# Configuring Kubernetes

Minikube has a "configurator" feature that allows users to configure the Kubernetes components with arbitrary values.
To use this feature, you can use the `--extra-config` flag on the `minikube start` command.

This flag is repeated, so you can pass it several times with several different values to set multiple options.


## Selecting a Kubernetes version

minikube defaults to the latest stable version of Kubernetes. You may select a different Kubernetes release by using the `--kubernetes-version` flag, for example:

  `minikube start --kubernetes-version=v1.10.13`
 
minikube follows the [Kubernetes Version and Version Skew Support Policy](https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/version-skew-policy/), so we guarantee support for the latest build for the last 3 minor Kubernetes releases. When practical, minikube extends this policy two additional minor releases so that users can emulate legacy environments. 

As of April 2019, this means that minikube supports and actively tests against the latest builds of:

* v1.14 (default)
* v1.13
* v1.12
* v1.11 (best effort)
* v1.10 (best effort)

For more up to date information, see `OldestKubernetesVersion` and `NewestKubernetesVersion` in [constants.go](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/blob/master/pkg/minikube/constants/constants.go)

## kubeadm

The kubeadm bootstrapper can be configured by the `--extra-config` flag on the `minikube start` command.  It takes a string of the form `component.key=value` where `component` is one of the strings

* kubeadm
* kubelet
* apiserver
* controller-manager
* scheduler

and `key=value` is a flag=value pair for the component being configured.  For example,

```shell
minikube start --extra-config=apiserver.v=10 --extra-config=kubelet.max-pods=100

minikube start --extra-config=kubeadm.ignore-preflight-errors=SystemVerification # allows any version of docker
```