What functions do kubelet and kube-proxy perform in Kubernetes?

kubelet is an agent that runs on each Kubernetes node. Its main task is to monitor the state of pods on the node, ensure the start and stop of containers according to the PodSpec descriptions, and report the status of the node and containers to Kubernetes controllers.

kube-proxy is a network proxy that runs on each node. It is responsible for implementing network rules that provide access to Kubernetes services. kube-proxy manages traffic routing to the appropriate pods using various mechanisms (iptables, IPVS), providing load balancing and network isolation.

Thus, kubelet is responsible for managing containers on the node, while kube-proxy handles network interaction and routing within the cluster.