Testing in Kubernetes

Testing in Kubernetes is complex - we all agree on this. It’s like preparing a massive meal, with multiple chefs (microservices) responsible for every dish. Coordinating between these chefs to ensure the right ingredients (containers) are used and serving portions adjust effortlessly to the crowd (scaling) at a banquet.

In this blog post, we’ll look at the nitty-gritty of testing in Kubernetes and how Testkube makes testing easy in Kubernetes.

Testing in Kubernetes

What makes Kubernetes the default choice as a container orchestrator is its ability to automate deployment on containers, scaling and managing them across diverse environments. And testing in Kubernetes represents an interesting paradigm shift. 

Let us start by understanding some of the benefits that Kubernetes brings to the table from a testing perspective:

• Kubernetes’s ability to spin up or down containers based on the testing requirements allows for elastic and efficient resource allocation. This way it can dynamically adjust testing to match the application demands. 

• The self-healing capabilities of Kubernetes help create resilient testing environments that can automatically replace failed containers or nodes and maintain continuous testing operations without interruptions. 

• Further, the declarative configuration provided in Kubernetes by YAML files, allows you to declare how you want your tests to run without you learning complex tools to achieve this.

While these were some of the benefits of testing in Kubernetes, the current set of testing tools have limitations that prevent them from leveraging the full benefits of testing in Kubernetes.

• Non-native tooling limitation: Most of the conventional testing tools aren’t built for the cloud and often lack native Kubernetes support thus preventing them from harnessing the full capability of Kubernetes which often leads to inefficient testing practices. 

• Security vulnerabilities: Execution of tests from outside of Kubernetes clusters poses significant security risks of compromising application data and exposing critical functionality outside the secure cluster environment. 

By now we understand that there is a gap between the conventional testing tools and the Kubernetes’ dynamic capabilities. To fill in this gap, tools like Testkube come in to simplify testing workflows and make the testing process efficient. Let us understand this in the following section. 

How Testkube Makes Testing in Kubernetes Easy?

Testkube is a testing framework that is designed for Kubernetes. It streamlines otherwise intricate testing workflows into simple and easy-to-use workflows. Through its intuitive design, Testkube simplifies the complexities of testing in Kubernetes.

• Kubernetes-Native: Testkube is a Kubernetes-native test orchesrtation framework that leverages the core strengths of Kubernetes It has its own custom resource definitions (CRDs) that interact with Kubernetes components allowing it to leverage the full potential of Kubernetes for efficient testing. 

• Secured Environment: Testkube runs tests inside the cluster hence you don’t need to expose your application outside of the cluster. This protects your clusters from any external threats. Having said that, Testkube allows you to execute tests within the cluster or outside it based on your preferences. 

• Tool Integration: Testkube comes with out-of-the-box integration with the most popular testing tools including the likes of Postman, Cypress, and K6, to name a few. It also allows you to easily add any custom testing tools in a few simple steps to run them natively on Kubernetes. 

You can refer to the complete list of features of Testkube to understand more about Testkube and how it makes testing in Kubernetes easy. 

Summary

Testing is an indispensable part of the software development process for companies that use Kubernetes clusters to host their applications Testing in Kubernetes is a complex task as we saw earlier due to the presence of different components that make managing  CI/CDs and testing tools difficult with Kubernetes. 

That’s where Testkube, its Kubernetes-native testing approach brings ease to Kubernetes testing. It allows you to plug in virtually any testing tool and run tests natively. Why don’t you try Testkube? Head to Testkube cloud to see how Testkube makes testing in Kubernetes effortless. 

For any queries or assistance, please join our Slack community or you can always contact us to schedule a demo. 

Happy testing!