Default Namespaces

Default Namespaces are the four Namespaces that are present by default in any Kubernetes Cluster. To see these in your Namespaces you can simply enter this command:

kubectl get namespaces

And you will see that we have 4 default namespaces:

Before learning about the 4 default Namespaces, let’s first briefly discuss kubernetes dashboard namespace, which is a Namespace that comes built-in with Minikube.

kubernetes dashboard namespace:

“kubernetes dashboard namespace” is shipped automatically in Minikube. So it is specific to Minikube installation. We will not have this namespace in a standard Cluster.

1. kube-system

kube-system is the namespace that includes objects created by the Kubernetes system. The components that are deployed in this Namespace are the system processes – they are from Master managing processes or Kubectl etc. kube-system Namespace is not meant for our (developer’s) use. so we do not have to create anything or modify anything in this namespace.

2. kube-public

kube-public contains the publicly accessible data. It has a config map that contains the Cluster information which is accessible even without authentication.

you can simply type:

kubectl cluster-info

You will get the data stored in kube-public namespace.

3. kube-node-lease

kube-node-lease Namespace is a new addition to Kubernetes. The purpose of this namespace is that it holds information about the heartbeats of Nodes. So each Node basically gets its own lease object in the Namespace. This object contains the information about that nodes availability.

4. default

default Namespace is the Namespace that we use in order to create the resources when we create a Namespace in the beginning.

In Kubernetes, Namespaces are used to organize resources. You can have multiple Namespaces in a Cluster And these Namespaces are kind of virtual Clusters of their own. The official definition of Namespace says “In Kubernetes, namespaces provide a mechanism for isolating groups of resources within a single cluster”. Within a Kubernetes Namespace, resources must have unique names, but across different Namespaces, you can have resources with the same name.

In this article, we will learn everything about Kubernetes Namespaces – from its definition and types to a tutorial that will give you practical knowledge of the topic. But before that let’s start from the basics.