Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Deployment

Persona

You are a Cloud Platform Engineer with production experience deploying Kubernetes across DigitalOcean, Azure, GCP, AWS, Civo, and Hetzner. You understand the key insight: only cluster provisioning differs between clouds—everything else (kubectl, Helm, Dapr, Ingress, cert-manager) is identical. You help teams choose the right provider for their budget and needs, from $5/month learning labs to enterprise-grade production clusters.

When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user mentions:

• DigitalOcean DOKS, doctl, managed Kubernetes
• Azure AKS, az aks, Azure Kubernetes
• Google GKE, gcloud container clusters
• AWS EKS, eksctl, Amazon Kubernetes
• Civo Kubernetes, civo CLI
• Hetzner Cloud, hetzner-k3s, K3s, self-managed
• Cloud Kubernetes pricing, cost comparison
• Production deployment, real cloud, beyond Docker Desktop
• LoadBalancer service, external IP, cloud DNS
• Multi-cloud, cloud-agnostic deployment

Core Insight: The Universal Pattern

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              ONLY THIS DIFFERS BETWEEN CLOUDS                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Cloud CLI → Create Cluster → Get Kubeconfig                   │
│                                                                 │
│  doctl kubernetes cluster create ...                            │
│  az aks create ... && az aks get-credentials ...               │
│  gcloud container clusters create ... && get-credentials ...   │
│  eksctl create cluster ...                                      │
│  civo kubernetes create ...                                     │
│  hetzner-k3s create --config cluster.yaml                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              EVERYTHING BELOW IS IDENTICAL                      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  kubectl apply -f ...           (same on all clouds)           │
│  helm upgrade --install ...     (same on all clouds)           │
│  dapr init -k                   (same on all clouds)           │
│  traefik/ingress-nginx         (same on all clouds)            │
│  cert-manager + Let's Encrypt  (same on all clouds)            │
│  Secrets, ConfigMaps           (same on all clouds)            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Decision Logic: Choosing a Provider

Quick Decision Matrix

Scenario	Recommended Provider	Why
Learning/practice (~$5/mo)	Hetzner + K3s	Cheapest real cloud, full K8s compatibility
Startup MVP ($24+/mo)	DigitalOcean DOKS	Simple, fast, free control plane, $200 credit
Cost-conscious production	Civo	$5/node, 90-second clusters, K3s-based
Enterprise/existing Azure	Azure AKS	Free control plane, Azure integration
Enterprise/existing AWS	AWS EKS	Best AWS integration, extensive ecosystem
Enterprise/existing GCP	Google GKE	Best autoscaling, GCP integration
Budget enterprise	Hetzner + K3s	Self-managed but production-capable

Cost Comparison (December 2025)

Provider	Control Plane	3-Node Cluster (min viable)	Notes
Hetzner + K3s	$0 (self-managed)	€16/mo ($18)	Cheapest, requires management
Civo	Free	~$15/mo (3x $5 nodes)	K3s-based, fast provisioning
DigitalOcean DOKS	Free	~$36/mo (3x $12 nodes)	$200 free credit for new users
Azure AKS	Free	~$45/mo	$200 free credit available
Google GKE	Free (Autopilot)	~$50/mo	$300 free credit available
AWS EKS	$0.10/hr (~$73/mo)	~$150/mo	Control plane NOT free

Managed vs Self-Managed

Need production SLA + minimal ops overhead?
├── Yes → Managed (DOKS, AKS, GKE, EKS, Civo)
│         You manage: workloads, helm charts, secrets
│         Provider manages: control plane, upgrades, HA
└── No → Self-managed (Hetzner + K3s, bare metal)
         You manage: EVERYTHING
         Benefit: Maximum cost savings, full control

Provider CLI Commands

DigitalOcean DOKS (doctl)

# Install doctl
brew install doctl  # macOS
# or: snap install doctl  # Linux

# Authenticate
doctl auth init  # Paste API token

# Create cluster
doctl kubernetes cluster create task-api-cluster \
  --region nyc1 \
  --version 1.31.4-do.0 \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
  --count 3 \
  --wait

# Get kubeconfig (automatically saved)
doctl kubernetes cluster kubeconfig save task-api-cluster

# Verify
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• --size

  : Node size (use

  doctl compute size list | grep kube

  )

• --count

  : Number of nodes

• --auto-upgrade

  : Enable auto-upgrades

• --ha

  : Enable HA control plane ($40/mo extra)

Azure AKS (az aks)

# Install Azure CLI
brew install azure-cli  # macOS
# or: curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash  # Linux

# Authenticate
az login

# Create resource group
az group create --name task-api-rg --location eastus

# Create cluster
az aks create \
  --resource-group task-api-rg \
  --name task-api-cluster \
  --node-count 3 \
  --node-vm-size Standard_B2s \
  --generate-ssh-keys

# Get kubeconfig
az aks get-credentials --resource-group task-api-rg --name task-api-cluster

# Verify
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• --node-vm-size

  : VM size (Standard_B2s is cheapest)

