This guide will help you through the process of setting up a cluster. Clusters are essential for scaling and providing high availability for your applications.

Prerequisites

Before setting up a cluster, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

  • A server or virtual machine with at least 2GB of RAM.
  • An SSH client to connect to your server.
  • Basic knowledge of Linux commands.
  • Docker installed on your server.

Step 1: Install Kubernetes

To set up a cluster, you need to install Kubernetes. We recommend using Minikube for local development or kubeadm for production environments.

Using Minikube

  1. Install Minikube using your system's package manager.
  2. Run minikube start to start a local Kubernetes cluster.
  3. Verify that the cluster is running with minikube status.

Using kubeadm

  1. Install kubeadm, kubelet, and kubectl on your server.
  2. Run kubeadm init to set up the Kubernetes control plane.
  3. Follow the instructions provided by kubeadm to configure kubectl.

Step 2: Deploy Applications

Once your cluster is up and running, you can deploy applications to it. Use YAML files to define your application's deployment, service, and other resources.

Deploying an Application

  1. Create a deployment YAML file for your application.
  2. Apply the YAML file using kubectl apply -f <deployment.yaml>.

Step 3: Monitor and Manage Your Cluster

To ensure your cluster is running smoothly, you should regularly monitor its performance and manage your applications.

Monitoring

  • Use Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring your cluster.
  • Set up alerts to notify you of any issues.

Managing

  • Use kubectl to manage your applications and cluster resources.
  • Regularly update your applications to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities.

Next Steps

Kubernetes Cluster Diagram