Standalone Kubernetes cluster setup in Windows 10

Amarnath Nachimuthu
3 min readFeb 15, 2021

Minikube runs a standalone cluster on a single virtual machine for a swift Kubernetes setup. It is a great tool if you want to play around Kubernetes.

You are going to understand how to set up, install and configure Minikube yourself.

Installing minikube

1. Install VirtualBox on your workstation. minikube will be creating the virtual machine on your workstation.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

2. Download and install minikube

https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/

Choose “stand-alone windows installer” file and proceed with the installation.

3. Download kubectl manually from below link

https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.18.0/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe

kubectl

kubectl is the Kubernetes command-line tool. It allows you to run commands against Kubernetes clusters. You can use kubectl to deploy applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, and view logs.

4. Execute the below command from minikube installed path.

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube.exe start

If the above command is not working use the below command to detect the

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube.exe start — driver=virtualbox–kubernetes-version= v1.20

— driver=VirtualBox will use the VirtualBox hypervisor and download the ISO images.

5. Check minikube and kubectl version

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:”1", Minor:”18", GitVersion:”v1.18.0", GitCommit:”9e991415386e4cf155a24b1da15becaa390438d8", GitTreeState:”clean”, BuildDate:”2020–03–25T14:58:59Z”, GoVersion:”go1.13.8", Compiler:”gc”, Platform:”windows/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:”1", Minor:”20", GitVersion:”v1.20.0", GitCommit:”af46c47ce925f4c4ad5cc8d1fca46c7b77d13b38", GitTreeState:”clean”, BuildDate:”2020–12–08T17:51:19Z”, GoVersion:”go1.15.5", Compiler:”gc”, Platform:”linux/amd64"}

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube version
minikube version: v1.16.0
commit: 9f1e482427589ff8451c4723b6ba53bb9742fbb1

Some Additional Minikube Commands

  1. To find minikube IP

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube.exe ip
192.168.99.100

2. To know minikube status

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube.exe status m01
minikube
type: Control Plane
host: Running
kubelet: Running
apiserver: Running
kubeconfig: Configured
timeToStop: Nonexistent

3. To get kubernetes cluster configuration

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>kubectl config view

The config file will be having all the connection details.

4. To find minikube cluster details

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>kubectl cluster-info
Kubernetes master is running at https://192.168.99.100:8443
KubeDNS is running at https://192.168.99.100:8443/api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/services/kube-dns:dns/proxy

To further debug and diagnose cluster problems, use ‘kubectl cluster-info dump’.

5. To start the dashboard

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube dashboard
* Enabling dashboard …
* Verifying dashboard health …
* Launching proxy …
* Verifying proxy health …
* Opening http://127.0.0.1:51493/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/ in your default browser…

6. stop Minikube cluster

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube>minikube stop

7. Delete the cluster

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube> minikube delete

8. Help Command

C:\Program Files\Kubernetes\Minikube> minikube help

That’s all for now.

Let’s play with Kubernetes!!

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