In this section, we will create a single-node cluster on Windows. The reason we will use Windows is that Minikube and single-node clusters are most useful for local developer machines. While Kubernetes is typically deployed on Linux in production, many developers work on Windows PCs or Macs. That said, there aren't too many differences if you do want to install Minikube on Linux:

There are some prerequisites to install before you can create the cluster itself. These include VirtualBox, the kubectl command-line interface for Kubernetes, and, of course, Minikube itself. Here is a list of the latest versions at the time of writing:

• VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox...

In this section, I'll introduce you to kubeadm, the recommended tool for creating Kubernetes clusters on all environments. It is still under active development, but it is the way to go because it is part of Kubernetes, and will always embody best practices. To make it accessible for the entire cluster, we will base it on VMs. This section is for readers who want a hands-on experience of deploying a multi-node cluster.

Before embarking on this journey, I want to make it clear that it might not be a smooth ride. kubeadm has a difficult task: It has to follow the evolution of Kubernetes itself, which is a moving target. As a result, it is not always stable...

Creating clusters locally is fun, and important during development and when trying to troubleshoot problems locally. But in the end, Kubernetes is designed for cloud-native applications (applications that run in the cloud). Kubernetes doesn't want to be aware of individual cloud environments because that doesn't scale. Instead, Kubernetes has the concept of a cloud-provider interface. Every cloud provider can implement this interface and then host Kubernetes. Note that, as of version 1.5, Kubernetes still maintains implementations for many cloud providers in its tree, but in the future, they will be refactored out.

The cloud-provider...

In the previous section, we looked at running Kubernetes on cloud providers. This is the dominant deployment story for Kubernetes, but there are strong use cases for running Kubernetes on bare metal. I don't focus here on hosted versus on-premises; this is yet another dimension. If you already manage a lot of servers on-premises, you are in the best position to decide.

Bare-metal clusters are a beast especially if you manage them yourself. There are companies that provide commercial support for bare-metal Kubernetes clusters, such as Platform 9, but the offerings are not mature yet. A solid open-source option is Kubespray, which can deploy industrial...

There is a lot to do. Here is a list of some of the concerns you'll have to address:

• Implementing your own cloud provider's interface or sidestepping it
• Choosing a networking model and how to implement it (using a CNI plugin or directly compiling)
• Whether or not to use a network policy
• Select images for system components
• Security models and SSL certificates
• Admin credentials
• Templates for components such as an API server, replication controller, and scheduler
• Cluster services such as DNS, logging, monitoring, and GUI

I recommend reading the guide at the Kubernetes site (http://bit.ly/1ToR9EC) to get a deeper understanding of what it takes to create a cluster from scratch.

If your use case falls under the bare-metal use cases, but you don't have the necessary skilled manpower or the inclination to deal with the infrastructure challenges of bare metal, you have the option of using a private cloud such as OpenStack (for example, with stackube). If you want to aim a little higher in the abstraction ladder, then Mirantis offers a cloud platform built on top of OpenStack and Kubernetes.

In this section, we considered the option of building a bare-metal cluster Kubernetes cluster. We looked into the use cases that require it and highlighted the challenges and difficulties.

Bootkube is very interesting too. It can launch self-hosted Kubernetes...

In this chapter, we got into some hands-on cluster creation. We created a single-node cluster using Minikube and a multi-node cluster using kubeadm. Then we looked at the many options to create Kubernetes clusters using cloud providers. Finally, we touched on the complexities of creating Kubernetes clusters on bare metal. The current state of affairs is very dynamic. The basic components are changing rapidly, the tooling is still young, and there are different options for each environment. It's not completely trivial to set up a Kubernetes cluster, but with some effort and attention to detail, you can get it done quickly.

In the next chapter, we will explore the important topics of monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting. Once your cluster is up and running and you start deploying workloads, you need to make sure that it runs properly and satisfies requirements....