Setup

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Picking the Right Solution

Kubernetes can run on various platforms: from your laptop, to VMs on a cloud provider, to a rack of bare metal servers. The effort required to set up a cluster varies from running a single command to crafting your own customized cluster. Use this guide to choose a solution that fits your needs.

If you just want to “kick the tires” on Kubernetes, use the local Docker-based solutions.

When you are ready to scale up to more machines and higher availability, a hosted solution is the easiest to create and maintain.

Turnkey cloud solutions require only a few commands to create and cover a wide range of cloud providers. On-Premises turnkey cloud solutions have the simplicity of the turnkey cloud solution combined with the security of your own private network.

If you already have a way to configure hosting resources, use kubeadm to easily bring up a cluster with a single command per machine.

Custom solutions vary from step-by-step instructions to general advice for setting up a Kubernetes cluster from scratch.

Local-machine Solutions

Hosted Solutions

Turnkey Cloud Solutions

These solutions allow you to create Kubernetes clusters on a range of Cloud IaaS providers with only a few commands. These solutions are actively developed and have active community support.

On-Premises turnkey cloud solutions

These solutions allow you to create Kubernetes clusters on your internal, secure, cloud network with only a few commands.

Custom Solutions

Kubernetes can run on a wide range of Cloud providers and bare-metal environments, and with many base operating systems.

If you can find a guide below that matches your needs, use it. It may be a little out of date, but it will be easier than starting from scratch. If you do want to start from scratch, either because you have special requirements, or just because you want to understand what is underneath a Kubernetes cluster, try the Getting Started from Scratch guide.

If you are interested in supporting Kubernetes on a new platform, see Writing a Getting Started Guide.

Universal

If you already have a way to configure hosting resources, use kubeadm to easily bring up a cluster with a single command per machine.

Cloud

These solutions are combinations of cloud providers and operating systems not covered by the above solutions.

On-Premises VMs

Bare Metal

Integrations

These solutions provide integration with third-party schedulers, resource managers, and/or lower level platforms.

Table of Solutions

Below is a table of all of the solutions listed above.

IaaS Provider Config. Mgmt. OS Networking Docs Support Level
any any multi-support any CNI docs Project (SIG-cluster-lifecycle)
Google Kubernetes Engine GCE docs Commercial
Stackpoint.io multi-support multi-support docs Commercial
AppsCode.com Saltstack Debian multi-support docs Commercial
Madcore.Ai Jenkins DSL Ubuntu flannel docs Community (@madcore-ai)
Platform9 multi-support multi-support docs Commercial
Kublr custom multi-support multi-support docs Commercial
Kubermatic multi-support multi-support docs Commercial
Giant Swarm CoreOS flannel and/or Calico docs Commercial
GCE Saltstack Debian GCE docs Project
Azure Kubernetes Service Ubuntu Azure docs Commercial
Azure (IaaS) Ubuntu Azure docs Community (Microsoft)
Bare-metal custom Fedora none docs Project
Bare-metal custom Fedora flannel docs Community (@aveshagarwal)
libvirt custom Fedora flannel docs Community (@aveshagarwal)
KVM custom Fedora flannel docs Community (@aveshagarwal)
DCOS Marathon CoreOS/Alpine custom docs Community (Kubernetes-Mesos Authors)
AWS CoreOS CoreOS flannel docs Community
GCE CoreOS CoreOS flannel docs Community (@pires)
Vagrant CoreOS CoreOS flannel docs Community (@pires, @AntonioMeireles)
CloudStack Ansible CoreOS flannel docs Community (@sebgoa)
VMware vSphere any multi-support multi-support docs Community
Bare-metal custom CentOS flannel docs Community (@coolsvap)
lxd Juju Ubuntu flannel/canal docs Commercial and Community
AWS Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
Azure Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
GCE Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
Oracle Cloud Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
Rackspace Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
VMware vSphere Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
Bare Metal Juju Ubuntu flannel/calico/canal docs Commercial and Community
AWS Saltstack Debian AWS docs Community (@justinsb)
AWS kops Debian AWS docs Community (@justinsb)
Bare-metal custom Ubuntu flannel docs Community (@resouer, @WIZARD-CXY)
oVirt docs Community (@simon3z)
any any any any docs Community (@erictune)
any any any any docs Commercial and Community
any RKE multi-support flannel or canal docs Commercial and Community
any Gardener Cluster-Operator multi-support multi-support docs Project/Community and Commercial
Alibaba Cloud Container Service For Kubernetes ROS CentOS flannel/Terway docs Commercial
Agile Stacks Terraform CoreOS multi-support docs Commercial
Note: The above table is ordered by version test/used in nodes, followed by support level.

Definition of columns