadata, and a Deployment's selector is immutable - so adding a common label to an existing Deployment later fails. `labels:` with `includeSelectors: false` does not have that problem.

Rendering happens entirely client-side; only the final apply touches the cluster.
Server NameIP AddressOSRolesCPURAMHDD
CKA1001192.168.0.175Ubuntu 26.04 LTSControl Plane Node2 Core4 GB50 GB
CKA1001-NODE01192.168.0.176Ubuntu 26.04 LTSWorker Node2 Core4 GB50 GB
CKA1001-NODE02192.168.0.177Ubuntu 26.04 LTSWorker Node2 Core4 GB50 GB
CKA1001-NODE03192.168.0.178Ubuntu 26.04 LTSWorker Node2 Core4 GB50 GB

Before you start

  1. A base that is just a manifest

  2. An overlay that changes four things

  3. Apply it with one flag

  4. The base never changed

Official sources