How to setup kind cluster for home lab

In this post, I would like to share how to setup a kind cluster on Ubuntu Linux. What is kind? kind is a tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker container nodes.

! This is used for testing and learning purposes, not for production.

Installation From Release Binaries

---

Before we install Kind, we need to install Docker on our host.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker.io
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
docker --version

After installing Docker, execute the below commands on the host to install kind command on your system.

# For AMD64 / x86_64
[ $(uname -m) = x86_64 ] && curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.24.0/kind-linux-amd64
# For ARM64
[ $(uname -m) = aarch64 ] && curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.24.0/kind-linux-arm64
chmod +x ./kind
sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin/kind

After installation, we can check the kind version with the following command:

kind version

Bring up a multi node cluster

---

First, we need to create a config file “kind-cluster.yaml” with the below content:

This config file was created as per my requirements. If you want to increase or decrease nodes, you can remove or add them to the node list.

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
name: home-lab
nodes:
- role: control-plane
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: InitConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "ingress-ready=true,node-name=control-plane"
  extraPortMappings:
  - containerPort: 80
    hostPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
  - containerPort: 443
    hostPort: 443
    protocol: TCP
- role: worker
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "node-name=frontend"
- role: worker
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "node-name=ci-cd"
- role: worker
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "node-name=backend"

In the above config file, I separated 4 nodes for different usage with specific labels.

Let me explain the overview of my config file.

- role: control-plane
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: InitConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "ingress-ready=true,node-name=control-plane"
  extraPortMappings:
  - containerPort: 80
    hostPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
  - containerPort: 443
    hostPort: 443
    protocol: TCP

This is the control-plane node configuration. In this configuration, I used the kubernetes version v1.29.2, and I have set up the control plane node with two custom labels: ingress-ready=true, node-name=control-plane. And extraPortMappings allows the local host to make requests to the ingress controller over ports 80/443. In this config file, I have set up Docker port 80 to localhost 80 and 443 as well. Because our kubernetes nodes are running on a Docker container. Extra port mappings can be used to port forward to the kind nodes.

- role: worker
  image: kindest/node:v1.29.2
  kubeadmConfigPatches:
  - |
    kind: JoinConfiguration
    nodeRegistration:
      kubeletExtraArgs:
        node-labels: "node-name=ci-cd"

This is the worker node configuration. In this configuration, I have set up three worker nodes with separate custom labels: node-name=frontend, backend, ci-cd and kubernetes version is v1.29.2.

After creating the config file, we can start the 4 node cluster on the host.

kind create cluster --config kind-cluster.yaml

root@kind:~# kind create cluster --config kind-cluster.yaml 
Creating cluster "home-lab" ...
 ✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.29.2) 🖼 
 ✓ Preparing nodes 📦 📦 📦 📦  
 ✓ Writing configuration 📜 
 ✓ Starting control-plane 🕹️ 
 ✓ Installing CNI 🔌 
 ✓ Installing StorageClass 💾 
 ✓ Joining worker nodes 🚜 
Set kubectl context to "kind-home-lab"
You can now use your cluster with:

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-home-lab

Thanks for using kind! 😊

After creating the cluster, we can check cluster-info using this command:

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-home-lab

Check the cluster status

---

Check with kind command:

kind get clusters

Check with docker command:

root@kind:~# docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                  COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS             PORTS                                                                 NAMES
7f4e144f6627   kindest/node:v1.29.2   "/usr/local/bin/entr…"   About an hour ago   Up About an hour                                                                         home-lab-worker3
f0a465e8f97a   kindest/node:v1.29.2   "/usr/local/bin/entr…"   About an hour ago   Up About an hour   0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, 127.0.0.1:44431->6443/tcp   home-lab-control-plane
590f25e6ac1a   kindest/node:v1.29.2   "/usr/local/bin/entr…"   About an hour ago   Up About an hour                                                                         home-lab-worker2
9a92052b0218   kindest/node:v1.29.2   "/usr/local/bin/entr…"   About an hour ago   Up About an hour                                                                         home-lab-worker
root@kind:~#

Check with kubectl command:

root@kind:~# kubectl get nodes
NAME                     STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
home-lab-control-plane   Ready    control-plane   61m   v1.29.2
home-lab-worker          Ready    <none>          60m   v1.29.2
home-lab-worker2         Ready    <none>          60m   v1.29.2
home-lab-worker3         Ready    <none>          60m   v1.29.2
root@kind:~#

From the output of the above commands, we can see that the cluster is running on version 1.29.2. Now, we can deploy our applications.

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Have a great day!..