description | keywords | title | redirect_from | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deploying to Kubernetes on Docker Desktop |
deploy, kubernetes, kubectl, orchestration, Docker Desktop |
Deploy on Kubernetes |
|
Docker Desktop includes a standalone Kubernetes server and client, as well as Docker CLI integration that runs on your machine.
The Kubernetes server runs locally within your Docker instance, is not configurable, and is a single-node cluster. It runs within a Docker container on your local system, and is only for local testing.
Enabling Kubernetes allows you to deploy your workloads in parallel, on Kubernetes, Swarm, and as standalone containers. Enabling or disabling the Kubernetes server does not affect your other workloads.
To enable Kubernetes in Docker Desktop:
- From the Docker Dashboard, select the Setting icon, or Preferences icon if you use a macOS.
- Select Kubernetes from the left sidebar.
- Next to Enable Kubernetes, select the checkbox.
- Select Apply & Restart to save the settings and then click Install to confirm. This instantiates images required to run the Kubernetes server as containers, and installs the
/usr/local/bin/kubectl
command on your machine.
By default, Kubernetes containers are hidden from commands like docker ps
, because managing them manually is not supported. Most users do not need this option. To see these internal containers, select Show system containers (advanced).
When Kubernetes is enabled and running, an additional status bar in the Dashboard footer and Docker menu displays.
Note
Docker Desktop does not upgrade your Kubernetes cluster automatically after a new update. To upgrade your Kubernetes cluster to the latest version, select Reset Kubernetes Cluster.
Kubernetes integration provides the Kubernetes CLI command
at /usr/local/bin/kubectl
on Mac and at C:\>Program Files\Docker\Docker\Resources\bin\kubectl.exe
on Windows. This location may not be in your shell's PATH
variable, so you may need to type the full path of the command or add it to
the PATH
.
The kubectl binary is not automatically packaged with Docker Desktop for Linux. To install the kubectl command for Linux, see Kubernetes documentation{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""}. It should be installed at /usr/local/bin/kubectl
.
If you have already installed kubectl
and it is
pointing to some other environment, such as minikube
or a GKE cluster, ensure you change the context so that kubectl
is pointing to docker-desktop
:
$ kubectl config get-contexts
$ kubectl config use-context docker-desktop
Note
Run the
kubectl
command in a CMD or PowerShell terminal, otherwisekubectl config get-contexts
may return an empty result.If you are using a different terminal and this happens, you can try setting the
kubeconfig
environment variable to the location of the.kube/config
file.
If you installed kubectl
using Homebrew, or by some other method, and
experience conflicts, remove /usr/local/bin/kubectl
.
You can test the command by listing the available nodes:
$ kubectl get nodes
NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION
docker-desktop Ready master 3h v1.19.7
For more information about kubectl
, see the
kubectl
documentation{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""}.
To disable Kubernetes in Docker Desktop:
- From the Docker Dashboard, select the Setting icon, or Preferences icon if you use a macOS.
- Select Kubernetes from the left sidebar.
- Next to Enable Kubernetes, clear the checkbox
- Select Apply & Restart to save the settings.This stops and removes Kubernetes containers, and also removes the
/usr/local/bin/kubectl
command.