A Tutorial for Deploying and Managing a Cluster with Linode Kubernetes Engine

Updated Friday, April 17, 2020 by Linode Contributed by Linode

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What is the Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE)

Note
This guide uses Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster. For more information on Kubernetes key concepts, see our Beginner’s Guide to Kubernetes

The Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) is a fully-managed container orchestration engine for deploying and managing containerized applications and workloads. LKE combines Linode’s ease of use and simple pricing with the infrastructure efficiency of Kubernetes. When you deploy an LKE cluster, you receive a Kubernetes Master at no additional cost; you only pay for the Linodes (worker nodes), NodeBalancers (load balancers), and Block Storage Volumes. Your LKE cluster’s Master node runs the Kubernetes control plane processes – including the API, scheduler, and resource controllers.

Additional LKE features

etcd Backups : A snapshot of your cluster’s metadata is backed up continuously, so your cluster is automatically restored in the event of a failure.

High Availability : All of your control plane components are monitored and will automatically recover if they fail.

In this Guide

In this guide you will learn:

How to create a Kubernetes cluster using the Linode Kubernetes Engine.
How to modify your cluster.
How to delete your cluster.
Next Steps after deploying your cluster.

Caution
This guide’s example instructions will create several billable resources on your Linode account. If you do not want to keep using the example cluster that you create, be sure to remove it when you have finished the guide.

If you remove the resources afterward, you will only be billed for the hour(s) that the resources were present on your account.

Before You Begin

Install kubectl

You will need to install the kubectl client to your computer before proceeding. Follow the steps corresponding to your computer’s operating system.

macOS:

Install via Homebrew:

brew install kubernetes-cli

If you don’t have Homebrew installed, visit the Homebrew home page for instructions. Alternatively, you can manually install the binary; visit the Kubernetes documentation for instructions.

Linux:

Download the latest kubectl release:

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

Make the downloaded file executable:
```
chmod +x ./kubectl
```

Move the command into your PATH:

sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Note
You can also install kubectl via your package manager; visit the Kubernetes documentation for instructions.

Windows:

Visit the Kubernetes documentation for a link to the most recent Windows release.

Create an LKE Cluster

Log into your Linode Cloud Manager account.
From the Linode dashboard, click the Create button in the top right-hand side of the screen and select Kubernetes from the dropdown menu.
The Create a Kubernetes Cluster page will appear. At the top of the page, you’ll be required to select the following options:
- In the Cluster Label field, provide a name for your cluster. The name must be unique between all of the clusters on your account. This name will be how you identify your cluster in the Cloud Manager’s Dashboard.
- From the Region dropdown menu, select the Region where you would like your cluster to reside.
- From the Version dropdown menu, select a Kubernetes version to deploy to your cluster.
In the Add Node Pools section, select the hardware resources for the Linode worker node(s) that make up your LKE cluster. To the right of each plan, select the plus + and minus - to add or remove a Linode to a node pool one at time. Once you’re satisfied with the number of nodes in a node pool, select Add to include it in your configuration. If you decide that you need more or fewer hardware resources after you deploy your cluster, you can always edit your Node Pool.

Note
Currently, the available plan types for LKE worker nodes are Standard, Dedicated CPU, and High Memory plans.
Once a pool has been added to your configuration, you will see it listed in the Cluster Summary on the right-hand side of the Cloud Manager detailing your cluster’s hardware resources and monthly cost. Additional pools can be added before finalizing the cluster creation process by repeating the previous step for each additional pool.
When you are satisfied with the configuration of your cluster, click the Create Cluster button on the right hand side of the screen. Your cluster’s detail page will appear on the following page where you will see your Node Pools listed. From this page, you can edit your existing Node Pools, access your Kubeconfig file, and view an overview of your cluster’s resource details.

Connect to your LKE Cluster with kubectl

After you’ve created your LKE cluster using the Cloud Manager, you can begin interacting with and managing your cluster. You connect to it using the kubectl client on your computer. To configure kubectl, you’ll download your cluster’s kubeconfig file.

