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.
The [asdf](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf) tool offers version management for a wide range of languages and tools. On macOS, [asdf](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf) is available via Homebrew and can be installed with `brew install asdf`. Then, the Minikube plugin itself can be installed with `asdf plugin-add minikube`. A specific version of Minikube can be installed with `asdf install minikube <version>`. The tool allows you to switch versions for projects using a `.tool-versions` file inside the project. An asdf plugin exists for kubectl as well.
We also released a Debian package and Windows installer on our [releases page](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases). If you maintain a Minikube package, please feel free to add it here.
* **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. If you use `--vm-driver=none`, be sure to specify a [bridge network](https://docs.docker.com/network/bridge/#configure-the-default-bridge-network) for docker. Otherwise it might change between network restarts, causing loss of connectivity to your cluster.
* [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**) - this 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.
The `minikube start` command creates a "[kubectl context](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands#-em-set-context-em-)" called "minikube".
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:
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) for running the cluster.
For more information about Minikube, see the [proposal](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/design-proposals/cluster-lifecycle/local-cluster-ux.md).