Kind, short for Kubernetes in Docker, is a tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as “nodes.”

Step 1: Prerequisites

Docker installed on your local machine. If Docker is not installed, you can download it from the Docker website.

Step 2: Install kind

You can install kind using a package manager like Homebrew on macOS or Chocolatey on Windows. For Linux, or to install without a package manager, you can download a release binary. Learn more in https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/quick-start/

# macOS
brew install kind

# Windows
choco install kind

# Linux
curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.11.1/kind-linux-amd64
chmod +x ./kind
mv ./kind /some-dir-in-your-PATH/kind

Step 3: Create a Configuration File

Kind allows us to define the structure of our cluster through a configuration file. In this file, we’ll specify that we want three worker nodes. Create a new file named kind-config.yaml and paste the following content into it:

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
name: dxbook
nodes:
- role: control-plane
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: InitConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        system-reserved: memory=4Gi    
- role: worker
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        system-reserved: memory=4Gi,cpu=2    
- role: worker
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        system-reserved: memory=4Gi,cpu=2    
- role: worker
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        system-reserved: memory=4Gi,cpu=2    

This configuration creates a cluster with one control-plane (master) node and three worker nodes.

Step 4: Create a Kubernetes Cluster

Now, we’re ready to create our Kubernetes cluster. We can do so with a single command:

kind create cluster --config cluster/kind-config.yaml

By default, this command will create a cluster with a single node (the control plane node). It might take some minutes, hold on.

Step 5: Verify the Installation

You can verify that your cluster is running and accessible by using the kubectl command, which kind will automatically configure for us.

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-dxbook

This will show you some information about your cluster.

Step 6: Interacting with Your Cluster

You can interact with your cluster using the kubectl command. For example, to view the nodes in your cluster:

kubectl get nodes

You should see one node, with the status “Ready.” That’s it! You now have a Kubernetes cluster running on your local machine.