Kubernetes vs minikube

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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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

Decisions about Kubernetes and minikube
Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 8.8M views

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

  • GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
  • Respectively Git as revision control system
  • SourceTree as Git GUI
  • Visual Studio Code as IDE
  • CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
  • Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
  • SonarQube as quality gate
  • Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
  • VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
  • Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
  • Heroku for deploying in test environments
  • nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
  • SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
  • Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
  • PostgreSQL as preferred database system
  • Redis 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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Pros of Kubernetes
Pros of minikube
  • 164
    Leading docker container management solution
  • 128
    Simple and powerful
  • 106
    Open source
  • 76
    Backed by google
  • 58
    The right abstractions
  • 25
    Scale services
  • 20
    Replication controller
  • 11
    Permission managment
  • 9
    Supports autoscaling
  • 8
    Cheap
  • 8
    Simple
  • 6
    Self-healing
  • 5
    No cloud platform lock-in
  • 5
    Promotes modern/good infrascture practice
  • 5
    Open, powerful, stable
  • 5
    Reliable
  • 4
    Scalable
  • 4
    Quick cloud setup
  • 3
    Cloud Agnostic
  • 3
    Captain of Container Ship
  • 3
    A self healing environment with rich metadata
  • 3
    Runs on azure
  • 3
    Backed by Red Hat
  • 3
    Custom and extensibility
  • 2
    Sfg
  • 2
    Gke
  • 2
    Everything of CaaS
  • 2
    Golang
  • 2
    Easy setup
  • 2
    Expandable
  • 1
    Let's me test k8s config locally
  • 1
    Can use same yaml config I'll use for prod deployment
  • 1
    Easy setup

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Cons of Kubernetes
Cons of minikube
  • 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
  • 1
    Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)
  • 1
    More moving parts to secure
  • 1
    Additional Technology Overhead
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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is Kubernetes?

    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.

    What is minikube?

    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.

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    What companies use minikube?
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    What are some alternatives to Kubernetes and minikube?
    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.
    Nomad
    Nomad is a cluster manager, designed for both long lived services and short lived batch processing workloads. Developers use a declarative job specification to submit work, and Nomad ensures constraints are satisfied and resource utilization is optimized by efficient task packing. Nomad supports all major operating systems and virtualized, containerized, or standalone applications.
    OpenStack
    OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
    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.
    See all alternatives