How to get started with Minikube on Mac OS

Goal:

This article explains the detailed steps on how to get started with Minikube on Mac OS.
This is a good starting point to learn Kubernetes.

Env:

Mac OS 10.14
Minikube v0.30.0

Solutions:

1. Prerequisite

Install xcode on Mac:

xcode-select --install

Then install Homebrew:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

So basically Homebrew installs packages to their own directory and then symlinks their files into /usr/local.

2. Install Minikube

Using Homebrew we can easily install Minikube on Mac:

brew cask install minikube

3. Start a single node Kubernetes cluster in VM

By default Minikube uses "virtualbox" as the VM driver, and you can also change it to others:

$ minikube start -h |grep vm-driver
      --vm-driver string               VM driver is one of: [virtualbox vmwarefusion kvm xhyve hyperv hyperkit kvm2 none] (default "virtualbox")

Now start the single node Kubernetes cluster in VM(default memory size is 2G):

minikube start

4. Launch Kubernetes Web Dashboard

minikube dashboard

Only one node shows:

5. Deploy a hello world Node.js application into Minikube

kubectl run hello-minikube --image=k8s.gcr.io/echoserver:1.4 --port=8080

Shown in "Deployments" in dashboard:

Or shown in CLI:

$ kubectl get deployments
NAME             DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
hello-minikube   1         1         1            1           15m

6. Expose the deployment as a service

kubectl expose deployment hello-minikube --type=NodePort

Display the service information in dashboard:

Or display the service information in CLI:

$ kubectl get services hello-minikube
NAME             TYPE       CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)          AGE
hello-minikube   NodePort   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx <none>        8080:31978/TCP   3m

7. Wait for the pod up and running

Keep running below command until the pod's status is running and is ready.

$  kubectl get pods
NAME                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
hello-minikube-6c47c66d8-gv7n2   1/1     Running   0          31m

8. Access the service

curl $(minikube service hello-minikube --url)

Or go directly to the web URL in browser:

$ minikube service hello-minikube --url
http://192.168.99.100:31978

9. Shutdown cluster

Delete the service(Service is gone after that):

kubectl delete service hello-minikube

Delete the deployment(Both deployment and pod are gone after that):

kubectl delete deployment hello-minikube

Stop the minikube cluster:

minikube stop

Reference:
https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube