Week 1: Deploying a Minimal Go App on Kubernetes: My Local Setup Journey

After a long break, I'm diving back into Kubernetes — this time by deploying a tiny Go app locally. If you're learning Kubernetes or want a minimal setup to play with, this post walks you through deploying a Go app using either Docker Desktop or Minikube.

1. Step 1: Write a Simple Go App

// main.go
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
)

func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    fmt.Fprintln(w, "Hello from Go on Kubernetes!")
}

func main() {
    http.HandleFunc("/", handler)
    http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}

2. Step 2: Multi-stage Dockerfile

Make sure you have a Go mode file. Build and push the Docker image to Docker Hub.

FROM golang:1.24 AS builder
#maximum version supported by tidy (should match with go.mod file or less)

WORKDIR /app
COPY go.mod ./
RUN go mod tidy
COPY . .
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -o server .

# Final image
FROM alpine:latest
WORKDIR /root/
COPY --from=builder /app/server /
EXPOSE 8080

CMD ["/server"]

3. Step 3: Kubernetes YAML files

Use the same name as the Docker repo name in Container/image.

deployment.yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: go-hello-app
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: go-hello
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: go-hello
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: go-app
        image: <Username>/<repo-name>:<tag>
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080

service.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: go-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: go-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 8080
  type: ClusterIP

4. Step 4: Apply the YAML files

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f service.yaml
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc

Then, port-forward the service:

kubectl port-forward service/go-service 8080:80

Access your app at: http://localhost:8080

Conclusion

This is just the beginning — my goal is to keep iterating weekly and explore AWS EKS, ConfigMaps, Secrets, scaling, Helm, and more.

If you're starting, too, follow along and feel free to share your tips!

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More posts coming soon! 🚀