Kubernetes Tutorial for Beginners

The Kubernetes software enables you to manage large quantities of containers and helps you with a range of automatic functions. In this way, Kubernetes – also known as K8s – has created a mini revolution in software development. To benefit from this system, we take you through the most important steps – from installation through to your first cluster.

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Kubernetes: Installation & Getting Started

Kubernetes works with various servers: masters and nodes. They don’t necessarily have to be on separate physical servers. Virtual machines also enable you to activate multiple Kubernetes nodes on a computer. The free program Minikube has proved to be especially effective for test purposes. It also allows you to work with Kubernetes locally. Since Minikube creates a virtual machine, the program requires a hypervisor. To use it, you’ll therefore need to have installed a program like VirtualBox. The Kube Control tool is also necessary.

Note

This Kubernetes tutorial explains the installation steps for Ubuntu. But it’s also possible to run Kubernetes on Windows or macOS. The official guide also contains solutions in this regard.

Installing Kube Control

First, install Kubectl on your system. You’ll need this program to manage clusters.

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

Minikube

Next, install Minikube – a tool that creates a virtual machine as a node.

curl -Lo minikube https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64 \
  && chmod +x minikube

Now launch Minikube.

minikube start

When you start Minikube, Kubectl should automatically be configured correctly. Enter another command to switch from the command line to a GUI. This opens the dashboard in the standard browser.

minikube dashboard
Tip

If you wish to go without installing Kubernetes on your system, you can also access a developers’ web terminal. Here, you can then learn the ins and outs of Kubernetes using an interactive tutorial.

Using Kubernetes

After starting Minikube, the program automatically creates a cluster with a single node. You can check it with a Kubectl query:

kubectl get nodes

You can create deployments using the dashboard. Click on the “Create” button (top right) to access an online editor. There you’ll be able to create a deployment in JSON or YAML format. Once you’ve done this, Kubernetes will automatically generate multiple pods. You can adjust the desired amount by scaling the deployment. This function is located next to the deployment in the form of a “more options” button (with three dots).

Alternatively, you can also generate deployments via the terminal. However, the content needs to be already integrated in a docker image placed in a repository.

kubectl create deployment --image=[pathway to image]

You can pull up a range of information using the command line.

What deployments are there?

kubectl get deployments

How many pods are there?

kubectl get pods

What services are there?

kubectl get services

Which nodes are active?

kubectl get nodes

You’ve so far started your deployment, but not yet released it. To release it, you’ll need to create a service:

kubectl expose deploy test-deployment

However, entering this code only releases the service within the cluster. In order to access the deployment beyond the cluster, extra flags are necessary:

kubectl expose deploy test-deployment --type=LoadBalancer --port=8080

You can then start the service with Minikube:

minikube service test-deployment

If you want to delete the service again, there’s also a command for that:

kubectl delete service test-deployment

The deployment can also be deleted:

kubectl delete deployment test-deployment

In order to end Minikube, you need to stop the process:

minikube stop

And if you no longer wish to work with the virtual machine, you can also remove that.

minikube delete

Afterwards, any configured settings as well as created deployments and pods will also be deleted. If you launch Minikube again, you’ll start with an empty cluster again.

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