Minikube is a tool that makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally. Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM on your laptop for users looking to try out Kubernetes or develop with it day-to-day.

Features

Minikube packages and configures a Linux VM, the container runtime, and all Kubernetes components, optimized for local development.

Minikube supports Kubernetes features such as:

• DNS
• NodePorts
• ConfigMaps and Secrets
• Dashboards
• Container Runtime: Docker, and rkt
• Enabling CNI (Container Network Interface)

Requirements

• OS X: xhyve driver, Virtualbox or VMware Fusion
• Linux: Virtualbox or KVM
• Windows: Hyper-V
• VT-x/AMD-v virtualization must be enabled in BIOS

Installation

Install the minikube commandline.

$ curl -Lo minikube https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/v0.16.0/minikube-darwin-amd64 && chmod +x minikube && sudo mv minikube /usr/local/bin/

Using minikube

Start minkube with specific driver:

$ minikube start --vm-driver [virtualbox xhyve vmwarefusion] (default "virtualbox")
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
Running pre-create checks...
Creating machine...
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...

Start kubernetes POD’s

$ kubectl run hello-minikube --image=gcr.io/google_containers/echoserver:1.4 --port=8080

Stop minikube

$ $ minikube stop
Stopping local Kubernetes cluster...
Stopping "minikube"...