# Kubernetes How-Tos

Generated on 13 Mar 2026

DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) is a Kubernetes service with a fully managed control plane, high availability, and autoscaling. DOKS integrates with standard Kubernetes toolchains and DigitalOcean’s load balancers, volumes, CPU and GPU Droplets, API, and CLI.

## Getting Started

[How to Create Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/create-clusters/index.html.md): Create a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster with CPU and GPU nodes to start running containerized applications in the cloud.

[How to Connect to a DigitalOcean Kubernetes Cluster](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/connect-to-cluster/index.html.md): Connect to a Kubernetes cluster with kubectl, the official Kubernetes command-line tool.

[How to Add Node Pools to a Cluster](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/add-node-pools/index.html.md): Create additional node pools for an existing cluster

[How to Manage Kubernetes 1-Click Applications](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/manage-1click-apps/index.html.md): Install 1-Click Applications on DigitalOcean Kubernetes clusters.

[How to Destroy DigitalOcean Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/destroy-clusters/index.html.md): Destroy a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster to permanently and irreversibly remove it from an account.

[How to Enable High Availability](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/enable-high-availability/index.html.md): Enable high availability to increase the reliability of your control plane.

[Enable Push-to-Deploy](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/deploy-using-github-actions/index.html.md): Use GitHub Actions to trigger a workflow to deploy a new image to your Kubernetes cluster.

[How to Forward Logs to Managed OpenSearch Database](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/forward-logs/index.html.md): Enable log forwarding to Managed OpenSearch in DigitalOcean Kubernetes.

[How to Add a Control Plane Firewall](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/add-control-plane-firewall/index.html.md): Add a firewall to the cluster’s control plane for improved security and traffic.

## Autoscaling

[How to Enable Cluster Autoscaler for a DigitalOcean Kubernetes Cluster](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/autoscale/index.html.md): Enable autoscaling to automatically adjust the number of nodes in a cluster based on the cluster’s capacity to schedule pods. Combine with a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) to make clusters highly responsive to resource demands.

[Autoscale Cluster With Horizontal Pod Autoscaling](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/set-up-autoscaling/index.html.md): Autoscale a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster using cluster autoscaling (CA) and horizontal pod autoscaling (HPA).

## Cluster Management

[How to Configure Networking for Multi-Node GPU Worker Nodes](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/configure-multinode-gpus/index.html.md): Configure multi-node GPU worker nodes.

[How to Use the Routing Agent in Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/use-routing-agent/index.html.md): Manage IP routes on Kubernetes worker nodes using the routing agent

[How to Customize CoreDNS for Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/customize-coredns/index.html.md): Customize CoreDNS settings to change system configuration and provide specific options for domains.

[How to Upgrade DOKS Clusters to Newer Versions](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/upgrade-cluster/index.html.md): Upgrade clusters to newer patch versions or newer minor versions using the control panel or command-line interface.

[How to Set RoleBindings for Custom Roles](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/set-up-custom-rolebindings/index.html.md): Fine-tune access to Kubernetes clusters using custom team roles.

## Data Storage

[How to Integrate with a DigitalOcean Container Registry](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/integrate-with-docr/index.html.md): Integrate a container registry with your Kubernetes cluster.

[How to Add Volumes to Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/add-volumes/index.html.md): Create a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) to use DigitalOcean Volumes Block Storage for persistent data in Kubernetes clusters.

[How to Delete Volumes from Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/delete-volumes/index.html.md): Delete a volume from a Kubernetes cluster using kubectl to permanently and irreversibly remove it from the cluster and DigitalOcean account.

[How to Restore Volumes from Snapshots in Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/restore-volumes/index.html.md): Import a volume into DigitalOcean from an existing snapshot of data.

[How to Use NFS Storage with Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/use-nfs-storage/index.html.md): Use NFS shared storage with DigitalOcean Kubernetes clusters.

[How to Import a DigitalOcean Snapshot into a Kubernetes Cluster](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/import-snapshot/index.html.md): Import an existing DigitalOcean snapshot into a cluster.

[How to Create Volume Snapshots in Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/create-snapshots/index.html.md): Create volume snapshots to save the contents of the volume’s disk, then use the snapshot to restore or create new volumes with the same contents.

[How to Use Spaces With Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/use-spaces/index.html.md): Use Spaces object storage with Kubernetes clusters.

## Load Balancing

[How to Add Load Balancers to Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/add-load-balancers/index.html.md): Declare a DigitalOcean Load Balancer in the cluster manifest to distribute traffic across all worker nodes in the cluster.

[How to Configure Advanced Load Balancer Settings in Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/configure-load-balancers/index.html.md): Configure advanced load balancer settings for sticky sessions, health checks, and always-on SSL.

[How to Migrate Load Balancers](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/migrate-load-balancers/index.html.md): Pass load balancer ownership from one service to another.

[How to Delete Load Balancers from Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/delete-load-balancers/index.html.md): Delete a load balancer from a Kubernetes cluster using kubectl to permanently and irreversibly remove it from the cluster and DigitalOcean account.

[How to Use Gateway API to Route Traffic in Kubernetes Clusters](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/use-gateway-api/index.html.md): Use Gateway API resources to route external HTTP and HTTPS traffic to services running in your DOKS cluster.

## Monitoring

[View Basic Metrics](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/monitor-basic/index.html.md): Monitor metrics like CPU usage, load averages, and bandwidth to support capacity planning and provide insight into cluster health. View visualizations on resource utilization for individual nodes, node pools, or clusters.

[Use Cilium Hubble](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/use-cilium-hubble/index.html.md): How to access Cilium Hubble and Hubble UI

[Set Up Advanced Monitoring](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/how-to/monitor-advanced/index.html.md): Install the sidecar agent for detailed metric visualizations on Kubernetes objects, like deployment progress for pods, DaemonSets, and StatefulSets.