Kubernetes 1.7 on Ubuntu, the Easy Way

I spotted this article yesterday, demonstrating how to set up a Kubernetes cluster on Ubuntu. While the article is well-meaning, I feel obligated to raise my hand and shout, “Wait, it’s actually much easier than that!”

Whether you’re new to Kubernetes and just want to get up-and-running, or you’re a Kubernetes admin looking for an easier way to deploy and manage a cluster, I’ll show you the quickest way to do it on Ubuntu.

Spoiler Alert

On a fresh install of Ubuntu Xenial, it only takes two (!) commands to get a complete Kubernetes cluster up-and-running:

sudo snap install conjure-up --classic
conjure-up kubernetes

The conjure-up command will launch an installer to walk you through installing Kubernetes on the cloud of your choice. You can choose from AWS, Azure, Google, Joyent, Oracle, Rackspace, and…localhost!

Deploying to localhost will create a Kubernetes cluster that is fully contained on the host machine, but with all of the cluster components neatly separated into individual LXD containers.

Demo

Here’s a demo where I demonstrate these steps on a fresh Ubuntu Xenial machine. In the demo I run conjure-up in headless mode, without the terminal-based GUI. The entire install is just two commands!

After the install completes, I run a couple of extra commands to show that we do indeed have a fully functional Kubernetes cluster.

Deploying a Kubernetes 1.7 cluster with two commands!

Enjoy!