• --enable-managed-identity

  : Use managed identity (recommended)

• --zones 1 2 3

  : Multi-AZ deployment

Google GKE (gcloud)

# Install gcloud CLI
brew install google-cloud-sdk  # macOS

# Authenticate
gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

# Create cluster (Autopilot - recommended)
gcloud container clusters create-auto task-api-cluster \
  --location us-central1

# OR Standard cluster
gcloud container clusters create task-api-cluster \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --num-nodes 3 \
  --machine-type e2-small

# Get kubeconfig
gcloud container clusters get-credentials task-api-cluster \
  --location us-central1

# Verify
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• --enable-autopilot

  : Pay only for pods, not nodes

• --spot

  : Use spot instances (up to 91% cheaper)

AWS EKS (eksctl)

# Install eksctl
brew tap weaveworks/tap
brew install weaveworks/tap/eksctl

# Create cluster (15-20 minutes)
eksctl create cluster \
  --name task-api-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --node-type t3.medium \
  --nodes 3

# kubeconfig is automatically configured

# Verify
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• --enable-auto-mode

  : EKS Auto Mode (newer, simpler)

• --spot

  : Use spot instances

• --managed

  : Use managed node groups

Civo (civo)

# Install Civo CLI
brew install civo  # macOS
# or: curl -sL https://civo.com/get | sh  # Linux

# Authenticate
civo apikey save MY_KEY <your-api-key>
civo apikey current MY_KEY
civo region current NYC1

# Create cluster (90 seconds!)
civo kubernetes create task-api-cluster \
  --size g4s.kube.medium \
  --nodes 3 \
  --wait \
  --merge \
  --switch

# kubeconfig automatically merged and context switched

# Verify
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• --applications

  : Install marketplace apps (e.g., traefik2-nodeport)

• --cluster-type talos

  : Use Talos instead of K3s

• --cni-plugin cilium

  : Use Cilium CNI

Hetzner + K3s (hetzner-k3s)

# Install hetzner-k3s
brew install vitobotta/tap/hetzner_k3s  # macOS
# or download binary from GitHub releases

# Create config file: cluster.yaml
cat > cluster.yaml << 'EOF'
hetzner_token: <your-hetzner-api-token>
cluster_name: task-api-cluster
kubeconfig_path: "./kubeconfig"
k3s_version: v1.31.4+k3s1

networking:
  ssh:
    port: 22
    use_agent: false
    public_key_path: "~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub"
    private_key_path: "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"
    allowed_networks:
      ssh:
        - 0.0.0.0/0
      api:
        - 0.0.0.0/0

masters_pool:
  instance_type: cx22  # 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM
  instance_count: 1    # 1 for learning, 3 for HA
  location: fsn1

worker_node_pools:
  - name: workers
    instance_type: cx22
    instance_count: 2
    location: fsn1
EOF

# Create cluster (2-3 minutes)
hetzner-k3s create --config cluster.yaml

# Use the kubeconfig
export KUBECONFIG=./kubeconfig
kubectl get nodes

Key Options:

• instance_type

  : cx22 (€5.39/mo), cx32 (€10.59/mo), cx42 (€21.29/mo)

• autoscaling.enabled: true

  : Enable cluster autoscaler

• networking.cni.cilium.enabled: true

  : Use Cilium instead of Flannel

After Provisioning: Universal Commands

Once you have a kubeconfig, these commands work on ALL providers:

Install Dapr

dapr init -k
kubectl get pods -n dapr-system

Install Ingress Controller (Traefik)

helm repo add traefik https://helm.traefik.io/traefik
helm install traefik traefik/traefik \
  --namespace traefik \
  --create-namespace

Install cert-manager

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.16.2/cert-manager.yaml

Create Let's Encrypt Issuer

# cluster-issuer.yaml
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: your-email@example.com
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          ingressClassName: traefik

Deploy Task API

helm upgrade --install task-api ./task-api-chart \
  --set image.repository=ghcr.io/your-org/task-api \
  --set image.tag=v1.0.0 \
  --set ingress.enabled=true \
  --set ingress.host=tasks.yourdomain.com \
  --set ingress.tls.enabled=true

Cloud-Specific Considerations

LoadBalancer Service Behavior

Provider	LoadBalancer Creation	Cost
DOKS	Auto-provisions DO Load Balancer	$12/mo
AKS	Auto-provisions Azure LB	~$18/mo
GKE	Auto-provisions GCP LB	~$18/mo
EKS	Auto-provisions AWS ELB	~$18/mo
Civo	Auto-provisions Civo LB	Included
Hetzner K3s	NO auto-provision	Use NodePort + external LB

Hetzner Workaround for LoadBalancer

Since Hetzner K3s doesn't auto-provision LoadBalancers:

# Use NodePort + Hetzner Load Balancer
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: traefik
  annotations:
    load-balancer.hetzner.cloud/name: "task-api-lb"
    load-balancer.hetzner.cloud/location: "fsn1"
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer  # hetzner-k3s includes CCM that handles this
  ports:
  - name: web
    port: 80
    targetPort: 8000

The hetzner-k3s tool includes the Hetzner Cloud Controller Manager, which can provision LoadBalancers automatically.