Access and Download your kubeconfig

Anytime after your cluster is created you can download its kubeconfig. The kubeconfig is a YAML file that will allow you to use kubectl to communicate with your cluster. Here is an example kubeconfig file:

example-cluster-kubeconfig.yaml

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apiVersion: v1
kind: Config
preferences: {}

clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority-data: LS0tLS1CRUd...
    server: https://example.us-central.linodelke.net:443
  name: lke1234

users:
- name: lke1234-admin
  user:
    as-user-extra: {}
    token: LS0tLS1CRUd...

contexts:
- context:
    cluster: lke1234
    namespace: default
    user: lke1234-admin
  name: lke1234-ctx

current-context: lke1234-ctx

This configuration file defines your cluster, users, and contexts.

To access your cluster’s kubeconfig, log into your Cloud Manager account and navigate to the Kubernetes section.
From the Kubernetes listing page, click on your cluster’s more options ellipsis and select Download kubeconfig. The file will be saved to your computer’s Downloads folder.
Download and view your Kubeconfig from the cluster's details page
You can also download the kubeconfig from the Kubernetes cluster’s details page.
1. When viewing the Kubernetes listing page, click on the cluster for which you’d like to download a kubeconfig file.
2. On the cluster’s details page, under the kubeconfig section, click the Download icon. The file will be saved to your Downloads folder.
3. To view the contents of your kubeconfig file, click on the View icon. A pane will appear with the contents of your cluster’s kubeconfig file.
Open a terminal shell and save your kubeconfig file’s path to the $KUBECONFIG environment variable. In the example command, the kubeconfig file is located in the Downloads folder, but you should alter this line with this folder’s location on your computer:
```
export KUBECONFIG=~/Downloads/kubeconfig.yaml
```
Note
It is common practice to store your kubeconfig files in ~/.kube directory. By default, kubectl will search for a kubeconfig file named config that is located in the ~/.kube directory. You can specify other kubeconfig files by setting the $KUBECONFIG environment variable, as done in the step above.
View your cluster’s nodes using kubectl.
```
kubectl get nodes
```
Note
If your kubectl commands are not returning the resources and information you expect, then your client may be assigned to the wrong cluster context. Visit our Troubleshooting Kubernetes guide to learn how to switch cluster contexts.

You are now ready to manage your cluster using kubectl. For more information about using kubectl, see Kubernetes’ Overview of kubectl guide.

Persist the Kubeconfig Context

If you create a new terminal window, it will not have access to the context that you specified using the previous instructions. This context information can be made persistent between new terminals by setting the KUBECONFIG environment variable in your shell’s configuration file.

Note
If you are using Windows, review the official Kubernetes documentation for how to persist your context.

These instructions will persist the context for users of the Bash terminal. They will be similar for users of other terminals:

Navigate to the $HOME/.kube directory:
```
cd $HOME/.kube
```
Create a directory called configs within $HOME/.kube. You can use this directory to store your kubeconfig files.
```
mkdir configs
```
Copy your kubeconfig.yaml file to the $HOME/.kube/configs directory.
```
cp ~/Downloads/kubeconfig.yaml $HOME/.kube/configs/kubeconfig.yaml
```
Note
Alter the above line with the location of the Downloads folder on your computer.

Optionally, you can give the copied file a different name to help distinguish it from other files in the configs directory.
Open up your Bash profile (e.g. ~/.bash_profile) in the text editor of your choice and add your configuration file to the $KUBECONFIG PATH variable.

If an export KUBECONFIG line is already present in the file, append to the end of this line as follows; if it is not present, add this line to the end of your file:
```
export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:$HOME/.kube/config:$HOME/.kube/configs/kubeconfig.yaml
```
Close your terminal window and open a new window to receive the changes to the $KUBECONFIG variable.

Use the config get-contexts command for kubectl to view the available cluster contexts:

kubectl config get-contexts

You should see output similar to the following:

  
CURRENT   NAME          CLUSTER   AUTHINFO        NAMESPACE
*         lke1234-ctx   lke1234   lke1234-admin   default

If your context is not already selected, (denoted by an asterisk in the current column), switch to this context using the config use-context command. Supply the full name of the cluster (including the authorized user and the cluster):
```
kubectl config use-context lke1234-ctx
```
You should see output like the following:
```
  
Switched to context "lke1234-ctx".
```

