Minikube
Minikube is an application for running a local Kubernetes cluster, which makes it perfect for developing locally and learning about Kubernetes without having to spin up (and pay for) a K8s cluster in the cloud.
Minikube runs inside a virtual machine, so you’ll need a container or VM manager installed for it to run in. I went with Docker Desktop on Windows but QEMU, Hyperkit, Hyper-V, KVM, Parallels, Podman, VirtualBox, or VMware Fusion/Workstation are also supported.
Install Docker
- Download Docker Desktop for Windows from here.
- Run the installer (NB. requires a Windows restart).
Install minikube
- Go to the minikube start page.
- Under “(1) Installation” select your system configuration.
- Either download the installer from the linked text in “Download and run the installer for the latest release.”, or run the PowerShell command shown on the page.
- Add the minikube.exe binary to your
PATHNote on minikube path with standalone installer
The script for adding minikube.exe to your path assumes minikube is installed at
C:\minikube. However, if you download and run the standalone installer, the default minikube install location isC:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube, so you’ll need to add this to yourPATHinstead. - Open a terminal with administrator access, and run
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> minikube start- This downloads the Kubernetes base image, creates a docker container, configures certs, network, and storage, and starts the minikube cluster.
(Optional) Install K9s
K9s is a “terminal based UI” management tool for Kubernetes. We can use it to inspect and manage the minikube cluster we just created. This is an alternative to kubectl which is mentioned in the minikube docs.
Installation
Install via the Chocolatey package manager for Windows:
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> choco install k9s
To start K9s:
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> k9s
This should start up and show your running minikube cluster.
To quit K9s (from inside the K9s console)
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> :q