Learn By Doing: Crossplane

This hands-on course introduces you to Crossplane, a powerful open-source CNCF project that extends Kubernetes to manage cloud infrastructure using Kubernetes-native APIs and tools.

You will learn how to define, compose, and provision infrastructure declaratively, treating infrastructure as code that can be versioned, reviewed, and managed alongside your applications.

Through hands-on labs, you will:

• Install Crossplane
• Configure providers for platform integration
• Create custom infrastructure APIs using Compositions
• Build dynamic resource provisioning pipelines using Composition Functions with patch-and-transform

Course Highlights

Getting Started with Crossplane

This module takes you from understanding what Crossplane is to building production-ready infrastructure abstractions.

You will learn how Crossplane extends Kubernetes to become a universal control plane, enabling teams to provision and manage infrastructure using familiar Kubernetes workflows and tooling.

Through progressive labs, you will:

1. Install Crossplane
2. Work with providers to manage external resources
3. Create custom APIs using Compositions
4. Implement dynamic resource provisioning with Composition Functions

1. Introduction and Installation

What you'll learn:

• Install Crossplane on a Kubernetes cluster using Helm
• Verify the installation and explore Crossplane components and CRDs
• Understand core concepts: control plane, providers, and managed resources
• Install and explore the Crossplane CLI

2. Working with Providers

What you'll learn:

• Install the Kubernetes Provider and verify its health
• Create a ProviderConfig for credential management using InjectedIdentity
• Create Managed Resources to provision Kubernetes namespaces and ConfigMaps
• Understand the lifecycle of managed resources and how changes propagate

3. Composite Resources and Compositions

What you'll learn:

• Create a CompositeResourceDefinition (XRD) for a custom resource type
• Build a Composition using pipeline mode with Composition Functions
• Provision infrastructure using Composite Resources
• Explore resource relationships, owner references, and composition selection

4. Composition Functions: Patch and Transform

What you'll learn:

• Install the patch-and-transform Composition Function
• Configure patches using FromCompositeFieldPath to flow user inputs to managed resources
• Apply string transforms to format resource names dynamically
• Create Composite Resources with custom values and verify dynamic provisioning