Quick setup a local Kubernetes cluster with Minikube

Photo by Daniel Leone on Unsplash

To develop microservices with Kubernetes, it usually needed a local environment for development. Here’s how to quickly set up a local cluster with Minikube on MacOS.

Prerequisites

Run the command to install kubectl (Kubernetes cluster manager)

brew install kubernetes-cli

Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date

kubectl version

Install Virtualbox using Homebrew, or download the dmg from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

brew cask install virtualbox

The easiest way to install Minikube on macOS is by using Homebrew

brew cask install minikube

Then test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date

minikube version

Setup local cluster

Start Minikube and create a cluster

minikube start

After installing the cluster, set docker-env to let Minikube cluster access your local images

eval $(minikube docker-env)

Setup local cluster by Docker(new)

Install Docker desktop and go to Preferences > Kubernetes > Enable Kubernetes, Done!

Useful tools for Kubernetes

• Kubectl Plugin(oh-my-zsh)

This plugin adds completion for the Kubernetes cluster manager, as well as some aliases for common kubectl commands. (https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/blob/master/plugins/kubectl/kubectl.plugin.zsh)

• K9s

This CLI provides a terminal UI to interact with your Kubernetes clusters.

(https://github.com/derailed/k9s)

• kubectx + kubens

This project helps you switching faster between clusters and namespaces. (https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx)

• Helm

Helm is a tool for managing Kubernetes charts. Charts are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. (https://github.com/helm/helm)

• Skaffold

Skaffold is an open-source project built by Google which is a command-line tool that facilitates continuous development for Kubernetes applications. (https://skaffold.dev/)