C++ and Kubernetes: Developing High-Performance Microservices

The book "C++ and Kubernetes" is a unique practical guide that bridges the gap between the world of low-level C++ programming and modern cloud container orchestration technologies. In an era where most Kubernetes ecosystems are oriented towards Go, Python, or Java, C++ remains indispensable for tasks requiring maximum performance, minimal memory consumption, and deterministic behavior. This book will show you how to effectively use C++ in a container environment without sacrificing the language's advantages.

What is this book about?

• Microservice architecture in C++: designing lightweight, fast services that fit perfectly into the Kubernetes paradigm (stateless, health checks, graceful shutdown).
• Build and containerization: creating minimal Docker images using multi-stage builds, static and dynamic linking, working with musl libc and Alpine Linux to reduce image size.
• Interaction with the Kubernetes API: writing operators and controllers in C++ via the official client-go (with bindings or direct REST access), working with Custom Resource Definitions (CRD).
• Memory management in containers: how to configure a C++ application to work with cgroups, memory and CPU limits, avoiding OOM-kill and leaks.
• Networking and performance: using gRPC, HTTP/2, and custom protocols over TCP/UDP, configuring service mesh (Envoy, Istio) for C++ services.
• Monitoring and logging: integration with Prometheus (metric export), OpenTelemetry for tracing, structured logging to stdout/stderr for Fluentd.
• CI/CD and testing: build pipelines for C++ projects in GitLab/GitHub Actions, unit testing with Google Test, integration testing in Kind (Kubernetes in Docker).

Who is this book for?

The book is intended for C++ developers who want to master Kubernetes and cloud technologies, as well as for DevOps/SRE engineers who want to understand the specifics of running native C++ applications in an orchestrated environment. A solid knowledge of C++ (C++17/20) and a basic understanding of containers are assumed.

What will you learn?

• How to adapt C++ code for a "cloud" architecture: handling SIGTERM signals, graceful shutdown, working with configurations via ConfigMap/Secrets.
• Binary file optimization: using LTO, PGO, removing debug symbols, minimizing dependencies.
• Security: scanning images for vulnerabilities (Trivy, Snyk), running containers with a non-root user, seccomp profiles.
• Scaling: how to write C++ services that work correctly with HPA (Horizontal Pod Autoscaler) and do not lose data during replication.
• Debugging in production: using perf, eBPF, gdb in containers, core dump analysis.

Each chapter contains practical code examples, ready-made Dockerfiles, and Kubernetes manifests. You will learn not just to run C++ in containers, but to do it efficiently, securely, and scalably. This book will become your desktop guide when transitioning from monolithic C++ systems to a modern microservice architecture.

Code examples are available on GitHub, allowing you to immediately apply the knowledge gained in practice.