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M. Oly Mahmud
M. Oly Mahmud

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Running Kubernetes in Docker (KIND) Locally While Your Cluster Lives in Google Cloud Shell

#kubernetes #devops #docker #googlecloud

You want to develop with Kubernetes locally using KIND, but your laptop doesn't have enough resources. Google Cloud Shell has plenty of compute, but it's not meant for long-running clusters. So run KIND in Cloud Shell and control it from your machine.

The benefits of it:

  • Cloud Shell has more compute than your dev machine
  • Your laptop stays clean
  • No Docker Desktop overhead

Create Your KIND Cluster in Cloud Shell

First, the cluster config. The important part is extraPortMappings—this exposes ports 80 and 443 to Cloud Shell.

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
name: streamx-cluster
nodes:
  - role: control-plane
    image: kindest/node:v1.35.1
    extraPortMappings:
      - containerPort: 80
        hostPort: 80
        protocol: TCP
      - containerPort: 443
        hostPort: 443
        protocol: TCP
  - role: worker
    image: kindest/node:v1.35.1
  - role: worker
    image: kindest/node:v1.35.1
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Create it and verify:

kind create cluster --config kind-config.yaml
kubectl cluster-info --context kind-streamx-cluster
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Export the Kubeconfig

KIND generates a kubeconfig automatically. Export it to a file you can move:

kind export kubeconfig --name streamx-cluster --kubeconfig my-cluster-config.yaml
cat my-cluster-config.yaml
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Copy the Kubeconfig to Your Local Machine

gcloud cloud-shell scp cloudshell:~/my-cluster-config.yaml localhost:~/my-cluster-config.yaml
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Set Up Port Forwarding

Your cluster's API server is in Cloud Shell on 127.0.0.1:46151 (check your kubeconfig). Tunnel it through SSH:

gcloud cloud-shell ssh --ssh-flag="-f" --ssh-flag="-N" --ssh-flag="-T" --ssh-flag="-L 46151:127.0.0.1:46151"
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The flags:

  • -f runs in the background
  • -N just forward ports, don't run a remote command
  • -T no pseudo-terminal
  • -L 46151:127.0.0.1:46151 forwards your local port to the remote one

The tunnel stays open as long as your Cloud Shell session is active.

Connect kubectl Locally

export KUBECONFIG="~/my-cluster-config.yaml"
kubectl get nodes
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You should see your control plane and worker nodes. If you get a certificate error, check that your SSH tunnel is running.

Deploy Nginx

Create nginx-deployment.yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  labels:
    app: nginx-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx-deployment
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx-deployment
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
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And nginx-service.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx-nodeport-service
spec:
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    app: nginx-deployment
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80
      nodePort: 32000
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Deploy it:

kubectl apply -f nginx-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f nginx-service.yaml
kubectl port-forward svc/nginx-nodeport-service 8080:80
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Open http://localhost:8080. You're looking at Nginx running in a pod in Cloud Shell.

Thanks for reading

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