Getting started with Kubernetes on MacOS in 2020

Kristofer Lundgren

2 min readNov 5, 2020

Following these instructions, you will end up with a multi host kubernetes cluster running on your local workstation.

We use two main components that uses minimal resources, and are very easy to setup:

k3s (https://k3s.io/)
“K3s is a highly available, certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances.”
k3d (https://k3d.io/)
“k3d is a lightweight wrapper to run k3s (Rancher Lab’s minimal Kubernetes distribution) in docker.”

Prerequisites

Download and install:

Docker-CE (https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop)
Homebrew (https://brew.sh/)

Install required components using CLI

brew upgrade # Upgrade Homebrew and components
brew install k3d
brew install kubernetes-cli
brew install kubectx
brew install helm

k3d (https://k3d.io/)
“k3d is a lightweight wrapper to run k3s (Rancher Lab’s minimal Kubernetes distribution) in docker.”
kubernetes-cli (https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/)
“The kubectl command line tool lets you control Kubernetes clusters.”
If you have installed Docker Desktop, kubectl may already be available.
kubectx (https://kubectx.dev/)
“kubectx is a utility to manage and switch between kubectl(1) contexts.”
helm (https://helm.sh/)
“Helm helps you manage Kubernetes applications — Helm Charts help you define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes application.”
Helm in not used in this example, but you will use it eventually.

Start kubernetes cluster

# Create a local kubernetes cluster and
# proxy TCP ports 30000–30100 on host to the cluster:

k3d cluster create mycluster --agents 3 -p "30000-30100:30000-30100@server[0]"# Update ~/.kube/config with created cluster(s):
k3d kubeconfig merge --all -d# List available clusters:
kubectx# Set mycluster as active cluster:
kubectx k3d-mycluster# Get cluster info:
kubectl cluster-info

Deploy services in your kubernetes cluster

TBD.

Delete local kubernetes cluster(s)

k3d cluster delete --all