Setup Knative on Minikube

Updated and verified on 2020/12/11 with:

Knative version 0.19.0

Minikube version 1.15.1

Kubernetes version 1.20.0

Install Minikube

On MacOS

brew install minikube

For more information installing or using minikube checkout the docs https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/

Setup Minikube

Make sure you have a recent version of minikube:

minikube update-check

Make sure you have a recent version of kubernetes, you can configure the version to avoid needing the start flag:

minikube config set kubernetes-version v1.20.0

I recommend using the hyperkit vm driver is available in your platform.

The configuration for memory of 2GB and 2 cpus, should work fine, if you want to change the values you can do it with minikube config

minikube config set memory 2048
minikube config set cpus 2

Sart Minikube

If you think you have some configuration and want to start with a clean environment you can delete the VM:

minikube delete

Now star the minikube vm

minikube start

If your VM doesn't start and gets stuck, check that your are not connected using a VPN such as Cisco VPN AnyConnect, this vpn client affects networking and avoids many kubernetes environmentes (ie minikube, minishift) from starting.

In a new terminal run

minikube tunnel

You can check out other addons and settings using minikube addons list

Install Knative

TLDR; ./demo.sh

Select the version of Knative Serving to install
```
export KNATIVE_VERSION="0.19.0"
```

Install Knative Serving in namespace knative-serving

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/download/v$KNATIVE_VERSION/serving-crds.yaml

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/download/v$KNATIVE_VERSION/serving-core.yaml

kubectl wait deployment --all --timeout=-1s --for=condition=Available -n knative-serving

Install Kourier

In Knative you need to choose from multiple networing layers like Istio, Contour, Kourier, and Ambasador. More info #installing-the-serving-component

Select the version of Knative Net Kurier to install
```
export KNATIVE_NET_KOURIER_VERSION="0.19.1"
```

Install Knative Layer kourier in namespace kourier-system

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/net-kourier/releases/download/v$KNATIVE_NET_KOURIER_VERSION/kourier.yaml

kubectl wait deployment --all --timeout=-1s --for=condition=Available -n kourier-system

# deployment for net-kourier gets deployed to namespace knative-serving
kubectl wait deployment --all --timeout=-1s --for=condition=Available -n knative-serving

Save the external address value in an environment variable EXTERNAL-IP

export EXTERNAL_IP=$(kubectl -n kourier-system get service kourier -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
echo EXTERNAL_IP=$EXTERNAL_IP

Configure Knative for Kourier

To configure Knative Serving to use Kourier by default:

kubectl patch configmap/config-network \
  --namespace knative-serving \
  --type merge \
  --patch '{"data":{"ingress.class":"kourier.ingress.networking.knative.dev"}}'

Configure DNS local access

Optional: You can manually configure the config map domain names.

Setup domain name to use the External IP Address of the kourier service above

export KNATIVE_DOMAIN="$EXTERNAL_IP.nip.io"

kubectl patch configmap -n knative-serving config-domain -p "{\"data\": {\"$KNATIVE_DOMAIN\": \"\"}}"

Deploy Knative Application

Deploy using kn

kn service create hello \
--image gcr.io/knative-samples/helloworld-go \
--port 8080 \
--env TARGET=Knative

Optional: Deploy a Knative Service using the equivalent yaml manifest:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: hello
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/knative-samples/helloworld-go
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
          env:
            - name: TARGET
              value: "Knative"
EOF

Wait for Knative Service to be Ready

kubectl wait ksvc hello --all --timeout=-1s --for=condition=Ready

Get the URL of the new Service

SERVICE_URL=$(kubectl get ksvc hello -o jsonpath='{.status.url}')
echo $SERVICE_URL

Test the App

curl $SERVICE_URL

Output should be:

Hello Knative!

Check the knative pods that scaled from zero

kubectl get pod -l serving.knative.dev/service=hello

Output should be:

NAME                                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-ks95l   2/2     Running   0          7s

Try the service url on your browser (command works on linux and macos)

open $SERVICE_URL

You can watch the pods and see how they scale down to zero after http traffic stops to the url

kubectl get pod -l serving.knative.dev/service=hello -w

Output should look like this:

NAME                                     READY   STATUS
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-ks95l   2/2     Running
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-ks95l   2/2     Terminating
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-ks95l   1/2     Terminating
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-ks95l   0/2     Terminating

Try to access the url again, and you will see a new pod running again.

NAME                                     READY   STATUS
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-rr8cd   0/2     Pending
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-rr8cd   0/2     ContainerCreating
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-rr8cd   1/2     Running
hello-r4vz7-deployment-c5d4b88f7-rr8cd   2/2     Running

Some people call this Serverless 🎉 🌮 🔥

If you have any issues with this instructions open an new issue please 🙏🏻

oguzhalit/knative-minikube