MicroK8s is Canonical's lightweight Kubernetes distribution that packages all cluster components as snap packages. Unlike minikube which uses VM isolation, MicroK8s runs directly on the host system:

# Key components included:
- API Server
- Scheduler
- Controller Manager
- Kubelet
- Kube-proxy
- Containerd runtime
- DNS and Dashboard (optional)

MicroK8s includes several features that make it suitable for production:

• HA clustering with etcd
• Automatic security updates via snap
• GPU acceleration support
• Istio and Knative integrations
• RBAC enabled by default

Here's how to deploy MicroK8s while preserving existing services on Ubuntu 20.04:

# Install with strict confinement
sudo snap install microk8s --classic --channel=1.24/stable

# Configure resource limits to avoid conflicts
sudo vim /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/kubelet
# Add:
--system-reserved=cpu=500m,memory=500Mi
--kube-reserved=cpu=500m,memory=500Mi

# Enable only necessary addons
microk8s enable dns storage

Benchmarks show MicroK8s has comparable performance to kubeadm clusters:

The snap-based architecture simplifies operations:

# Check for updates
snap refresh --list

# Perform rolling upgrade
sudo snap refresh microk8s --channel=1.25/stable

# Rollback if needed
sudo snap revert microk8s

Organizations using MicroK8s in production typically:

1. Run edge computing workloads
2. Maintain development/production parity
3. Need fast cluster deployment
4. Require LTS support

Essential security practices for production:

# Enable audit logging
microk8s enable audit

# Configure network policies
microk8s enable cilium

# Regular vulnerability scans
sudo snap install trivy
trivy k8s --report summary all

MicroK8s differs fundamentally from Minikube in its architecture. While Minikube uses a nested virtualization approach with a single-node VM, MicroK8s provides a true Kubernetes deployment using snap packages. The key production-ready features include:

• Automatic high-availability clustering
• Built-in etcd for state management
• Production-grade networking via Calico (default) or other CNIs

Here's how to configure MicroK8s for a production scenario with legacy apps:

# Enable essential production addons
sudo microk8s enable dns storage ingress metrics-server

# Configure resource limits
sudo snap set microk8s \
    disable.resource-limits=false \
    cni-args=--max-pods=110

# Verify cluster status
microk8s kubectl get nodes -o wide

For your specific case with two Ubuntu servers running legacy apps, consider these approaches:

1. Dual-Stack Deployment:

   # Schedule pods only on specific nodes
   kubectl label nodes node1 legacy-app=true
   kubectl label nodes node2 legacy-app=true

2. Network Policy Isolation:

   apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: NetworkPolicy
   metadata:
     name: legacy-app-isolation
   spec:
     podSelector:
       matchLabels:
         app: legacy
     policyTypes:
     - Ingress
     - Egress

Recent tests show MicroK8s performs comparably to standard K8s deployments in these metrics:

For production environments, implement these practices:

• Automated snap updates with health checks:

  sudo snap set microk8s refresh.timer=00:00~24:00/2
  sudo snap set microk8s refresh.hold=72h

• Regular etcd snapshots:

  sudo microk8s etcdctl snapshot save /var/snap/microk8s/common/etcd-backup.db