Updating a Café Menu on Kubernetes is a practical project for learners who want to turn a configuration change into a working release. You will update Juniper Café's seasonal drinks, check what customers actually see, and recover an approved menu after a pricing mistake.
Two Guided Labs introduce the complete workflow, from a saved Kustomize release to running Pods and a downloadable menu. An independent Challenge asks you to apply the same reasoning to a coffee truck with different prices and availability requirements. Each unit starts with its own prepared café, so you can practice without carrying files between environments.
What You Will Learn
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- translate an approved menu into accurate prices and availability in a saved configuration;
- use Kustomize to generate a content-based ConfigMap name and update a Deployment;
- wait for a rollout and connect the generated configuration to the menu served by two Pods;
- compare release history and recover a specific approved revision;
- reconcile the saved release with the recovered application and save its actual menu download;
- preserve earlier release files, configuration objects, and an unrelated reference café.
Who This Course Is For
This course is for Kubernetes beginners who want a small application delivery project with visible results.
Prerequisites: You should be comfortable entering terminal commands, recognizing file paths, and switching between browser tabs. You should already recognize Pods, Deployments, Services, labels, and simple YAML. The Guided Labs introduce the menu format, Kustomize workflow, and release commands used in the project. You do not need to write application code.
Learning environment: LabEx provides a prepared Kubernetes cluster, a Workspace terminal, and the Café Menu and Reference Menu browser tabs. The café application is ready to use. Its pages, labels, and command output are in English.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to install Kubernetes locally?
No. Each Guided Lab and Challenge includes its own prepared browser-based environment.
Will I build the café website?
The website is supplied. Your work is to publish and recover its menu through real Kubernetes configuration changes, then verify the customer-facing result.
Why keep both a saved release and a running menu?
A working page alone does not show whether the next deployment will preserve the approved menu. You will make the saved configuration, running application, and downloaded menu agree.
How does the Challenge extend the Guided Labs?
The coffee truck has different approved values and release history. You will choose the correct version and complete the same recovery and handover workflow independently, using tools already practiced in the Guided Labs.
