Alpha, Beta, and Stable
Explore the lifecycle of Kubernetes API resources, including alpha, beta, and generally available stages. Understand resource deprecation policies and discover how to extend Kubernetes by creating custom resources and controllers to enhance functionality.
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Kubernetes has a strict process for accepting new API resources. New resources come in as alpha, progress through beta, and eventually graduate as Generally Available (GA). We sometimes refer to GA as stable.
Alpha resources are experimental and should be considered hairy and scary. Expect bugs, expect features to be dropped without warning, and expect lots of things to change when they move into beta. A lot of clusters turn off alpha APIs by default.
Lifecycle of Kubernetes API resources
A new resource called xyz in the apps API group that goes through two alpha versions will have the following API names:
/apis/apps/v1alpha1/xyz/apis/apps/v1alpha2/xyz
The phase after alpha is beta.
Beta resources are considered ...