Talha Amjad

Field notes / Published here

I write about how systems work.

Long-form notes on Kubernetes, AI infrastructure, open-source systems, and the engineering details that make them work.

Reading path

Every field note lives here, in one focused reading library.

14 notes in this path

NOTE / 01

From kubectl apply to a Linux Process: Kubernetes Internals, One State Transition at a Time

September 20, 2026

Trace what really happens after kubectl apply, from API Server and etcd to controllers, scheduling, kubelet, networking, and a running, reachable Pod.

kuberneteskubernetes-internalscloud-nativedistributed-systemsdevops
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NOTE / 02

How Volcano Adds Safe Per Queue Admission Limits for AI Workloads

August 22, 2026

A code-first look at Volcano's queue-scoped overcommit controls, which add safe per-queue admission limits while preserving the cluster-wide safety boundary for AI workloads.

kubernetesvolcanoovercommitqueueai-workloadsopen-source
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NOTE / 03

Rolling Updates for LLM Serving on Kubernetes: How Kthena Protects Availability

August 5, 2026

A source-level look at Kthena’s ServingGroup rolling updates, revision tracking, readiness gates, partitions, and availability budgets.

kuberneteskthenallminferencerolling-updatesavailability
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NOTE / 04

Inside Koordinator: Resource Policy, Scheduling, and Node-Level Enforcement

July 26, 2026

A code-first walkthrough of how Koordinator connects API policy, scheduler plugins, node-local observation, and Linux resource enforcement.

kuberneteskoordinatorschedulingresource-managementopen-source
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NOTE / 05

Prefill-Decode Disaggregation on Kubernetes: How Kthena Actually Implements It

July 18, 2026

A code-first look at how Kthena coordinates independent prefill and decode roles, compatible routing, and KV-cache transfer on Kubernetes.

kubernetesvolcanollminferenceaikthena
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NOTE / 06

Inside Volcano Webhooks: Admission, Validation, and the Gate That Rejects Bad Jobs Before They Run

July 12, 2026

A code-first breakdown of Volcano’s AdmissionReview flow, shared webhook transport, validation, and workload mutation before storage.

kubernetesvolcanowebhooksgolangopen-source
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NOTE / 07

Inside Volcano Scheduler Plugins: DRF and How Queue Fairness Actually Works (Part 2 of 2)

July 4, 2026

Explore Volcano's plugin framework, Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF), queue fairness, and how scheduler plugins influence resource allocation decisions in Kubernetes.

kubernetesvolcanoschedulerdrfresource-schedulingopen-source
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NOTE / 08

Inside Volcano Scheduler: Sessions, Actions, and the Scheduling Cycle That Prevents Deadlocks (Part 1 of 2)

June 29, 2026

A code-first walkthrough of SchedulerCache, Sessions, ordered Actions, and atomic gang planning in Volcano.

kubernetesvolcanoschedulerbatch-schedulingopen-source
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NOTE / 09

Inside Volcano Controllers: Gang Scheduling, State Machines, and Real Kubernetes Logs

June 19, 2026

A deep dive into Volcano's source code — how Kubernetes batch scheduling works under the hood, from gang scheduling to state machines.

kubernetesvolcanobatch-schedulingopen-source
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NOTE / 10

React Performance Engineering

June 16, 2026

Most React apps are slow for the same three reasons: too many re-renders, too much in the DOM, and work that blocks the main thread. This article addresses all three.

reactperformancefrontend
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NOTE / 11

Inside a Kubernetes Dashboard: Architecture Lessons from Volcano Dashboard

May 13, 2026

Volcano is a batch-scheduling system for Kubernetes. Here's what I learned reading its dashboard source while preparing to contribute and apply for LFX mentorship.

kubernetesvolcanoarchitectureopen-source
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NOTE / 12

Before ChatGPT, AI Couldn't Remember Your Last Sentence

April 19, 2026

What the memory problem in early AI models was, why it mattered, and how the Transformer changed everything.

aimachine-learningtransformers
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NOTE / 13

How I Added JavaScript Code Generation to Apache Fory's IDL Compiler

March 30, 2026

Apache Fory lets you define data types once in a schema file. Java, Python, Go, Rust, C++, C# all had code generation — JavaScript didn't. Here's how I added it.

apachejavascriptopen-sourcecompiler
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NOTE / 14

Apache Fory Row Format Explained

March 3, 2026

Apache Fory supports a cache-friendly row format for analytics workloads. A walkthrough of the format design, memory layout, and how it compares to standard serialization.

apacheserializationopen-source
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