Guide

Getting started with LKE

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Create an LKE cluster

For complete instructions on creating a cluster, see Create a cluster.

  1. Log into your Cloud Manager account.

  2. Select Kubernetes from the left navigation menu and then click Create Cluster.

  3. The Create a Kubernetes Cluster page appears. At the top of the page, you are required to select the following options:

    • In the Cluster Label field, provide a name for your cluster. The name must be unique between all of the clusters on your account. This name is how you identify your cluster in Cloud Manager’s Dashboard.

    • From the Region dropdown menu, select the Region where you would like your cluster to reside.

    • From the Version dropdown menu, select a Kubernetes version to deploy to your cluster.

  4. In the Add Node Pools section, select the hardware resources for the Linode worker node(s) that make up your LKE cluster. To the right of each plan, select the plus + and minus - to add or remove a Compute Instance to a node pool one at time.

  5. Once you're satisfied with the number of nodes in a node pool, select Add to include it in your configuration. If you decide that you need more or fewer hardware resources after you deploy your cluster, you can always edit your Node Pool.

  6. Once a pool has been added to your configuration, it is listed in the Cluster Summary on the right-hand side of Cloud Manager detailing your cluster's hardware resources and monthly cost. Additional pools can be added before finalizing the cluster creation process by repeating the previous step for each additional pool.

  7. When you are satisfied with the configuration of your cluster, click the Create Cluster button on the right hand side of the screen. Your cluster's detail page appears, and your Node Pools are listed on this page. From this page, you can edit your existing Node Pools, access your Kubeconfig file, and view an overview of your cluster's resource details.

Install kubectl

For complete instructions on installing and using kubectl with LKE, see Manage a cluster with kubectl.

macOS:

Install via Homebrew:

brew install kubernetes-cli

Linux:

  1. Download the latest kubectl release:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

  2. Make the downloaded file executable:

    chmod +x ./kubectl

  3. Move the command into your PATH:

    sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Windows:

Visit the Kubernetes documentation for a link to the most recent Windows release.

Access and download your kubeconfig

  1. To access your cluster's kubeconfig, log in to your Cloud Manager account and navigate to the Kubernetes section.

  2. From the Kubernetes listing page, click on your cluster's more options ellipsis and select Download kubeconfig. The file is saved to your computer's Downloads folder.

  3. Open a terminal shell and save your kubeconfig file's path to the $KUBECONFIG environment variable. In the example command, the kubeconfig file is located in the Downloads folder, but you should alter this line with this folder's location on your computer:

    export KUBECONFIG=~/Downloads/kubeconfig.yaml

  4. View your cluster's nodes using kubectl.

    kubectl get nodes

General network and firewall information

See Network and firewall details .

Next steps

Now that you have a running LKE cluster, you can start deploying workloads to it. Refer to our other guides to learn more:

Updated 9 days ago