Series Introduction

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or you are just starting your Kubernetes journey as a devops engineer. I’ve prepared for you the new blog series, where I’ll provide you with information on how to begin your Kubernetes journey. The series will get gradually harder and more interesting, but let’s start with the basics.

What is Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It was originally developed by Google.

It would take hours to fully explain to you what Kubernetes is or how it works. Instead, find some quality courses (I highly recommend [kodekloud] (https://kodekloud.com/learning-path/kubernetes),

After you gain some knowledge, come back to this guide to start a new project to expand your skills.

Minikube

What it is?

Minikube offers a convenient and efficient way to set up a local Kubernetes cluster. It enables simple deployment of a single or multi node Kubernetes cluster locally on your computer. It is designed to facilitate Kubernetes development and testing by providing a lightweight and easy-to-use environment.

How does it work?

Minikube works by setting up a Kubernetes cluster on a local machine. By default, it creates a one-node cluster, but this can be easily changed, as I’ll show you later.

This node creation, can be handled by different backends. These different backends are called drivers.

List of most popular drivers:

Docker - which we will be using
KVM2
Virtualbox
QEMU
Hyper-V
…

Installation

Requirements

Virtualization enabled in BIOS
Linux OS installed over WSL 2
Docker

Install docker

This series of commands will install all the necessary dependencies for Docker and Docker itself.

  
sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io -y

Setup docker

You will need to add your user to the docker group and reload settings.

  
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
su -s ${USER}

Start docker && test if docker is working correctly

sudo service docker start
docker run hello-world

Install Minikube

You can always find the newest installation guide in minukube docs.

  
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube && rm minikube-linux-amd64

Setup Minikube

Start the cluster

minikube start

Start the dashboard

minikube dashboard

Follow the link you recieved from console. It should look something like this

http://127.0.0.1:[PORT]/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/#/workloads?namespace=default

Move the dasboard to a backround

By default, the dashboard is actively running on your terminal. To make it go to the background, simply press “CTRL + Z” and type the following command:

bg

Install kubectl

If you are not familiar with kubectl. Kubectl is a command-line tool used to interact with Kubernetes clusters. It acts as the primary interface to control Kubernetes clusters and the workloads running on them. It allows users to deploy and manage applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, view logs, and execute commands within containers running on Kubernetes.

Package managers

  
#brew
brew install kubectl

#debian
curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg # allow unprivileged APT programs to read this keyring
#Note: In releases older than Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04, folder /etc/apt/keyrings does not exist by default, and it should be created before the curl command.
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list   # helps tools such as command-not-found to work correctly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

#RHEL
# This overwrites any existing configuration in /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo
[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
EOF

sudo yum install -y kubectl

Test Minikube cluster with kubectl

minikube status
kubectl get po -A

Manage Minikube cluster

Basic commands

  
#Pause/unpause the cluster
minikube pause
minikube unpause

#Start/stop the cluster
minikube stop
minukube start

#Delete cluster/s
minikube delete <cluster-name>
minikube delete -all

Install addons

Minikube addons are optional features or functionalities that can be enabled or disabled within a Minikube cluster to enhance its capabilities or provide additional tools for development and testing.

Browse the addons

minikube addons list

Enable addon

minikube addons enable <addon-name>

Bonus

Helm

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies the process of deploying, managing, and scaling applications on Kubernetes clusters. It allows users to define, install, and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications and their dependencies using reusable templates called charts.

Installation

  
#Package managers
brew install helm
#RHEL systems
sudo dnf install helm

#Debian
curl https://baltocdn.com/helm/signing.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg > /dev/null
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https --yes
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg] https://baltocdn.com/helm/stable/debian/ all main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/helm-stable-debian.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install helm

#Or install helm over script (binary)
curl -fsSL -o get_helm.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3
chmod 700 get_helm.sh
./get_helm.sh

Check if helm is working correctly

helm version

Install Minikube on Ubuntu WSL 2