Clarification on "embedded etcd"

[rpivo]

After doing some digging, this is what I'm understanding by "embedded etcd":

A k8s cluster would require manual setup of etcd.
A k8s cluster would also have a dedicated etcd pod (on each control plane node?).
In k3s, etcd is "embedded" in the k3s server process that runs on control plane nodes as opposed to running in its own pod.

Is that right?

I'm guessing this is more obvious to seasoned Kubernetes folk, but it would be nice if there was some extra docs on that on the docs website. If there's a desire for this, I'm happy to type something up and create an initial PR for review.

[brandond]

K3s runs all the Kubernetes components in the main process. If you've enabled etcd, this includes etcd.

What specifically are you looking for documentation on? Have you looked at the Architecture page?

[rpivo]

Ultimately I think I was confused by this diagram as it doesn't really distinguish the fact that the etcd process is not just a pod on the node but is instead inside the main process.
I didn't read all of the docs, so maybe this is just my impression given the pieces that I did read.

[brandond]

None of the Kubernetes components run as pods in K3s. This is kind of the whole thing about K3s that makes it unique.