Overview

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

minikube

Stacks112

Followers262

Votes3

GitHub Stars31.1K

Forks5.1K

Kubernetes vs Minikube: What are the differences?

Kubernetes and Minikube are two popular tools used for managing containerized applications. While both are used in the context of containers and orchestration, there are key differences between the two.

Deployment Scale: Kubernetes is designed for large-scale deployments across multiple nodes and clusters, making it suitable for managing complex and distributed environments. On the other hand, Minikube is a lightweight and simplified version of Kubernetes, primarily used for local development and testing purposes. It allows developers to run a single-node Kubernetes cluster on their local machines.
Resource Requirements: Kubernetes requires a significant amount of resources to operate efficiently, as it is intended for managing large-scale deployments. It needs multiple nodes and clusters for full functionality, making it more suitable for production environments. In contrast, Minikube is designed to run on a single machine with minimal resource requirements, making it ideal for local development or running Kubernetes on a small scale.
Infrastructure Flexibility: Kubernetes can be deployed on various cloud providers, such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Azure, allowing users to take advantage of their preferred infrastructure. It also supports on-premises deployments. On the other hand, Minikube is primarily focused on running on local machines and supports only a limited set of drivers for virtualization or containerization, such as VirtualBox, VMware, and Docker.
Networking and Load Balancing: Kubernetes offers a highly configurable and advanced networking model that enables seamless connectivity between containers and services. It provides various options for load balancing and exposes services externally through an ingress controller. In contrast, Minikube simplifies networking by using a single-node configuration with a basic networking setup, limiting its capabilities for complex network configurations.
Cluster Management: Kubernetes provides extensive cluster management features, including scaling applications, managing updates, and handling node failures. It also offers sophisticated scheduling and resource allocation mechanisms. Minikube, being a lightweight tool, lacks some of these advanced cluster management capabilities. It focuses more on providing a simplified local environment rather than comprehensive cluster management.
Ecosystem and Community Support: Kubernetes has a large and active community, with a vast ecosystem of tools and resources available. It is widely adopted by organizations and benefits from ongoing development and enhancements. Minikube, although part of the Kubernetes ecosystem, has a smaller community and is more focused on providing a lightweight development environment.

In summary, Kubernetes is a powerful and feature-rich platform for managing large-scale containerized applications, suitable for production environments and complex deployments. Minikube, on the other hand, is a lightweight tool primarily used for local development and testing, offering simplicity and ease of use.

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Advice on Kubernetes, minikube

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

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Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

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Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	minikube
Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.	It implements a local Kubernetes cluster on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Its goal is to be the tool for local Kubernetes application development and to support all Kubernetes features that fit.
Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable	Local Kubernetes; LoadBalancer; Multi-cluster
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 31.1K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.1K
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 112
Followers 52.8K	Followers 262
Votes 685	Votes 3
Pros & Cons
Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems	Pros 1 Easy setup 1 Let's me test k8s config locally 1 Can use same yaml config I'll use for prod deployment
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	Windows Linux macOS

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, minikube?

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.