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Minikube Guide

[kubernetes][local][devops][containers]
Container / K8s
Install
brew install minikube
# Linux:
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube
# Windows: choco install minikube

Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster locally. Unlike kind (which runs K8s in Docker containers), Minikube uses a VM or Docker driver for full K8s feature support including LoadBalancer services, PersistentVolumes, Ingress, and metrics-server.

Start with `minikube start --cpus=4 --memory=8g`. Enable addons: `minikube addons enable ingress`, `minikube addons enable metrics-server`. The dashboard (`minikube dashboard`) opens a web UI. Use `minikube tunnel` to expose LoadBalancer services.

Minikube supports profiles for multiple clusters. Cache images with `minikube cache add alpine:latest`. For CI, use --driver=none (bare-metal) or --driver=docker. GUI: Minikube dashboard, Lens, Octant.

Setup

Start cluster— Create local K8s.
minikube start
minikube start --driver=docker
minikube start --cpus=4 --memory=8192
minikube start --kubernetes-version=v1.30.0
minikube start -p dev-cluster

Cluster Management

Dashboard— Open web UI.
minikube dashboard
minikube dashboard --url

minikube status
minikube stop
minikube delete
minikube delete --all
Image management— Build and load images.
eval $(minikube docker-env)
docker build -t myapp:latest .

minikube cache add alpine:latest
minikube cache list

docker tag myapp localhost:5000/myapp
docker push localhost:5000/myapp

Addons

Addons— Enable features.
minikube addons list
minikube addons enable ingress
minikube addons enable metrics-server
minikube addons enable dashboard
minikube addons enable registry
minikube addons enable metallb

# Open addon UI:
minikube addons open dashboard

Networking

LoadBalancer tunnel— Access LoadBalancer services.
# Terminal 1:
minikube tunnel

# Terminal 2:
kubectl create deployment web --image=nginx
kubectl expose deployment web --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer
minikube service web
minikube service web --url
Service access— Service URLs.
minikube service myservice --url
minikube service list
minikube service myservice
kubectl port-forward service/myservice 8080:80
minikube ip

Troubleshooting

SSH into node— Debug the VM.
minikube ssh
# Inside VM:
docker ps
journalctl -u kubelet

minikube logs > minikube.log
minikube logs --problems-only
minikube cp /host/file /vm/file
Mount host directory— Share files with cluster.
# Background mount:
minikube mount /host/path:/vm/path

# Or on start:
minikube start --mount --mount-string="/host/path:/vm/path"