Minikube¶

Minikube is a tool that allows developers to run a Kubernetes cluster locally on their workstations.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

Installation and Setup¶

Minikube can be installed on Windows using the Chocolatey package manager:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

choco install minikube

Starting the Cluster¶

Minikube supports various drivers to run the cluster container, with Docker being a common choice.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md] To start a cluster using the Docker driver, use the following command:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube start

Configuration¶

The Docker driver can be set as the default, ensuring consistency across restarts.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube config set driver docker

Users can also allocate specific resources to the cluster, such as memory and CPUs, either via configuration commands or directly at startup:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube config set memory 8192
minikube config set cpus 4
minikube start --cpus=6 --memory=12288

It is possible to run multi-node clusters for more complex testing scenarios:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube start --nodes 2 -p multinode-demo

Environment Configuration¶

On Windows, specific environment variables may need to be configured to allow the command line interface to interact with the Minikube Docker daemon:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube docker-env

Application Deployment¶

Once the cluster is running, standard kubectl commands are used to deploy and manage applications.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md] A typical workflow involves creating a deployment and exposing it via a service:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

Create Deployment:

[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) create deployment k8s02-minikube --image=docker.io/nginx:1.23

Expose Service:

[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) expose deployment k8s02-minikube --type=NodePort --port=80

Verify Status:

[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) get services k8s02-minikube

Accessing Services¶

Minikube provides convenient methods to access services running inside the cluster:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

Open URL: The minikube service command automatically launches the application's URL in the default web browser.
```
minikube service k8s02-minikube
```
Port Forwarding: Alternatively, kubectl can be used to forward a local port to the service.
```
[kubectl port-forward](<./kubectl-port-forward.md>) service/k8s02-minikube 7080:80
```

Cluster Management¶

Minikube offers commands to control the state of the local cluster without losing data or configurations.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

Pause/Unpause: Pausing the cluster stops the Kubernetes components (saving host resources) while keeping the deployed applications' state persistent.
```
minikube pause
minikube unpause
```
Stop: Halting the cluster stops the virtual machine or container entirely.
```
minikube stop
```
Delete: To remove the cluster traces (requires a restart to rebuild).
```
minikube delete
minikube delete --all
```

Add-ons¶

Users can extend the functionality of their local cluster using Minikube's add-on system.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

minikube addons list

Several tools integrate with Minikube to streamline development workflows:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]

[[Draft]]: A tool for streamlining containerized application development.
Skaffold: Google's tool for automating the build and deployment process.
[[Okteto]]: A platform for developing and deploying Kubernetes applications.

Sources¶

^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-minikube.md]