You are now ready to interact with your cluster using kubectl. You can test the ability to interact with the cluster by retrieving a list of Pods. Use the get pods command with the -A flag to see all pods running across all namespaces:

kubectl get pods -A

You should see output like the following:

  
NAMESPACE     NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kube-system   calico-kube-controllers-dc6cb64cb-4gqf4   1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   calico-node-bx2bj                         1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   calico-node-fg29m                         1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   calico-node-qvvxj                         1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   calico-node-xzvpr                         1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   coredns-6955765f44-r8b79                  1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   coredns-6955765f44-xr5wb                  1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   csi-linode-controller-0                   3/3     Running   0          11d
kube-system   csi-linode-node-75lts                     2/2     Running   0          11d
kube-system   csi-linode-node-9qbbh                     2/2     Running   0          11d
kube-system   csi-linode-node-d7bvc                     2/2     Running   0          11d
kube-system   csi-linode-node-h4r6b                     2/2     Running   0          11d
kube-system   kube-proxy-7nk8t                          1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   kube-proxy-cq6jk                          1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   kube-proxy-gz4dc                          1/1     Running   0          11d
kube-system   kube-proxy-qcjg9                          1/1     Running   0          11d

Modify a Cluster’s Node Pools

You can use the Linode Cloud Manager to modify a cluster’s existing node pools by adding or removing nodes. You can also remove entire node pools from your cluster. This section will cover completing those tasks. For any other changes to your LKE cluster, you should use kubectl.

Access your Cluster’s Details Page

Click the Kubernetes link in the sidebar. The Kubernetes listing page will appear and you will see all your clusters listed.
Click the cluster that you wish to modify. The Kubernetes cluster’s details page will appear.

Adding a Node Pool

To add a new Node Pool to your cluster, navigate to the cluster’s details page and select the add a node pool option to the right of the node pools section.
In the new window that appears, select the hardware resources that you’d like to add to your new Node Pool. To the right of each plan, select the plus + and minus - to add or remove a Linode to a node pool one at time. Once you’re satisfied with the number of nodes in a node pool, select Add Pool to include it in your configuration. If you decide that you need more or fewer hardware resources after you deploy your cluster, you can always edit your Node Pool.

Edit or Remove Existing Node Pools

On your cluster’s details page, click the Resize Pool option at the top-right of each entry in the Node Pools section.
Using the sidebar that appears to the right of the page, you can now remove - or add + Linodes to the pool, and the total cost of your new resources will be displayed. To accept these changes, select the Save Changes button to continue.
To remove a node pool from the cluster’s details page, click the Delete Pool option at the top right of each entry in the Node Pools section. A pop-up message will then appear confirming that you’re sure you’d like to proceed with deletion. Select the Delete option, and your Node Pool will proceed to be deleted.

Note
Your cluster must always have at least one active node pool.

Delete a Cluster

You can delete an entire cluster using the Linode Cloud Manager. These changes cannot be reverted once completed.

Click the Kubernetes link in the sidebar. The Kubernetes listing page will appear and you will see all your clusters listed.
Select the More Options Ellipsis to the right of the cluster you’d like to delete, and select the Delete option:
A confirmation pop-up will appear. Enter in your cluster’s name and click the Delete button to confirm.
The Kubernetes listing page will appear and you will no longer see your deleted cluster.

General Network and Firewall Information

In an LKE cluster, both of the following types of workload endpoints cannot be reached from the Internet:

Pod IPs, which use a per-cluster virtual network in the range 10.2.0.0/16
ClusterIP Services, which use a per-cluster virtual network in the range 10.128.0.0/16

All of the following types of workloads can be reached from the Internet:

NodePort Services, which listen on all Nodes with ports in the range 30000-32768.
LoadBalancer Services, which automatically deploy and configure a NodeBalancer.
Any manifest which uses hostNetwork: true and specifies a port.
Most manifests which use hostPort and specify a port.

Exposing workloads to the public Internet through the above methods can be convenient, but they can also carry a security risk. You may wish to manually install firewall rules on your cluster nodes; to do so, please see this community post. Linode is developing services which will allow for greater flexibility for the network endpoints of these types of workloads in the future.

Next Steps

Now that you have a running LKE cluster, you can start deploying workloads to it. Refer to our other guides to learn more:

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

Overview of kubectl

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This guide is published under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.

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