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Abhijeet Mohanan
Abhijeet Mohanan

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Deploying kubernetes on containers using kind

#kubernetes #testing #kind

Kind is an installation tool used to deploy kubernetes cluster in containers.
We all need a simple, easy method to deploy kubernetes for testing and practice.

From the Documentation

kind is a tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker container “nodes”.
kind was primarily designed for testing Kubernetes itself, but may be used for local development or CI.

List of Contents

  • Installing Docker
  • Getting kind binary
  • Getting kubectl binary
  • Deploying a single node cluster
  • Deploying Multi node Cluster
  • Deploying a Multi Master
  • Accessing Kubernetes Cluster
  • Deploying and Accessing multiple clusters

Let's Get Started!

For using kind you need to install docker 
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo systemctl start docker && sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sudo systemctl restart docker
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If you are facing an issue while installing docker please refer Install Docker

Log out and Log in once and fire the command docker ps if the command is executed successfully docker is ready for use

Create a Directory 

mkdir $HOME/bin/
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Add the following parameters to .bashrc at your home directory 
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin/
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Getting the kind binary 
curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.10.0/kind-linux-amd64
chmod +x kind
mv kind $HOME/bin/kind
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Log out and Log in once and fire the command below this should provide you with the current version of the command.

kind --version
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Getting kubectl binary 
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
chmod +x kubectl
mv kubectl $HOME/bin/kubectl
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Log out and Log in once and fire the command below this should provide you with the current version of the command.

kubectl version
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Creating cluster using kind:

Deploying a single node cluster
<your_cluster_name> replace with a name you wish

kind create cluster --name <your_cluster_name>
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If you want to access your cluster Refer to Accessing Kubernetes Cluster below

Deploying a multi node cluster
kind can be provided with a config file where the number nodes and their roles can be mentioned.

config.yaml 
kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
- role: control-plane
- role: worker
- role: worker
- role: worker
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Fire the command below for deploying the cluster

kind create cluster --config config.yaml --name <your_cluster_name>
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A Multimaster kubernetes cluster can be deployed by editing the config.yaml file

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
- role: control-plane
- role: control-plane
- role: worker
- role: worker
- role: worker
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Fire the command below for the deployment of Multimaster Kubernetes cluster

kind create cluster --config config.yaml --name <your_cluster_name>
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Accessing The Kubernetes cluster

The file $HOME/.kube/config is created by default,do

kubectl get nodes
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Deploying and accessing multiple clusters

You can specify different names for different clusters

kind create cluster --config config.yaml --name <your_cluster_name>
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This clusters can be managed by using the configuration file that can be generated by using the command
<Cluster_config_filename> replace this parameter with a filename

kind get clusters \\ This will list all the clusters that are running

kind get kubeconfig --name <your_cluster_name> >> <Cluster_config_filename>

export KUBECONFIG=<Cluster_config_filename>
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Now your kubectl is configured to use the specific cluster

There are various configurations that can be done while deploying a kubernetes cluster

A sample configuration file is given below
you can use these configuration to your advantage

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
featureGates:
  # any feature gate can be enabled here with "Name": true
  # or disabled here with "Name": false
  "CSIMigration": true
runtimeConfig:
  "api/alpha": "false"
networking:
  # network configuration for nodes 
  ipFamily: ipv6
  apiServerAddress: "127.0.0.1"
  apiServerPort: 6443
  podSubnet: "10.244.0.0/16"
  serviceSubnet: "10.96.0.0/12"
  disableDefaultCNI: true
  kubeProxyMode: "ipvs"
nodes:
# one node hosting a control plane
- role: control-plane
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: InitConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "my-label=true"
- role: worker
  extraMounts:
  # with the extraMounts parameter one can attach persistent volume to the node 
  - hostPath: /path/to/my/files/
    containerPath: /files
  extraPortMappings:
  - containerPort: 80
    hostPort: 80
    # optional: set the bind address on the host
    # 0.0.0.0 is the current default
    listenAddress: "127.0.0.1"
    # optional: set the protocol to one of TCP, UDP, SCTP.
    # TCP is the default
    protocol: TCP
- role: worker
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "my-label2=true"
- role: worker
  image: kindest/node:v1.16.4@sha256:b91a2c2317a000f3a783489dfb755064177dbc3a0b2f4147d50f04825d016f55
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The deployment gets ready in much easier and faster way you can save the docker image and copy it to your local machine for further use.

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