Kubernetes Tutorial for Beginners

The Kubernetes software enables you to manage large quantities of containers and helps you with a range of automatic functions. In this way, Kubernetes – also known as K8s – has created a mini revolution in software development. To benefit from this system, we take you through the most important steps – from installation through to your first cluster.

Kubernetes works with various servers: masters and nodes. They don’t necessarily have to be on separate physical servers. Virtual machines also enable you to activate multiple Kubernetes nodes on a computer. The free program Minikube has proved to be especially effective for test purposes. It also allows you to work with Kubernetes locally. Since Minikube creates a virtual machine, the program requires a hypervisor. To use it, you’ll therefore need to have installed a program like VirtualBox. The Kube Control tool is also necessary.

First, install Kubectl on your system. You’ll need this program to manage clusters.

Next, install Minikube – a tool that creates a virtual machine as a node.

Now launch Minikube.

When you start Minikube, Kubectl should automatically be configured correctly. Enter another command to switch from the command line to a GUI. This opens the dashboard in the standard browser.

After starting Minikube, the program automatically creates a cluster with a single node. You can check it with a Kubectl query:

Alternatively, you can also generate deployments via the terminal. However, the content needs to be already integrated in a docker image placed in a repository.

You can pull up a range of information using the command line.

What deployments are there?

How many pods are there?

What services are there?

Which nodes are active?

You’ve so far started your deployment, but not yet released it. To release it, you’ll need to create a service:

However, entering this code only releases the service within the cluster. In order to access the deployment beyond the cluster, extra flags are necessary:

You can then start the service with Minikube:

If you want to delete the service again, there’s also a command for that:

The deployment can also be deleted:

In order to end Minikube, you need to stop the process:

And if you no longer wish to work with the virtual machine, you can also remove that.

Afterwards, any configured settings as well as created deployments and pods will also be deleted. If you launch Minikube again, you’ll start with an empty cluster again.