Local Setup with Minikube

Minikube implements a local Kubernetes cluster on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

The primary goal of minikube is to make it simple to run Kubernetes locally, for day-to-day development workflows and learning purposes.

Following are the guiding principles for Minikube.

  • Inclusive and community-driven
  • User-friendly
  • Support all Kubernetes features
  • Cross-platform
  • Reliable
  • High Performance
  • Developer Focused

Here are some specific minikube features that align with our goal:

  • Single command setup and teardown UX
  • Support for local storage, networking, auto-scaling, load balancing, etc.
  • Unified UX across operating systems
  • Minimal dependencies on third party software
  • Minimal resource overhead

Following are highlights on Minikube:

  • Minikube is a tool that makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally.
  • Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a Linux VM.
  • It’s aimed on users who want to just test it out or use it for development.
  • It cannot spin-up a production cluster, it’s a one node machine with no high availability.
  • It works on Windows, Linux, and MacOS
  • You will need Virtualization Software installed to run Minikube. For example, you can use VirtualBox, as its free and downloaded from – https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
  • You can download Minikube from – https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/

Following are the steps to setup Minikube in local machine.

After downloading the Minikube binary, run following commands.

Minikube in action

1. Start a cluster by running
$ minikube start

2. Access the Kubernetes Dashboard running within the minikube cluster:
$ minikube dashboard

3. Once started, you can interact with your cluster using kubectl, just like any other Kubernetes cluster. For instance, starting a server:
$ kubectl create deployment hello-minikube --image=k8s.gcr.io/echoserver:1.4

4. Exposing a service as a NodePort
$ kubectl expose deployment hello-minikube --type=NodePort --port=8080

5. minikube makes it easy to open this exposed endpoint in your browser:
$ minikube service hello-minikube

6. Start a second local cluster (note: This will not work if minikube is using the bare-metal/none driver):
$ minikube start -p cluster2

7. Stop your local cluster:
$ minikube stop

8. Delete your local cluster:
$ minikube delete

9. Delete all local clusters and profiles
$ minikube delete --all

In next article, you will see the demo of Minikube installation.

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