KinD Local Cluster¶

The KinD (Kubernetes-in-Docker) path provides a local development cluster without the full kubeadm bare-metal setup. It uses two declarative YAML manifests to configure the cluster topology.

Scripts and Manifests¶

Prerequisites¶

# Docker must be running
docker info

# kind CLI must be installed
kind version

# kubectl must be installed
kubectl version --client

Running the Entrypoint¶

# curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ibtisam-iq/silver-stack/main/scripts/kubernetes/entrypoints/create-kind-cluster.sh | bash

The script prompts for a manifest choice and creates the cluster using kind create cluster --config <manifest>.

Manifest Comparison¶

kind-default.yaml — Single Control Plane + Default CNI¶

Designed for minimal local development. One control plane node and one worker node run with Flannel as the default CNI (no additional setup required).

Node layout:

control-plane: ibtisam-iq    (kindest/node:v1.32.3)
worker:        worker         (kindest/node:v1.32.3)

Port mappings on the control plane container:

Global kubeadm patch:

kind: ClusterConfiguration
apiServer:
  extraArgs:
    authorization-mode: Node,RBAC

containerd patch:

[plugins."io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri".containerd]
  snapshotter = "overlayfs"

Start the cluster:

kind create cluster --config manifests/kind-default.yaml
kubectl cluster-info --context kind-ibtisam
kubectl get nodes

kind-calico.yaml — Multi-Node HA + Calico CNI¶

Designed for testing NetworkPolicy, multi-node scheduling, and HA control plane scenarios. The default CNI is disabled so Calico can be installed after cluster creation.

Node layout:

control-plane: ibtisam-iq    (kindest/node:v1.32.3)
control-plane: ibtisam-x     (kindest/node:v1.32.3)
worker:        worker-a       (kindest/node:v1.32.3)
worker:        worker-b       (kindest/node:v1.32.3)

Port mappings on the first control plane container:

The 1:1 passthrough mappings (30001–30010) allow direct NodePort access from the host using curl http://<host-ip>:30001/ without port translation.

Create the cluster:

kind create cluster --config manifests/kind-calico.yaml

Install Calico after cluster creation:

Because disableDefaultCNI: true is set, nodes remain NotReady until Calico is installed. Use the silver-stack CNI installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ibtisam-iq/silver-stack/main/scripts/kubernetes/cni/install-cni.sh | sudo bash
# Select: 1) Calico

Or apply Calico directly (the manifest comments in kind-calico.yaml show the manual approach with CIDR patching):

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.28.0/manifests/calico.yaml
sed -i 's/# - name: CALICO_IPV4POOL_CIDR/- name: CALICO_IPV4POOL_CIDR/' calico.yaml
sed -i 's/#   value: "192.168.0.0\/16"/  value: "10.244.0.0\/16"/' calico.yaml
kubectl apply -f calico.yaml

Verify Calico is ready:

kubectl -n calico-system get pods
kubectl get nodes   # All nodes should show Ready

Cluster Management¶

# List clusters
kind get clusters

# Delete a cluster
kind delete cluster --name ibtisam

# Export kubeconfig
kind export kubeconfig --name ibtisam

# Get nodes (Docker containers)
docker ps --filter label=io.x-k8s.kind.cluster=ibtisam

KinD vs kubeadm¶