🚀 Deploy Nginx on Kubernetes using Minikube

Sections:

📌 Introduction

Kubernetes has become the standard for container orchestration, and Minikube makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally.
In this project, I’ve deployed an Nginx web server on Kubernetes using Minikube.

💡 Why Kubernetes + Nginx?

• Kubernetes: Automates container deployment, scaling, and management.

• Nginx: A lightweight, high-performance web server.

• Together, they provide a fast, scalable, and easily deployable web solution.

---

🔍 What is Minikube?

Minikube is a lightweight Kubernetes implementation that runs on your local machine. It’s perfect for:

• Learning Kubernetes

• Testing workloads before production

• Rapid prototyping

---

✅ Prerequisites

Make sure you have:

• A system with at least 4 GB RAM

• kubectl installed

• Docker installed

• Minikube installed

---

⚙ Install Minikube

Follow the official guide for your OS:
Minikube Installation Guide

---

⚙ Install kubectl & Docker

• kubectl: CLI to interact with Kubernetes
  Install kubectl

• Docker: Container runtime for Minikube
  Install Docker

---

🛠 Step 1: Start Minikube Cluster

minikube start

This spins up a local Kubernetes cluster inside a VM or Docker container.

---

🛠 Step 2: Create Deployment

deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

📖 Explanation:

• apiVersion: Kubernetes API version for Deployment.

• kind: Resource type (Deployment).

• metadata: Name of the Deployment.

• replicas: Number of Nginx pods.

• selector: Labels to identify pods.

• template: Pod template containing:

  • containers: List of containers (Nginx in this case).

  • image: Docker image to use.

  • ports: Port inside the container.

---

🛠 Step 3: Expose Service

service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx-service
spec:
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    app: nginx
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80
      nodePort: 30080

📖 Explanation:

• type: NodePort: Exposes the service on each node's IP at a static port.

• selector: Matches pods with label app=nginx.

• ports: Defines port mapping.

  • port: Port exposed by the service.

  • targetPort: Container's port.

  • nodePort: External port for access.

---

🛠 Step 4: Access the App

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f service.yaml
minikube service nginx-service

This will open the Nginx welcome page in your browser.

---

🔧 Troubleshooting

• Pods not starting

    kubectl get pods
    kubectl describe pod <pod-name>
  

  Check image pull errors or YAML syntax.

• Port not accessible
  Make sure NodePort (e.g., 30080) is open and not blocked by a firewall.

---

🏁 Conclusion + GitHub Link

We successfully deployed Nginx on Kubernetes using Minikube.
You can find the complete project files here:
https://github.com/Harshalv21/nginx-minikube-k8s-demo.git

Credits

Tutorial inspired by Kubernetes official documentation and community resources.