👉 If you missed the first part, check out Part I.

🚀 Introduction

For this project, we will be using Kind, not Minikube. Both tools are excellent, but Kind is simpler, lighter, and perfectly suited for our needs. You can compare both in more detail in my previous blog post: Kind Vs Minikube.

🔧 What You’ll Need

  • curl installed on your machine

📥 Installing Kind

You could follow the official documentation, but it requires Golang to be installed on your machine, which might take some time. If you’d still like to go that route, follow the instructions here.

Alternatively, you can use the method below for a quicker setup:

🧑‍💻 Getting the Source Code

  1. Go to the Kind GitHub Releases page and download the appropriate version for your OS. In my case, I’m using macOS with an arm64 architecture, so I’ll right-click on the correct package and copy the link.

  2. Download the file using curl (you can save it in the root of your project):

     curl -L -o ./kind https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.24.0/kind-darwin-arm64

  3. Make it executable by giving the appropriate permissions:

     sudo chmod +x ./kind

  4. Verify the installation by checking the version:

     ./kind --version

    You should see something like:

     kind version 0.24.0

🏗️ Creating Your K8s Cluster

Now comes the fun part—creating your Kubernetes cluster with Kind! To do this, run the following command:

./kind create cluster --name myks8project

If everything goes well, you’ll see output similar to this:

Creating cluster "myks8project" ...
✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.31.0) 🖼
✓ Preparing nodes 📦
✓ Writing configuration 📜
✓ Starting control-plane 🕹️
✓ Installing CNI 🔌
✓ Installing StorageClass 💾
Set kubectl context to "kind-myks8project"
You can now use your cluster with:

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-myks8project

Have a nice day! 👋

Waaaiittt… have you notice the command kubectl cluster-info --context kind-myks8project on the Kind output?

🧑‍💻 What is kubectl?

Once you’ve set up your Kubernetes cluster using Kind, you will often interact with it using kubectl. But what exactly is kubectl?

🛠️ Understanding kubectl

kubectl is the command-line tool that allows you to communicate with your Kubernetes clusters. Think of it as the bridge between you and the Kubernetes API, enabling you to:

  • Inspect the state of your cluster (view nodes, pods, services, etc.)
  • Deploy applications
  • Manage cluster resources
  • Perform debugging tasks

Without kubectl, managing Kubernetes would be much more difficult, as you’d have to work directly with the Kubernetes API or use a UI. In essence, kubectl is essential for day-to-day operations when working with Kubernetes.

🖥️ Installing kubectl

Let’s look at how to install kubectl on different platforms: macOS, Ubuntu, and Windows.

MacOS Installation

For macOS, you can use brew:

  1. Open your terminal and run:

     brew install kubectl

  2. Verify the installation:

     kubectl version --client

Ubuntu Installation

On Ubuntu, you can install kubectl using the following commands:

  1. Install kubectl:

     sudo apt-get update
 # apt-transport-https may be a dummy package; if so, you can skip that package
 sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg

     # If the folder `/etc/apt/keyrings` does not exist, it should be created before the curl command, read the note below.
 # sudo mkdir -p -m 755 /etc/apt/keyrings
 curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.31/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
 sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg # allow unprivileged APT programs to read this keyring

     # This overwrites any existing configuration in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
 echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.31/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
 sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list   # helps tools such as command-not-found to work correctly

     sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

  2. Verify the installation:

     kubectl version --client

Windows Installation

On Windows, you can install kubectl using chocolatey:

  1. Open PowerShell as an Administrator and run:

     choco install kubernetes-cli

  2. Verify the installation:

     kubectl version --client

For more detailed instructions, refer to the official Kubernetes documentation.

🖥️ Checking Your Cluster Nodes

Once you have kubectl installed, you can check the nodes in your Kubernetes cluster by running the following command:

kubectl get nodes

This will display all the nodes (machines) in your cluster, giving you an overview of its current state. You should see something like this:

NAME                         STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
myks8project-control-plane   Ready    control-plane   17m   v1.31.0

🌟 Final Thoughts

That’s it! You’ve successfully set up a Kubernetes cluster with Kind. 🎉 Great job!

See you in the Part III.