Install Minikube
This page shows you how to install Minikube, a tool that runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster in a virtual machine on your personal computer.
Before you begin
To check if virtualization is supported on Linux, run the following command and verify that the output is non-empty:
grep -E --color 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo
To check if virtualization is supported on macOS, run the following command on your terminal.
sysctl -a | grep -E --color 'machdep.cpu.features|VMX'
If you see VMX in the output (should be colored), the VT-x feature is enabled in your machine.
To check if virtualization is supported on Windows 8 and above, run the following command on your Windows terminal or command prompt.
systeminfo
If you see the following output, virtualization is supported on Windows.
Hyper-V Requirements: VM Monitor Mode Extensions: Yes
Virtualization Enabled In Firmware: Yes
Second Level Address Translation: Yes
Data Execution Prevention Available: Yes
If you see the following output, your system already has a Hypervisor installed and you can skip the next step.
Hyper-V Requirements: A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.
Installing minikube
Install kubectl
Make sure you have kubectl installed. You can install kubectl according to the instructions in Install and Set Up kubectl.
Install a Hypervisor
If you do not already have a hypervisor installed, install one of these now:
• KVM, which also uses QEMU
Minikube also supports a --vm-driver=none option that runs the Kubernetes components on the host and not in a VM.
Using this driver requires Docker and a Linux environment but not a hypervisor.
If you’re using the none driver in Debian or a derivative, use the .deb packages for
Docker rather than the snap package, which does not work with Minikube.
You can download .deb packages from Docker.
Caution: ThenoneVM driver can result in security and data loss issues. Before using--vm-driver=none, consult this documentation for more information.
Minikube also supports a vm-driver=podman similar to the Docker driver. Podman run as superuser privilege (root user) is the best way to ensure that your containers have full access to any feature available on your system.
Caution: Thepodmandriver requires running the containers as root because regular user accounts don’t have full access to all operating system features that their containers might need to run.
Install Minikube using a package
There are experimental packages for Minikube available; you can find Linux (AMD64) packages from Minikube’s releases page on GitHub.
Use your Linux’s distribution’s package tool to install a suitable package.
Install Minikube via direct download
If you’re not installing via a package, you can download a stand-alone binary and use that.
curl -Lo minikube https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64 \
&& chmod +x minikubeHere’s an easy way to add the Minikube executable to your path:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin/
sudo install minikube /usr/local/bin/Install Minikube using Homebrew
As yet another alternative, you can install Minikube using Linux Homebrew:
brew install minikubeInstall kubectl
Make sure you have kubectl installed. You can install kubectl according to the instructions in Install and Set Up kubectl.
Install a Hypervisor
If you do not already have a hypervisor installed, install one of these now:
• HyperKit
Install Minikube
The easiest way to install Minikube on macOS is using Homebrew:
brew install minikubeYou can also install it on macOS by downloading a stand-alone binary:
curl -Lo minikube https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-darwin-amd64 \
&& chmod +x minikubeHere’s an easy way to add the Minikube executable to your path:
sudo mv minikube /usr/local/binInstall kubectl
Make sure you have kubectl installed. You can install kubectl according to the instructions in Install and Set Up kubectl.
Install a Hypervisor
If you do not already have a hypervisor installed, install one of these now:
• Hyper-V
Note: Hyper-V can run on three versions of Windows 10: Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Professional, and Windows 10 Education.
Install Minikube using Chocolatey
The easiest way to install Minikube on Windows is using Chocolatey (run as an administrator):
choco install minikubeAfter Minikube has finished installing, close the current CLI session and restart. Minikube should have been added to your path automatically.
Install Minikube using an installer executable
To install Minikube manually on Windows using Windows Installer, download minikube-installer.exe and execute the installer.
Install Minikube via direct download
To install Minikube manually on Windows, download minikube-windows-amd64, rename it to minikube.exe, and add it to your path.
Confirm Installation
To confirm successful installation of both a hypervisor and Minikube, you can run the following command to start up a local Kubernetes cluster:
Note: For setting the--vm-driverwithminikube start, enter the name of the hypervisor you installed in lowercase letters where<driver_name>is mentioned below. A full list of--vm-drivervalues is available in specifying the VM driver documentation.
minikube start --vm-driver=<driver_name>Once minikube start finishes, run the command below to check the status of the cluster:
minikube statusIf your cluster is running, the output from minikube status should be similar to:
host: Running
kubelet: Running
apiserver: Running
kubeconfig: Configured
After you have confirmed whether Minikube is working with your chosen hypervisor, you can continue to use Minikube or you can stop your cluster. To stop your cluster, run:
minikube stopClean up local state
If you have previously installed Minikube, and run:
minikube startand minikube start returned an error:
machine does not exist
then you need to clear minikube’s local state:
minikube deleteWhat's next
Feedback
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for the feedback. If you have a specific, answerable question about how to use Kubernetes, ask it on Stack Overflow. Open an issue in the GitHub repo if you want to report a problem or suggest an improvement.
Page last modified on March 09, 2020 at 8:37 AM PST by
Document minikube Podman support (#19514) (Page History)