My First MLOps Project: From Model Training to Kubernetes Deployment 🚀

🎯 Introduction

As someone diving into the world of MLOps and DevOps, I recently completed my first end-to-end machine learning operations project. This project took me through the complete journey of building a diabetes prediction model and deploying it to Kubernetes. Here's what I learned and the best practices I followed along the way!

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/amco-f22/first-mlops-project

---

📋 Project Overview

This project implements a complete MLOps pipeline for a diabetes prediction model using:

• Machine Learning: Random Forest Classifier on the Pima Indians Diabetes Dataset
• API Framework: FastAPI for creating REST endpoints
• Containerization: Docker for packaging the application
• Orchestration: Kubernetes for deployment and scaling

The model predicts diabetes risk based on five key health metrics: Pregnancies, Glucose levels, Blood Pressure, BMI, and Age.

---

🏗️ Project Structure and Best Practices

1. Clean Code Organization

The project follows a simple, modular structure:

first-mlops-project/
├── train.py              # Model training script
├── main.py               # FastAPI application
├── requirements.txt      # Python dependencies
├── Dockerfile           # Container configuration
├── k8s-deploy.yml       # Kubernetes deployment manifest
└── diabetes_model.pkl   # Trained model (generated)

Best Practice: Keeping training and inference code separate makes the codebase maintainable and allows independent updates to each component.

---

🔬 Model Training (train.py)

What I Implemented:

# Load dataset from a reliable source
url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/diabetes.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url)

# Feature selection
X = df[["Pregnancies", "Glucose", "BloodPressure", "BMI", "Age"]]
y = df["Outcome"]

# Train-test split
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(
    X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=42
)

# Model training
model = RandomForestClassifier()
model.fit(X_train, y_train)

# Model persistence
joblib.dump(model, "diabetes_model.pkl")

Key Learnings:

✅ Reproducibility: Using a fixed random_state=42 ensures consistent results across runs

✅ Model Serialization: joblib is efficient for saving scikit-learn models, preserving the entire model state

✅ Feature Engineering: Selected only relevant features to keep the model simple and interpretable

✅ Data Source Management: Using a hosted dataset URL makes the project portable and easy to reproduce

---

🚀 API Development (main.py)

FastAPI Implementation:

from fastapi import FastAPI
from pydantic import BaseModel
import joblib
import numpy as np

app = FastAPI()
model = joblib.load("diabetes_model.pkl")

class DiabetesInput(BaseModel):
    Pregnancies: int
    Glucose: float
    BloodPressure: float
    BMI: float
    Age: int

@app.get("/")
def read_root():
    return {"message": "Diabetes Prediction API is live"}

@app.post("/predict")
def predict(data: DiabetesInput):
    input_data = np.array([[
        data.Pregnancies, 
        data.Glucose, 
        data.BloodPressure, 
        data.BMI, 
        data.Age
    ]])
    prediction = model.predict(input_data)[0]
    return {"diabetic": bool(prediction)}

Best Practices Followed:

✅ Input Validation: Pydantic models automatically validate request data and provide clear error messages

✅ Type Safety: Explicit type hints improve code readability and catch errors early

✅ RESTful Design: Separate endpoints for health checks (/) and predictions (/predict)

✅ Auto-Documentation: FastAPI generates interactive API docs at /docs automatically

---

🐳 Containerization (Dockerfile)

Docker Configuration:

FROM python:3.10
WORKDIR /app
COPY . /app
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
CMD ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

Key Best Practices:

✅ Minimal Base Image: Using python:3.10 provides a balance between size and functionality

✅ Working Directory: WORKDIR keeps the container filesystem organized

✅ Port Exposure: Binding to 0.0.0.0 makes the API accessible outside the container

✅ Layer Optimization: Copying requirements first would enable better caching (future improvement!)

