minikube is a method for creating a local, single-node Kubernetes cluster for development and testing. Setup is completely automated and doesn’t require a cloud provider account.

You are highly encouraged to install minikube on your local development machines such as a laptop.

In this lab, you will learn how to:

    ☐ Install minikube
    ☐ Configure minikube
    ☐ Differentiate the minikube CLI tool from the Kubernetes KubeCtl tool
    ☐ Inspect a cluster
    ☐ Use addons

Key Features

    ☐ Runs locally and free
    ☐ Runs on Mac, Linux and Windows machines
    ☐ Looks and feels like Kubernetes targeted for larger clusters
    ☐ The community’s common way to get started
    ☐ Use locally for testing and learning
    ☐ Supplies convenience addons for common solutions found in many clusters
    ☐ Works well with virtual machines such as VirtualBox
    ☐ Administer the single node cluster from the command-line tool
    ☐ Well documented and supported by the community

minikube is by no means a full high-available cluster and should never be considered for production deployments or where security, performance, and stability is expected. However, it’s a very approachable tool to learn the core concepts of Kubernetes.

More about minikube is documented here .