How to Install and Use Minikube: Setup and Essential

Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster locally on your machine. It is the fastest way to get a working cluster for learning, development, and testing without needing a cloud account. Minikube uses Docker as the default driver, so no virtual machine setup is required on modern systems.

Use Minikube when you want to learn Kubernetes locally or test configurations before deploying to a cloud cluster. Use a managed cluster like Civo when you need a multi-node environment, persistent storage, or a production-grade setup.

Before installing Minikube, install kubectl first. Minikube provides the cluster but kubectl is the tool you use to interact with it. The previous lesson in this chapter covers kubectl installation.

Prerequisites

• 2 CPUs or more
• 2GB of free memory
• 20GB of free disk space
• Docker Desktop or Docker Engine installed and running

Install Minikube

macOS

1brew install minikube

Linux

1curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
2sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube

Windows

1choco install minikube

Verify the installation:

1minikube version

Expected output:

1minikube version: v1.32.0
2commit: 8220a6eb95f0a4d75f7f2d7b14cef975f050512

Start your cluster

Minikube uses Docker as the default driver. Docker Desktop or Docker Engine must be running before you start:

1minikube start

Expected output:

1* minikube v1.32.0 on Darwin 14.0
2* Automatically selected the docker driver
3* Starting control plane node minikube in cluster minikube
4* Pulling base image ...
5* Preparing Kubernetes v1.28.3 on Docker 24.0.7 ...
6* Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube" cluster

Other drivers are available if you need them. Pass --driver=virtualbox, --driver=hyperv, or --driver=parallels to use an alternative. For most users the Docker driver works without any additional configuration.

Verify the cluster is running:

1minikube status

Expected output:

1minikube
2type: Control Plane
3host: Running
4kubelet: Running
5apiserver: Running
6kubeconfig: Configured

Useful start flags

Customise your cluster at start time:

1minikube start --cpus=4 --memory=8g --kubernetes-version=v1.28.0 --driver=docker

Set defaults so you do not need to pass flags every time:

1minikube config set memory 8192
2minikube config set cpus 4

Essential commands

Stop the cluster without deleting it

1minikube stop

Data and state are preserved. Run minikube start to resume.

Delete the cluster and all its data

1minikube delete

Open the Kubernetes dashboard in your browser

1minikube dashboard

List all available addons

1minikube addons list

Enable an addon

1minikube addons enable metrics-server
2minikube addons enable ingress

These two addons are recommended for most users. metrics-server enables kubectl top commands. ingress adds an nginx ingress controller to your local cluster.

Get the URL for a service

1minikube service <service-name> --url

Expose LoadBalancer services locally

1minikube tunnel

Run this in a separate terminal. It creates a network route that gives LoadBalancer services an accessible IP address on your local machine.

Load a local Docker image into Minikube

1minikube image load <image-name>

Use this to test locally built images without pushing them to a registry. In your pod spec, set imagePullPolicy: Never to prevent Kubernetes from trying to pull the image remotely.

View Minikube logs

1minikube logs

Useful for diagnosing cluster startup failures.

View all resources across all namespaces

1kubectl get all -A