Kubernetes Engine

Übersicht

Basics

Understand the basic working principles of STACKIT Kubernetes Engine and dive into the terminology and concepts.

Getting started

Setup and manage your first Kubernetes cluster in minutes, with STACKIT Kubernetes Engine.

How-tos

Learn how to perform common tasks and operations with/in STACKIT Kubernetes Engine.

Deep dive

Explore in-depth technical insights, architectural deep dives, and advanced concepts related to STACKIT Kubernetes Engine.

FAQ

Find answers to frequently asked questions about STACKIT Kubernetes Engine.

Release notes

Discover what's new in STACKIT Kubernetes Engine, including added features, bug fixes and deprecation notices.

Features

STACKIT Kubernetes Engine offers a range of features to simplify application development and deployment:

• Self-service cluster creation (Portal): Create Kubernetes clusters quickly and easily via the self-service user interface in the STACKIT Cloud Portal.
• Infrastructure as code & automation: Provision and manage clusters using the Terraform provider, SKE API, or STACKIT CLI for repeatable automated workflows.
• Managed control plane: The Control Plane of the clusters is managed and highly available.
• Auto-updates: Kubernetes and operating system versions are automatically updated to keep clusters up to date.
• Automatic repair functions: Detect and repair problems on the cluster automatically.
• Event-driven autoscaling: Pod and node autoscaling elastically adjust clusters based on workload.
• Temporary cluster shutdown: Clusters can be automatically switched off if the application is only to be accessible at certain times of the day.

Use cases

Popular use cases for STACKIT Kubernetes Engine are the following:

• Migration of existing applications: Quickly and easily containerize existing applications and run them on SKE in the European cloud without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
• Operation of cloud-native applications: Create new cloud-native applications in the form of microservices, utilizing the Kubernetes ecosystem for service meshes, serverless applications, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Creation of stateful applications: Operate stateful applications on SKE clusters using persistent block storage.
• Development and testing environments: Set up isolated environments for development and testing to ensure consistency and reliability across different stages of application deployment.
• Scalable web applications: Deploy web applications that can automatically scale based on demand, ensuring high availability and performance.
• Machine learning workloads: Run machine learning models and data processing tasks efficiently using Kubernetes orchestration and resource management.

University

Kubernetes Fundamentals (EN)

Master container orchestration, deployment, scaling, and management with K8s.

Deploying an Application with STACKIT Kubernetes Engine

Learn to deploy and manage containerized applications using the STACKIT Kubernetes Engine.

Latest updates

• announcement

  Ubuntu 26.04 Support and Ubuntu 22.04 Deprecation

  6. Okt. 2026

  Ubuntu 26.04 is now available in the STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE). For step-by-step guidance on applying manual version updates and details regarding the release lifecycle, refer to the official STACKIT Kubernetes documentation.

  Ubuntu 22.04 End of Life & Automated Update Schedule

  Ubuntu 22.04 reaches the end of its official maintenance support in May 2027.

  1. 2026-10-06 Ubuntu 26.04 available in SKE. Operating system auto-updates will not cover updates to a newer Ubuntu major version.
  2. 2026-11-11 Automatic operating system updates will cover upgrades to Ubuntu 26.04.
  3. 2026-12-09 All clusters running Ubuntu 22.04 will be automatically upgraded to Ubuntu 26.04.

  Manual cluster updates prior to the scheduled automatic migration date are recommended.

  Ubuntu 26.04 includes containerd 2.x and GPU support.

  Our Help Center is always at your disposal if you have any questions.

• announcement

  SKE security enhancement: OpenSSH removal

  28. Sept. 2026

  To align with cloud-native security best practices and further harden your clusters, STACKIT Kubernetes Engine is updating its node configuration.

  Currently, nodes provisioned by STACKIT run the OpenSSH daemon, even though there is no supported method to use it. To reduce the OS-level attack surface and enforce immutable infrastructure practices, the OpenSSH daemon will be permanently disabled on all nodes during scheduled cluster maintenance starting November 5, 2026.

  If you have a specific requirement to keep the OpenSSH daemon active on your nodes, please open a service request via the Help Center. Please note that this is only a temporary exception, and the daemon will eventually be disabled across all clusters.

  Otherwise, no action is required, and your workloads will continue running without interruption.

• announcement

  SKE patchday October 2026 – Remove Docker from Flatcar

  7. Sept. 2026

  With the upcoming October patch day, we are adjusting the Flatcar OS images provided in STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE) by removing Docker.

  Docker has been deprecated and removed as the container runtime in SKE for more than two years. By removing it, we ensure the OS footprint remains small and remove unneeded dependencies that could potentially introduce security vulnerabilities.

  Key Dates:

  • October 14, 2026: A new preview Flatcar OS version (the latest stable release available in October) will be added to SKE. This version will not contain Docker.
  • November, 11, 2026: The Flatcar version without Docker will be promoted to the supported OS version. If you have auto updates enabled, your Kubernetes worker nodes will automatically update to this version.

  What you need to do

  Test your SKE workloads beforehand using the new preview Flatcar version once it becomes available on October 14, 2026. Testing is highly recommended to ensure your configurations function exactly as expected before the automatic upgrade takes place in November.

  Our Help Center is always at your disposal if you have any questions.