A school district keeps shared Kubernetes manifests in git and needs lab versus production differences without duplicating every file. Which Kustomize pattern best separates common definitions from environment-specific changes?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Shared base is the school’s common lesson plan; overlays are the sticky notes for lab versus prod. Kustomize keeps one base and layers env-specific patches so you are not photocopying every manifest twice. Hand-regenerating YAML or stuffing Secrets into the base is the opposite of that hygiene.
Full Explanation
A school district keeping shared manifests in git separates lab versus production with a shared Kustomize base plus environment overlays that patch differences. The common lesson plan stays in base; sticky notes for lab versus prod live in overlays so teams are not photocopying every file twice. Storing only binary etcd snapshots in git and regenerating YAML by hand per cluster abandons declarative review. Replacing Kustomize with anonymous hostPath mounts unique to each teacher laptop is not configuration management. Embedding production Secrets as plain text in the shared base violates secret hygiene and couples environments. Exam caveat: Base+overlay reduces duplication while keeping env-specific patches explicit. Operational check: Maintain overlays for lab/prod, kubectl apply -k each overlay, and diff built output in CI before promoting district changes. In municipal platform operations, record the rationale in the change ticket so future on-call staff know which control was chosen and which failure modes the rejected options would create for city services. Re-validate after the next maintenance window that the same control still holds under the cluster’s current minor version and addon revisions used by the civic platform team.