'Why pod is the smallest unit?

In almost every article, it is mentioned that pod is the smallest unit of Kubernetes?

What does it mean? What is the meaning of smallest?

Thank you



Solution 1:[1]

Smallest unit in that context means "smallest deployable thing".

Technically a container is an even smaller unit because a pod can contain multiple containers, but you can not deploy a single container, only a pod with one container. That's why the pod is considered the smallest unit in kubernetes.

Solution 2:[2]

A word may be the smallest unit in a book. A sentence is made from words. A paragraph is made from sentences. And a chapter is made from paragraphs.

Likewise, in Kubernetes a pod is the smallest unit that exists, and other abstractions build on top of it. For example, a replica set is using the pod. And a deployment is using the replica set.

It may also help to read this comic, it's one thing that is a bit explained there.

Pods are the smallest building block in the kubernetes object model. The pod sees the container but kubernetes only sees the pod.

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Chris
Solution 2