Kubernetes from Scratch for Neuroscientific Research

The presentation discusses the process of bringing Kubernetes into an organization and the benefits it provides for daily operations and automation.

• Start prototyping as soon as possible to identify potential problems and collaborate with users and operations teams to understand use cases and evaluate decisions
• Use standard alternatives unless there is a specific reason not to
• Write easy-to-follow how-to guides for users
• Implement a GitOps approach with Flux for automation and Helm charts for deployment
• Configure and test applications in a Dev environment before scaling to other environments

The speaker discusses how their organization improved their error-prone process of making changes to their OpenShift cluster by implementing Flux for a more GitOps approach. They also highlight the benefits of having a Dev cluster for testing new features and upgrades before deploying to production.

The Blue Brain Project (BBP) is a research initiative at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland aiming to build the world’s first biologically detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of the mouse brain. This talk presents BBP's journey into the vast Kubernetes ecosystem. It started two years ago with a plan to transition to Kubernetes and various prototypes for an on-premise cluster. During this time we gradually discovered the main components of Kubernetes and carved out the main use cases as well as the specific needs of a scientific organization. The work was done in close collaboration between developers and infrastructure maintainers. The presentation aims to lower the barriers for entry into the Kubernetes ecosystem by presenting an example of a full cluster setup that leverages automation and provides an easy-to-understand experience for end users. The goal is to have a blueprint that can be built upon and tailored for any small organization or research institute.