Nuno Facha

Step 1: Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

Step 2: Make sure containerd dosen’t have CRI disabled

Edit the file /etc/containerd/config.toml and make sure that the disabled_plugins setting is blank

nano /etc/containerd/config.toml

Then restart the containerd service:

service containerd restart

Step 3: Install Kubernetes

You will start by installing the apt-transport-https package which enables working with http and https in Ubuntu’s repositories. Also, install curl as it will be necessary for the next steps. Execute the following command:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl

Then, add the Kubernetes signing key to both nodes by executing the command:

echo "deb https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" >> ~/kubernetes.list
sudo mv ~/kubernetes.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key add -

After that, update the nodes:

sudo apt update

Once the update completes, we will install Kubernetes. This involves installing the various tools that make up Kubernetes: kubeadm, kubelet, kubectl, and kubernetes-cni

sudo apt-get install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl kubernetes-cni

Step 4: Disabling Swap Memory

Kubernetes fails to function in a system that is using swap memory. Hence, it must be disabled in the master node and all worker nodes. Execute the following command to disable swap memory:

sudo swapoff -a

Step 5: Setting Unique Hostnames

Your nodes must have unique hostnames for easier identification. If you are deploying a cluster with many nodes, you can set it to identify names for your worker nodes such as node-1, node-2, etc. As we had mentioned earlier, we have named our nodes as kubernetes-master and kubernetes-worker. We have set them at the time of creating the server. However, you can adjust or set yours if you had not already done so from the command line. To adjust the hostname on the master node, run the following command:

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname kubernetes-master

Step 6: Changing Docker Cgroup Driver

On both master and worker nodes, update the cgroupdriver with the following commands:

sudo mkdir /etc/docker
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json
{ "exec-opts": ["native.cgroupdriver=systemd"],
"log-driver": "json-file",
"log-opts":
{ "max-size": "100m" },
"storage-driver": "overlay2"
}
EOF

Then, execute the following commands to restart and enable Docker on system boot-up:

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart docker

Step 7: Initializing the Kubernetes Master Node

The first step in deploying a Kubernetes cluster is to fire up the master node. While on the terminal of your master node, execute the following command to initialize the kubernetes-master:

kubeadm init --pod-network-cidr=10.244.0.0/16 --control-plane-endpoint <EXTERNAL-IP>

In the output, Kubernetes also displays some additional commands that you should run as a regular user on the master node before you start to use the cluster. Let’s run these commands:

mkdir -p $HOME/.kube
sudo cp -i /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/.kube/config
sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/.kube/config

We have now initialized the master node. However, we also have to set up the pod network on the master node before we join the worker nodes.

Step 8: Deploying a Pod Network

A pod network facilitates communication between servers and it’s necessary for the proper functioning of the Kubernetes cluster. You can read more about Kubernetes Cluster Networking from the official docs. We will be using the Flannel pod network for this tutorial. Flannel is a simple overlay network that satisfies the Kubernetes requirements.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/flannel/master/Documentation/kube-flannel.yml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/flannel/master/Documentation/k8s-manifests/kube-flannel-rbac.yml

Step 9: Joining Worker Nodes to the Kubernetes Cluster

First, log into your worker node on a separate terminal session. You will use your kubeadm join command that was shown in your terminal when we initialized the master node in Step 7, execute the command indicated there, it will look something like the following:

kubeadm join XXXX:6443 --token XXX \
	--discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:XXXX

Once the joining process completes, switch the master node terminal and execute the following command to confirm that your worker node has joined the cluster:

kubectl get nodes