{"id":3151,"date":"2024-04-11T12:37:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T16:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=3151"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:40:31","slug":"microk8s-the-out-of-the-box-kubernetes-of-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=3151","title":{"rendered":"MicroK8S, the Out-of-the-box Kubernetes of Ubuntu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

MicroK8s<\/strong> is Canonical’s single-package fully conformant<\/span> lightweight Kubernetes [Link<\/a>]. It is a 100% compatible Kubernetes orchestrator that can be deployed with a single click on Ubuntu and many other distributions via Snap.<\/p>\n

Compared to MiniKube<\/strong> [Link<\/a>] and K3s<\/strong> [Link<\/a>], MicroK8s<\/strong> is a minimal production-grade Kubernetes with a low operational overhead (low-ops).<\/p>\n

Kubernetes<\/strong> was built by Google to meet Google-scale demands, which is why it is widely known to be complex to deploy and manage. This leads many companies to opt for managed services such as EKS<\/strong> (AWS), GKE<\/strong> (GCP), or AKS<\/strong> (Azure), all of which come with an associated cost.<\/p>\n

Most container orchestration use cases are straightforward, and MicroK8s<\/strong> handles them well.<\/p>\n

\n

INSTALLATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

sudo snap install microk8s --classic\r\nmicrok8s.inspect<\/pre>\n
That is it!<\/strong> Even kubectl<\/code> is included in the package.<\/p>\n
To use MicroK8s without sudo<\/code>, add your username to the microk8s<\/code> group.<\/p>\n
sudo usermod -a -G microk8s userName<\/pre>\n
Stopping and starting the MicroK8s daemon.<\/p>\n
microk8s.stop\r\nmicrok8s.start<\/pre>\n
\n
BASIC COMMANDS<\/strong><\/p>\n
sudo microk8s kubectl get nodes\r\nsudo microk8s kubectl get services<\/pre>\n
For standard Kubernetes commands and use cases, see this reference post [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
\n
EXTENDED FEATURES<\/strong><\/p>\n
Enabling popular addons.<\/p>\n
sudo microk8s enable dashboard\r\nsudo microk8s enable registry\r\nsudo microk8s enable ingress\r\nsudo microk8s enable dns\r\nsudo microk8s enable gpu\r\nsudo microk8s enable ha-cluster\r\nsudo microk8s enable cert-manager\r\nsudo microk8s enable prometheus\r\nsudo microk8s enable community\r\nsudo microk8s enable istio<\/pre>\n
\n
ACCESSING THE DASHBOARD<\/strong><\/p>\n
sudo microk8s enable dashboard\r\nsudo microk8s kubectl create token default<\/pre>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
By default, the token expires in 1 hour. To extend it, optionally specify a namespace and duration.<\/p>\n
sudo microk8s kubectl create token default --namespace=namespace<\/strong> --duration=24h<\/strong><\/pre>\n
Expose the dashboard.<\/p>\n
sudo microk8s kubectl port-forward -n kube-system service\/kubernetes-dashboard 10443:443<\/pre>\n
Navigate to https:\/\/127.0.0.1:10443<\/a> and paste the generated token.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong> This dashboard is not specific to MicroK8s. It is a standard Kubernetes module and is outside the scope of this post. See the Dashboard walkthrough post [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
\n
RUNNING MICROK8S IN PROXMOX LXC<\/strong><\/p>\n
Create a new CT and uncheck the “unprivileged” option.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Before starting the CT for the first time, open a shell on the host and edit the CT configuration file.<\/p>\n
nano \/etc\/pve\/nodes\/proxmox\/lxc\/100.conf<\/pre>\n
lxc.apparmor.profile: unconfined\r\nlxc.cap.drop:\r\nlxc.mount.auto: proc:rw sys:rw\r\nlxc.mount.entry: \/dev\/fuse dev\/fuse none bind,create=file 0 0\r\nlxc.mount.entry: \/sys\/kernel\/security sys\/kernel\/security none bind,create=file 0 0<\/pre>\n
Start the CT and add the following line to the root user’s crontab.<\/p>\n
crontab -e<\/pre>\n
@reboot ln -s \/dev\/console \/dev\/kmsg<\/pre>\n
Set up the environment.<\/p>\n
ln -s \/dev\/console \/dev\/kmsg\r\napt update && apt upgrade -y\r\napt install snapd squashfuse fuse -y\r\nreboot<\/pre>\n
Now install MicroK8s.<\/p>\n
snap install microk8s --classic\r\napparmor_parser --add \/var\/lib\/snapd\/apparmor\/profiles\/snap.microk8s.*\r\nmicrok8s.inspect\r\nreboot<\/pre>\n
After rebooting, verify everything is working as expected.<\/p>\n
microk8s.inspect\r\nmicrok8s kubectl get nodes\r\nmicrok8s kubectl get services\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
BONUS<\/strong><\/p>\n
Auto-start MicroK8s<\/strong> and its dashboard on startup.<\/p>\n
nano \/etc\/systemd\/system\/kubectl.service<\/pre>\n
[Unit]\r\nDescription=Port forward for Kubernetes Dashboard\r\nAfter=network.target\r\n\r\n[Service]\r\nExecStart=\/root\/microk8s.sh\r\nRestart=always\r\nUser=root\r\n\r\n[Install]\r\nWantedBy=multi-user.target<\/pre>\n
nano \/root\/microk8s.sh\r\nchmod +x \/root\/microk8s.sh<\/pre>\n
#!\/bin\/bash\r\napparmor_parser --add \/var\/lib\/snapd\/apparmor\/profiles\/snap.microk8s.*\r\nmicrok8s.start\r\nsleep 30\r\n\/snap\/bin\/microk8s kubectl port-forward -n kube-system service\/kubernetes-dashboard 10443:443 --address 0.0.0.0<\/pre>\n
systemctl daemon-reload\r\nsystemctl enable kubectl --now<\/pre>\n
\n
OTHER POSTS<\/strong><\/p>\n
Minikube<\/strong> on Ubuntu 22.04 [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
K3s<\/strong> on Ubuntu 22.04 [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
K8s<\/strong> Persistent Volumes [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
K8s<\/strong> Cheat Sheet [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n
K8s<\/strong> Dashboard [Link<\/a>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MicroK8s is Canonical’s single-package fully conformant lightweight Kubernetes [Link]. It is a 100% compatible Kubernetes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3151"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5625,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3151\/revisions\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}