Minikube is a tool that makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally. Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM on your laptop for users looking to try out Kubernetes or develop with it day-to-day.
Download the [minikube-windows-amd64.exe](https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-windows-amd64.exe) file, rename it to `minikube.exe` and add it to your path
* NOTE: minikube also supports a '--vm-driver=none' option that runs the kubernetes components on the host and not in a VM. docker is required to use this driver but no hypervisor.
* [VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) or [Hyper-V](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/blob/master/docs/drivers.md#hyperV-driver)
* VT-x/AMD-v virtualization must be enabled in BIOS
* none - (LINUX ONLY) - the 'none' driver can be used to run the kubernetes cluster components on the host instead of in a VM. This can be useful for CI workloads which do not support nested virtualization.
This context contains the configuration to communicate with your minikube cluster.
Minikube sets this context to default automatically, but if you need to switch back to it in the future, run:
`kubectl config use-context minikube`,
or pass the context on each command like this: `kubectl get pods --context=minikube`.
### Dashboard
To access the [Kubernetes Dashboard](http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/ui/), run this command in a shell after starting minikube to get the address:
```shell
minikube dashboard
```
### Services
To access a service exposed via a node port, run this command in a shell after starting minikube to get the address:
```shell
minikube service [-n NAMESPACE] [--url] NAME
```
## Design
Minikube uses [libmachine](https://github.com/docker/machine/tree/master/libmachine) for provisioning VMs, and [localkube](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/tree/master/pkg/localkube) (originally written and donated to this project by [RedSpread](https://redspread.com/)) for running the cluster.
For more information about minikube, see the [proposal](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/design-proposals/local-cluster-ux.md).