Who this is for: Developers and DevOps engineers who want to understand how to run databases reliably on Kubernetes — from the basics of StatefulSets, to replication consistency, to choosing between self-managed and Operator-based approaches.

Table of Contents

Why Databases on Kubernetes Are Tricky

Your Three Options

Understanding StatefulSets

How Replication Works

Avoiding Data Inconsistency

Self-Managed vs Kubernetes Operator

Detailed Task Comparison

When to Choose What

Summary

1. Why Databases on Kubernetes Are Tricky

Kubernetes was originally designed for stateless workloads — apps where any pod can be replaced at any time without data loss. A web server is stateless.…