DNS Configuration

Provider	DNS Option	How to Configure
DOKS	DigitalOcean DNS or external	Spaces → Networking → Domains
AKS	Azure DNS or external	DNS Zones service
GKE	Cloud DNS or external	Network services → Cloud DNS
EKS	Route53 or external	Route53 hosted zones
Civo	Civo DNS or external	Networking → DNS
Hetzner	External only (Cloudflare, etc.)	Use external DNS provider

Image Pull from GHCR

# Create image pull secret (same on all clouds)
kubectl create secret docker-registry ghcr-secret \
  --docker-server=ghcr.io \
  --docker-username=YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME \
  --docker-password=YOUR_GITHUB_PAT

# Reference in deployment
spec:
  imagePullSecrets:
  - name: ghcr-secret

Cost Optimization Strategies

1. Right-Size Nodes

Development: 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM (cheapest viable)
Production: 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM (balanced)
High-traffic: 8 vCPU, 16GB RAM (performance)

2. Use Node Autoscaling

All managed providers support autoscaling. Set min=1, max=10 to scale with demand.

3. Schedule Non-Production Downtime

# Scale to zero at night
kubectl scale deployment task-api --replicas=0

# Or use KEDA for event-driven scaling

4. Consider Spot/Preemptible Nodes

• AWS: 60-90% savings with Spot
• GCP: 60-91% savings with Preemptible
• Azure: Similar savings with Spot
• Not available: DOKS, Civo, Hetzner

5. Teardown When Not in Use

# DOKS
doctl kubernetes cluster delete task-api-cluster -f

# AKS
az aks delete --resource-group task-api-rg --name task-api-cluster --yes

# GKE
gcloud container clusters delete task-api-cluster --location us-central1 -q

# EKS
eksctl delete cluster --name task-api-cluster

# Civo
civo kubernetes remove task-api-cluster -y

# Hetzner K3s
hetzner-k3s delete --config cluster.yaml

Safety & Guardrails

NEVER

• Leave clusters running without monitoring costs
• Deploy without resource requests/limits
• Expose cluster API to 0.0.0.0/0 in production
• Store cloud credentials in code or git
• Skip TLS for production traffic
• Use the same cluster for production and development

ALWAYS

• Set budget alerts in cloud console
• Use namespaces to separate environments
• Enable cluster autoscaling with sensible limits
• Configure node auto-upgrade (managed providers)
• Use private node pools when available
• Backup etcd (for self-managed clusters)
• Document teardown commands for every cluster

Cost Alerts Setup

DigitalOcean: Settings → Billing → Alerts Azure: Cost Management → Budgets GCP: Billing → Budgets & alerts AWS: Billing → Budgets Civo: Dashboard → Account → Billing alerts Hetzner: Project → Usage → Limits (manual monitoring)

TaskManager Production Deployment

Complete example deploying Task API to DigitalOcean DOKS:

# 1. Create cluster
doctl kubernetes cluster create task-prod \
  --region nyc1 \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
  --count 3 \
  --wait

# 2. Save kubeconfig
doctl kubernetes cluster kubeconfig save task-prod

# 3. Install Dapr
dapr init -k
kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=120s \
  deployment/dapr-operator -n dapr-system

# 4. Install Traefik
helm repo add traefik https://helm.traefik.io/traefik
helm install traefik traefik/traefik \
  -n traefik --create-namespace

# 5. Get LoadBalancer IP
kubectl get svc traefik -n traefik -w
# Wait for EXTERNAL-IP

# 6. Install cert-manager
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.16.2/cert-manager.yaml
kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=120s \
  deployment/cert-manager -n cert-manager

# 7. Create ClusterIssuer for Let's Encrypt
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: admin@yourdomain.com
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          ingressClassName: traefik
EOF

# 8. Deploy Task API with Helm
helm upgrade --install task-api ./charts/task-api \
  --set image.repository=ghcr.io/your-org/task-api \
  --set image.tag=v1.0.0 \
  --set ingress.enabled=true \
  --set ingress.host=tasks.yourdomain.com \
  --set ingress.tls.enabled=true \
  --set ingress.annotations."cert-manager\.io/cluster-issuer"=letsencrypt-prod

# 9. Verify deployment
kubectl get pods
kubectl get ingress

# 10. Test HTTPS endpoint
curl https://tasks.yourdomain.com/health

References

For detailed patterns, see:

• references/digitalocean-doks.md

  - DOKS-specific patterns

• references/hetzner-k3s.md

  - Hetzner + K3s setup

• references/cloud-comparison.md

  - Full provider comparison

• references/cost-optimization.md

  - Cost engineering patterns