Choosing Kubernetes Workload Types: Deployment vs StatefulSet vs DaemonSet vs Job

Calendar February 22, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Workload-Selection, Architecture-Decisions, Capacity-Planning
Deployments, Statefulsets, Daemonsets, Jobs, Cronjobs, Workload-Types, Decision-Framework
Kubectl

Choosing Kubernetes Workload Types#

Kubernetes provides several workload controllers, each designed for a specific class of application behavior. Choosing the wrong one leads to data loss, unnecessary complexity, or workloads that fight the platform instead of leveraging it. This guide walks through the decision criteria and tradeoffs for each type.

The Workload Types at a Glance#

Workload Type Lifecycle Pod Identity Scaling Model Storage Model Typical Use
Deployment Long-running Interchangeable Horizontal replicas Shared or none Web servers, APIs, stateless microservices
StatefulSet Long-running Stable, ordered Ordered horizontal Per-pod persistent Databases, message queues, distributed consensus
DaemonSet Long-running One per node Tied to node count Node-local Log collectors, monitoring agents, network plugins
Job Run to completion Disposable Parallel completions Ephemeral Batch processing, migrations, one-time tasks
CronJob Scheduled Disposable Per-schedule run Ephemeral Periodic backups, cleanup, scheduled reports
ReplicaSet Long-running Interchangeable Horizontal replicas Shared or none Almost never used directly

Decision Criteria#

The choice comes down to four questions:

StatefulSets and Persistent Storage: Stable Identity, PVCs, and StorageClasses

Calendar February 22, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Stateful-Workload-Management, Persistent-Storage-Configuration, Pvc-Lifecycle
Statefulsets, Persistent-Volumes, Pvc, Storage-Classes, Stateful-Workloads
Kubectl

StatefulSets and Persistent Storage#

Deployments treat pods as interchangeable. StatefulSets do not – each pod gets a stable hostname, a persistent volume, and an ordered startup sequence. This is what you need for databases, message queues, and any workload where identity matters.

StatefulSet vs Deployment#

Feature Deployment StatefulSet
Pod names Random suffix (web-api-6d4f8) Ordinal index (postgres-0, postgres-1)
Startup order All at once Sequential (0, then 1, then 2)
Stable network identity No Yes, via headless Service
Persistent storage Shared or none Per-pod via volumeClaimTemplates
Scaling down Removes random pods Removes highest ordinal first

Use StatefulSets when your application needs any of: stable hostnames, ordered deployment/scaling, or per-pod persistent storage. Common examples: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis Sentinel, Kafka, ZooKeeper, Elasticsearch.

Choosing Kubernetes Storage: Local vs Network vs Cloud CSI Drivers

Calendar February 21, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Storage-Architecture, Performance-Analysis, Capacity-Planning, Statefulset-Design
Storage, Persistent-Volumes, Csi, Ebs, Efs, Azure-Disk, Gce-Pd, Ceph, Rook, Nfs, Local-Storage, Statefulsets
Kubectl, Fio, Lsblk

Choosing Kubernetes Storage#

Storage decisions in Kubernetes are harder to change than almost any other architectural choice. Migrating data between storage backends in production involves downtime, risk, and careful planning. Understand the tradeoffs before provisioning your first PersistentVolumeClaim.

The decision comes down to five criteria: performance (IOPS and latency), durability (can you survive node failure), portability (can you move the workload), cost, and access mode (single pod or shared).

Storage Categories#

Block Storage (ReadWriteOnce)#

Block storage provides a raw disk attached to a single node. Only one pod on that node can mount it at a time (ReadWriteOnce). This is the most common storage type for databases, caches, and any workload that needs fast, consistent disk I/O.