How to install kubectl and set up a local Kubernetes cluster with kind

What You Need

To follow the rest of this course hands-on, you need two tools: kubectl (the CLI for Kubernetes) and kind (Kubernetes IN Docker — runs a real cluster locally using Docker containers as nodes).

Install kubectl

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install kubectl

# Linux
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -Ls https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
chmod +x kubectl && sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/

# Verify
kubectl version --client

Install kind and Create a Cluster

# macOS / Linux
brew install kind

# Create a single-node cluster
kind create cluster --name my-cluster

# Verify nodes are ready
kubectl get nodes
# Output:
# NAME                       STATUS   ROLES           AGE
# my-cluster-control-plane   Ready    control-plane   30s

Understanding kubeconfig

kubectl reads ~/.kube/config to know which cluster to talk to. kind automatically adds a context here when you create a cluster. If you manage multiple clusters, switch between them with:

# List all contexts
kubectl config get-contexts

# Switch to a different context
kubectl config use-context kind-my-cluster