You ran kubectl run and got a Pod, not a container. That is the rule: Kubernetes never runs a container on its own.

The Pod

A Pod is the smallest thing Kubernetes runs. It wraps one or more containers and gives them:

• one name,
• one IP address, shared by every container inside,
• one life: when the Pod goes, its containers go.

Most Pods hold exactly one container. Chapter 7 shows when two make sense. Until then, think "one Pod, one container".

Make one

learner@shallows:~$ kubectl run podling --image=nginx
pod/podling created

run makes a Pod named podling from the image nginx. The name is yours. Two Pods cannot share a name:

learner@shallows:~$ kubectl run podling --image=nginx
Error from server (AlreadyExists): pods "podling" already exists

See more columns

learner@shallows:~$ kubectl get pods -o wide
NAME      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP          NODE
podling   1/1     Running   0          5s    10.42.0.8   shallows-node-1

-o wide adds the Pod's IP and the NODE, the computer it runs on. This cluster has one node. Chapter 2 is about it.

Remove one

learner@shallows:~$ kubectl delete pod podling
pod "podling" deleted

The Pod and its container are gone. Nothing brings them back; the lesson "Pods Don't Come Back" explains why that matters.