Getting started on Minikube
The following will help you get started running a riff function with Knative on Minikube.
TL;DR
- install kubectl, Minikube, and Docker
- install the latest riff CLI
- create a Minikube cluster for Knative
- install Knative using the riff CLI
- create a function
- invoke the function
install kubectl
kubectl is the Kubernetes CLI. It is used to manage minikube as well as hosted Kubernetes clusters.
install Minikube
Minikube is a Kubernetes environment which runs in a single virtual machine. See the latest release for installation, and the readme for more detailed information.
For macOS we recommend using Hyperkit as the vm driver. To install Hyperkit, first install Docker Desktop (Mac), then run:
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/docker-machine-driver-hyperkit \
&& sudo install -o root -m 4755 docker-machine-driver-hyperkit /usr/local/bin/
For Linux we suggest using the kvm2 driver.
For additional details see the minikube driver installation docs.
install Docker
Installing Docker Community Edition is the easiest way get started with Docker. Since Minikube includes its own Docker daemon, you actually only need the docker CLI to run docker login for --local-path function builds. This means that if you want to, you can shut down the Docker Desktop app and depend on the Minikube Docker daemon by running eval $(minikube docker-env).
create a Minikube cluster
minikube start \
--memory=4096 --cpus=4 \
--vm-driver=hyperkit
To use the kvm2 driver for Linux specify --vm-driver=kvm2. Omitting the --vm-driver option will use the default driver.
Confirm that your kubectl context is pointing to the new cluster
kubectl config current-context
install the riff CLI
The riff CLI is available to download from our GitHub releases page. Once installed, check that the riff CLI version is 0.3.0 or later.
riff version
Version
riff cli: 0.3.1 (1ff6c6d7a708e52eb6843e89f9a618fcbfebbb9f)
At this point it is useful to monitor your cluster using a utility like watch. To install on a Mac
brew install watch
Watch pods in a separate terminal.
watch -n 1 kubectl get pod --all-namespaces
install Knative using the riff CLI
Install Knative, watching the pods until everything is running (this could take a couple of minutes). The --node-port option replaces LoadBalancer type services with NodePort.
riff system install --node-port
You should see pods running in namespaces istio-system, knative-build, knative-serving, and knative-eventing as well as kube-system when the system is fully operational.
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
istio-system cluster-local-gateway-547467ccf6-xbh9m 1/1 Running 0 3m34s
istio-system istio-citadel-7d64db8bcf-ljd5r 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-cleanup-secrets-pw842 0/1 Completed 0 3m36s
istio-system istio-egressgateway-6ddf4c8bd6-k7bjr 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-galley-7dd996474-467xc 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-ingressgateway-84b89d647f-76z5g 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-pilot-54b76645df-xdszt 2/2 Running 0 3m21s
istio-system istio-policy-5c4d9ff96b-htd5h 2/2 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-sidecar-injector-6977b5cf5b-fh7mr 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-statsd-prom-bridge-b44b96d7b-htrgk 1/1 Running 0 3m35s
istio-system istio-telemetry-7676df547f-b4vdw 2/2 Running 0 3m35s
knative-build build-controller-7b8987d675-8vph5 1/1 Running 0 59s
knative-build build-webhook-74795c8696-xwwld 1/1 Running 0 59s
knative-eventing eventing-controller-864657d8d4-hj7xz 1/1 Running 0 57s
knative-eventing in-memory-channel-controller-f794cc9d8-nb59s 1/1 Running 0 56s
knative-eventing in-memory-channel-dispatcher-8595c7f8d7-qzn9c 2/2 Running 1 56s
knative-eventing webhook-5d76776d55-jb56d 1/1 Running 0 57s
knative-serving activator-7c8b59d78-2jrpk 2/2 Running 1 58s
knative-serving autoscaler-666c9bfcc6-vwcrq 2/2 Running 1 58s
knative-serving controller-799cd5c6dc-sbpzr 1/1 Running 0 58s
knative-serving webhook-5b66fdf6b9-kqvjh 1/1 Running 0 58s
kube-system coredns-86c58d9df4-dtf4v 1/1 Running 0 9m17s
kube-system coredns-86c58d9df4-hpzlx 1/1 Running 0 9m17s
kube-system etcd-minikube 1/1 Running 0 8m30s
kube-system kube-addon-manager-minikube 1/1 Running 0 8m15s
kube-system kube-apiserver-minikube 1/1 Running 0 8m20s
kube-system kube-controller-manager-minikube 1/1 Running 0 8m29s
kube-system kube-proxy-fcbqc 1/1 Running 0 9m17s
kube-system kube-scheduler-minikube 1/1 Running 0 8m9s
kube-system storage-provisioner 1/1 Running 0 9m16s
initialize the namespace and provide credentials for pushing images to DockerHub
Use the riff CLI to initialize your namespace (if you plan on using a namespace other than default then substitute the name you want to use). This will create a serviceaccount and a secret with the provided credentials and install a buildtemplate. Replace the ??? with your docker username.
export DOCKER_ID=???
riff namespace init default --docker-hub $DOCKER_ID
You will be prompted to provide the password.
create a function
This step will pull the source code for a function from a GitHub repo, build a container image based on the node function invoker, and push the resulting image to your dockerhub repo.
riff function create square \
--git-repo https://github.com/projectriff-samples/node-square \
--artifact square.js \
--verbose
If you're still watching pods, you should see something like the following
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
default square-rqmsf-pod-2cd1ef 0/1 Init:3/7 0 20s
The 7 "Init" containers may take a while to complete the first time a function is built, but eventually that pod should show a status of completed, and a new square deployment pod should be running 3/3 containers.
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
default square-5ksdq-deployment-6d875d87bf-64fz4 3/3 Running 0 47s
default square-rqmsf-pod-2cd1ef 0/1 Completed 0 2m30s
invoke the function
riff service invoke square --json -- -w '\n' -d 8
result
curl http://192.168.64.46:31380/ -H 'Host: square.default.example.com' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -w '\n' -d 8
64
delete the function
riff service delete square