Single-Node Kubernetes Cluster with Minikube

Introduction

Ever wondered how to set up a local Kubernates cluster for development, testing or learning purposes? Minikube offers the easiest solution for that. With this tutorial I’m going to guide you through the process of deploying a single node Kubernates cluster using Minikube.

What you’ll need

Internet connection
2 CPUs or more
2GB of free memory
20GB of free disk space

What is Minikube?

Minikube is a tool that makes the provisioning of single node Kubernates clusters easier. It is important to note that this is mostly used for development, testing or learning purposes not in production environments.

Step 1: Docker Installation

Minikube needs a container runtime to run the Kubernates cluster. If you have already installed one, you can skip this step.

Add Docker’s GPG key

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Add official repository

echo \
"deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(. /etc/os-release && echo \"${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}\") stable" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

Install Docker packages

sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Add current user to the docker group so that you don’t need sudo for Docker commands.
```
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
```

Step 2: Minikube Installation

Download Minikube binary from the official repository and install.

curl -LO https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/latest/download/minikube-linux-amd64
sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube
rm minikube-linux-amd64

Start Minikube
```
minikube start
```

Step 3: Install kubectl

Install kubectl tool.

Note: This guide is for Linux. To see the installation process for other operating systems read this documentation.

Download the latest release binary

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

Install kubectl

sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Step 4: Verify Cluster Creation

View kube-system pods
```
kubectl get pods -n kube-system
```
You’ll see an output similar to this.
Access Minikube Dashboard
```
minikube dashboard
```
You’ll see the kubernates dashboard opened in a browser window like below.
You can now use kubectl to create any deployment, service, or any other Kubernetes resource inside the cluster. For example, to create a simple deployment, you can run:
```
kubectl create deployment hello-minikube --image=nginx
```

Useful Minikube Commands

Stop the Minikube cluster:
```
minikube stop
```
Delete the Minikube cluster:
```
minikube delete
```
Restart the Minikube cluster:
```
minikube start
```
Check the status of the Minikube cluster:
```
minikube status
```

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully set up a single-node Kubernetes cluster using Minikube. You can now deploy applications, test configurations, and learn more about Kubernetes in a local environment.