README

Weather Dashboard with Redis Cache

A learning experiment to understand containerization, microservices, and Kubernetes orchestration. This project implements a weather service with Redis caching to explore cloud-native development practices.

Overview

This project serves as a hands-on learning experience for:

Containerization with Docker
Kubernetes deployment and orchestration
Microservices architecture
Caching strategies with Redis
Go API development
Infrastructure as Code

Technologies Used

Core Technologies

Go (Golang): Backend API development
Redis: Caching layer
Docker: Containerization
Kubernetes: Container orchestration

Libraries and Frameworks

gorilla/mux: HTTP routing
go-redis/redis: Redis client for Go
minikube: Local Kubernetes development

Tools and Services

Docker Hub: Container registry
kubectl: Kubernetes CLI tool
Bash scripting: Deployment automation
Visual Studio Code: Development environment

Architecture

graph TD Client[Client] --> LB[LoadBalancer] LB --> WS1[Weather Service Pod 1] LB --> WS2[Weather Service Pod 2] LB --> WS3[Weather Service Pod 3] WS1 --> Redis[Redis Cache Pod] WS2 --> Redis WS3 --> Redis

Features

RESTful API for weather information
Redis caching with TTL
Horizontal scaling with Kubernetes
Health check endpoints
Environment-based configuration
Automated deployment process

Prerequisites

Go 1.21 or higher
Docker
Kubernetes cluster (or Minikube)
kubectl configured
Redis

Quick Start

Clone the repository

bash

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/weather-dashboard.git
cd weather-dashboard

Create .env file

bash

WEATHER_API_KEY=your_api_key
REDIS_HOST=localhost
REDIS_PORT=6379
PORT=8080

Deploy to Kubernetes

bash

chmod +x deploy.sh
./deploy.sh

Test the service

bash

# Get service URL
minikube service weather-service --url

# Test endpoints
curl http://<service-url>/api/weather/london
curl http://<service-url>/api/health
curl http://<service-url>/api/cache/stats

API Endpoints

GET /api/weather/{location}: Get weather for a location
GET /api/health: Health check endpoint
GET /api/cache/stats: Redis cache statistics
GET /api/cache: List cached keys

Development Notes

This project was created as a learning experience to understand:

How to structure a Go microservice
Implementing caching strategies
Kubernetes deployment patterns
Container orchestration practices
DevOps automation

Key learning outcomes:

Understanding pod lifecycles

Service discovery in Kubernetes

Container networking

Resource management and scaling

Environment configuration

Deployment automation

Acknowledgments

Kubernetes documentation
Go community
Redis documentation
Docker tutorials
Anthropic

Contact

Created by Jonathan Leahy - feel free to contact me!