Practical Kubernetes with kubectl and Minikube Starting and Exploring a Minikube Cluster

Learning objective: By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to start a Minikube cluster, verify its operation, access the Kubernetes dashboard, and retrieve key information about the cluster using kubectl.

Starting the Minikube cluster

To launch a local Kubernetes cluster using Minikube, use the following command:

minikube start

This command initializes a Minikube container on your local machine, which will manage your Kubernetes cluster.

Verifying Minikube startup

After starting Minikube, you can confirm that the Minikube container is running by listing all Docker containers with:

docker ps -a

You should see an entry for the Minikube container in the output, indicating it is running.

Exploring the Kubernetes dashboard

Once your Minikube cluster is running, you can access the Kubernetes dashboard to get a visual overview of the cluster.

Open the dashboard by running:

minikube dashboard

This command launches a web-based interface in your default browser, showing:

• The current state of your cluster.
• The number of pods, services, and other resources.
• Metrics and performance details.

The dashboard provides an intuitive way to explore your cluster and monitor its health.

Viewing cluster information

To gather more in-depth information about your Minikube cluster, use the following command:

kubectl cluster-info

This command provides details such as the addresses of the Kubernetes control plane and other services running in the cluster.