DevOps12 min readMarch 5, 2026

Docker & Kubernetes: From Zero to Production in One Weekend

Stop being afraid of containers. This guide walks you through Dockerizing a Next.js app and deploying it to a Kubernetes cluster from scratch.

Karan Singh

DevOps engineer helping teams ship faster and more reliably.

Why Containers?

Containers solve the "it works on my machine" problem permanently.

Dockerfile for Next.js

dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine AS base

FROM base AS deps
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci

FROM base AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM base AS runner
WORKDIR /app
ENV NODE_ENV=production
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Kubernetes Deployment

yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: codewander
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: codewander

Conclusion

Start with Docker, graduate to K8s when you need scale.

#Docker #Kubernetes #DevOps #Containers