Commands Used:

# Build the image
docker build -t diabetes-prediction-model .

# Run locally
docker run -p 8000:8000 diabetes-prediction-model

# Test the API
curl http://localhost:8000/

---

☸️ Kubernetes Deployment

Deployment Manifest (k8s-deploy.yml):

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: diabetes-api
  labels:
    app: diabetes-api
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: diabetes-api
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: diabetes-api
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: diabetes-api
        image: aman202004/diabetes-api:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8000
        imagePullPolicy: Always
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: diabetes-api-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: diabetes-api
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 80
    targetPort: 8000
  type: LoadBalancer

MLOps Best Practices:

✅ High Availability: replicas: 2 ensures the service stays available if one pod fails

✅ Label Management: Consistent labels connect Deployments, Pods, and Services

✅ Service Abstraction: LoadBalancer Service provides a stable endpoint for clients

✅ Image Policy: imagePullPolicy: Always ensures latest version is deployed

✅ Port Mapping: Clear separation between service port (80) and container port (8000)

Deployment Commands:

# Deploy to Kubernetes
kubectl apply -f k8s-deploy.yml

# Check deployment status
kubectl get deployments
kubectl get pods
kubectl get services

# Test the API (after getting external IP)
kubectl port-forward service/diabetes-api-service 8000:80

---

🧪 Testing the API

Sample Request:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/predict" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "Pregnancies": 2,
    "Glucose": 130,
    "BloodPressure": 70,
    "BMI": 28.5,
    "Age": 45
  }'

Response:

{
  "diabetic": true
}

---

📚 What I Learned

Technical Skills:

1. End-to-End MLOps Workflow: Understanding the complete pipeline from training to deployment
2. API Development: Creating production-ready REST APIs with FastAPI
3. Containerization: Packaging ML applications for consistent environments
4. Kubernetes Fundamentals: Deploying and managing containerized applications
5. Model Serialization: Properly saving and loading ML models for production

DevOps Practices:

• Reproducibility: Using virtual environments and requirements.txt
• Version Control: Tracking all code and configurations in Git
• Documentation: Writing clear README files and inline comments
• Infrastructure as Code: Defining infrastructure in YAML manifests
• Container Orchestration: Understanding pods, services, and deployments

Best Practices:

• Separation of Concerns: Keeping training, serving, and deployment separate
• Input Validation: Using Pydantic for robust API contracts
• Health Checks: Implementing basic health endpoints
• Scalability: Using Kubernetes for easy horizontal scaling
• Portability: Docker ensures the application runs anywhere

---

🎓 Key Takeaways

What Worked Well:

✅ FastAPI's automatic documentation saved significant development time
✅ Docker eliminated "works on my machine" problems
✅ Kubernetes simplified scaling from 1 to N replicas
✅ Using a public dataset made the project easily reproducible
✅ Simple project structure kept complexity manageable

Areas for Future Improvement:

🔄 Add CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions
🔄 Implement model versioning and A/B testing
🔄 Add monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana
🔄 Include automated testing (unit and integration tests)
🔄 Optimize Docker image size using multi-stage builds
🔄 Add model performance metrics endpoint
🔄 Implement proper logging with structured logs
🔄 Add authentication and rate limiting

---

🛠️ Tools & Technologies Used

Category	Technology
Language	Python 3.10
ML Framework	scikit-learn
API Framework	FastAPI, Uvicorn
Containerization	Docker
Orchestration	Kubernetes
Data Handling	pandas, numpy
Model Persistence	joblib
Validation	Pydantic

---

🎯 Conclusion

This project gave me hands-on experience with the complete MLOps lifecycle. Moving from a Jupyter notebook to a production-ready Kubernetes deployment taught me that MLOps is as much about software engineering practices as it is about machine learning.

For anyone starting their MLOps journey, I highly recommend building a similar end-to-end project. The practical experience of connecting all these tools together is invaluable.

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/amco-f22/first-mlops-project

Feel free to clone, experiment, and extend this project! I'm always open to feedback and suggestions.

---

📖 Resources

• Pima Indians Diabetes Dataset
• FastAPI Documentation
• Docker Documentation
• Kubernetes Documentation
• Scikit-learn Documentation

---

What's your experience with MLOps? Have you built similar projects? Share your thoughts in the comments! 💬

MLOps #Kubernetes #Docker #MachineLearning #DevOps #FastAPI #DataScience