Minimalistic Kubernetes apps with Microk8s

When I first started to learn Kubernetes, I tries to figured out how to start quickly and with minimal efforts for bootstrap. At that time I did not find guides how to use K8s locally on own server or in VPS and not in SAAS.

So, the options to use K8s in simple way are:

• Install K8s modules (kubectl, apis, proxy, etc.) manually
• Minikube
• Kind
• Kubeadm
• Microk8s

Official guide of K8s tools options - https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/

All options are good and have nice tooling, but today I will describe using microk8s (https://microk8s.io/). For me it was the simplest way to bootstrap the environment with app running in K8s.

Installation

I will describe use of K8s in Ubuntu OS, but it is easy to use it in most other OS you like.

The simplest way is to use SNAP:

1. Install microk8s
   $ sudo snap install microk8s --classic --channel=1.24

2. Configure permissions:
   

sudo usermod -a -G microk8s $USER
sudo chown -f -R $USER ~/.kube

1. Check for successful installation: microk8s status --wait-ready

Addons

Microk8s has a nice ecosystem of addons that help to minimize manual configuration of APIs. Full list of add-ons:
https://microk8s.io/docs/addons#heading--list

We will use:

• microk8s enable dns - for communication with outer world
• microk8s enable dashboard - for use of UI

That's it!

You can use usual kubectl commands:

microk8s kubectl get all
microk8s kubcectl get pods

Also, you can check, start and stop service:

• microk8s stop
• microk8s start
• microk8s status

Full list of commands: https://microk8s.io/docs/command-reference

Further I will write how to deploy Spring, Go or other apps in microk8s and VPS.

Thank you for reading!