Minikube

Minikube is a lightweight tool that lets you run a single-node Kubernetes cluster locally on your machine. It’s great for:

Learning Kubernetes
Testing and development
CI/CD experimentation

Key Features

Feature	Purpose
✅ Local Kubernetes	No need for cloud setup — runs on your laptop or VM
✅ Fast and lightweight	Ideal for dev and testing, spins up quickly
✅ Supports Add-ons	LoadBalancer, Dashboard, Ingress, Metrics Server, etc.
✅ Multi-Node Support	Can simulate multiple nodes (advanced use)
✅ Cross-Platform	Works on macOS, Linux, Windows

Installation

Minikube creates a virtual machine or container on your system (using Docker, VirtualBox, etc.) and installs Kubernetes components inside it.

Prerequisites

Virtualization: Ensure you have a hypervisor installed (e.g., Docker, VirtualBox).
kubectl: Install the Kubernetes command-line tool.

Minikube Workflow


# Start Minikube
minikube start
 
# View cluster status
minikube status
 
# Open the Kubernetes dashboard
minikube dashboard
 
# Deploy your app (via kubectl)
kubectl apply -f app.yaml
 
# Access a service via browser (exposes service on localhost)
minikube service my-service
 
# Stop cluster
minikube stop
 
# Delete cluster
minikube delete

Starting Minikube

Minikube can run on various drivers, like:

Docker (default and recommended)
VirtualBox
Hyper-V
KVM
VMware


minikube start --driver=docker

Accessing Services

To access services running in Minikube, you can use:


minikube addons enable ingress
minikube addons enable metrics-server

Typical Use Case

Say you want to test your app on Kubernetes before deploying it to GKE, EKS, or AKS — you’d:

Start Minikube
Apply your deployment/service YAMLs
Access and debug locally
Once satisfied, push to your cloud provider

Minikube vs kubectl

Minikube is a local Kubernetes cluster manager.
kubectl is the command-line tool to interact with any Kubernetes cluster (including Minikube).