Skip to main content

MicroK8s Localhost Deployment

Deploy production-like applications on your localhost using MicroK8s, a lightweight Kubernetes distribution perfect for development and testing.

Overview​

MicroK8s provides a complete Kubernetes experience that can be deployed locally with:

  • MicroK8s: Lightweight Kubernetes distribution
  • Helm: Package manager for Kubernetes applications
  • SLURM: HPC workload management on Kubernetes
  • JupyterHub: Multi-user Jupyter notebook environment
  • Keycloak: Identity and access management
  • Vantage CLI: Streamlined deployment and management

Prerequisites​

Before proceeding, ensure you have completed the MicroK8s prerequisites from the localhost deployment applications overview.

Required Components​

  • MicroK8s (1.29/stable)
  • Enabled addons: hostpath-storage, dns, metallb
  • Vantage CLI
  • kubectl access configured

Available Applications​

SLURM MicroK8s Localhost​

Deploy a SLURM cluster on MicroK8s using Helm charts.

vantage app deploy slurm-microk8s-localhost

Features:

  • Containerized SLURM cluster on Kubernetes
  • Horizontal pod autoscaling
  • Persistent volume storage
  • Service mesh integration
  • Cloud-native monitoring

JupyterHub MicroK8s Localhost​

Deploy a multi-user JupyterHub environment for data science and development.

vantage app deploy jupyterhub-microk8s-localhost

Features:

  • Multi-user Jupyter notebook environment
  • GPU support (if available)
  • Custom Docker images
  • Persistent user storage
  • OAuth integration

Keycloak MicroK8s Localhost​

Deploy Keycloak for identity and access management.

vantage app deploy keycloak-microk8s-localhost

Features:

  • Single Sign-On (SSO)
  • User federation
  • Identity brokering
  • Multi-factor authentication
  • LDAP/Active Directory integration

Full MicroK8s Localhost​

Deploy the complete Vantage platform stack on MicroK8s.

vantage app deploy full-microk8s-localhost

Components:

  • SLURM cluster with job scheduling
  • JupyterHub for interactive computing
  • Keycloak for authentication
  • Monitoring and logging stack
  • Service mesh for communication

Quick Start​

1. Verify MicroK8s Installation​

# Check MicroK8s status
microk8s status

# Verify kubectl access
microk8s kubectl get nodes

# Check enabled addons
microk8s status --addon

2. Deploy Your First Application​

# Deploy SLURM cluster
vantage app deploy slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Monitor deployment
vantage app status slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Watch pods come online
microk8s kubectl get pods -w

3. Access Applications​

# Get service endpoints
vantage app info slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Port forward to access locally
microk8s kubectl port-forward svc/slurm-controller 8080:80

Configuration​

Resource Management​

# Configure resource limits
vantage app deploy slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --set resources.limits.memory=4Gi \
  --set resources.limits.cpu=2

# Enable autoscaling
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --autoscaling-enabled=true \
  --min-replicas=1 \
  --max-replicas=5

Storage Configuration​

# Configure persistent storage
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --storage-class=hostpath \
  --storage-size=10Gi

# Enable shared storage
microk8s enable hostpath-storage

Networking​

# Configure LoadBalancer services
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --service-type=LoadBalancer \
  --load-balancer-ip=10.64.140.43

# Enable ingress
microk8s enable ingress
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --ingress-enabled=true \
  --ingress-host=slurm.localhost

Management Commands​

Application Lifecycle​

# List deployed applications
vantage app list

# Start application
vantage app start slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Stop application
vantage app stop slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Update application
vantage app update slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Delete application
vantage app delete slurm-microk8s-localhost

Scaling Operations​

# Scale compute nodes
vantage app scale slurm-microk8s-localhost --compute-nodes=3

# Scale JupyterHub user capacity
vantage app scale jupyterhub-microk8s-localhost --max-users=50

Monitoring and Logs​

# View application logs
vantage app logs slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Follow logs in real-time
vantage app logs slurm-microk8s-localhost --follow

# Get detailed status
vantage app describe slurm-microk8s-localhost

Kubernetes Integration​

Direct kubectl Commands​

# View all resources
microk8s kubectl get all -n vantage

# Describe pods
microk8s kubectl describe pod -l app=slurm-controller

# Execute commands in pods
microk8s kubectl exec -it slurm-controller-0 -- /bin/bash

# View persistent volumes
microk8s kubectl get pv,pvc

Helm Integration​

# List Helm releases
microk8s helm list

# Get Helm values
microk8s helm get values slurm-microk8s-localhost

# Upgrade with new values
microk8s helm upgrade slurm-microk8s-localhost ./chart --values custom-values.yaml

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

Pod Startup Issues:

# Check pod status
microk8s kubectl get pods -o wide

# Describe problematic pods
microk8s kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

# View pod logs
microk8s kubectl logs <pod-name> --previous

Storage Issues:

# Check PVC status
microk8s kubectl get pvc

# Describe storage issues
microk8s kubectl describe pvc <pvc-name>

# Check available storage
df -h /var/snap/microk8s/common/default-storage

Network Issues:

# Check service endpoints
microk8s kubectl get endpoints

# Test service connectivity
microk8s kubectl run test-pod --image=busybox --rm -it -- nslookup kubernetes.default

# Check MetalLB configuration
microk8s kubectl get configmap config -n metallb-system -o yaml

Performance Optimization​

Resource Allocation:

# Monitor resource usage
microk8s kubectl top nodes
microk8s kubectl top pods

# Set resource requests and limits
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --cpu-request=500m \
  --memory-request=1Gi \
  --cpu-limit=2 \
  --memory-limit=4Gi

Node Optimization:

# Enable GPU support (if available)
microk8s enable gpu

# Configure node affinity
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --node-selector=kubernetes.io/arch=amd64

Advanced Topics​

Custom Images​

# Build custom SLURM image
docker build -t my-slurm:latest .

# Deploy with custom image
vantage app deploy slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --set image.repository=my-slurm \
  --set image.tag=latest

Service Mesh Integration​

# Enable Istio service mesh
microk8s enable istio

# Deploy with service mesh
vantage app deploy slurm-microk8s-localhost --enable-service-mesh

Monitoring Stack​

# Enable Prometheus monitoring
microk8s enable prometheus

# Access Grafana dashboard
microk8s kubectl port-forward -n monitoring svc/grafana 3000:3000

Integration Examples​

JupyterHub + SLURM​

# Deploy integrated stack
vantage app deploy full-microk8s-localhost

# Configure JupyterHub to submit to SLURM
vantage app config jupyterhub-microk8s-localhost \
  --slurm-controller=slurm-controller.vantage.svc.cluster.local

Keycloak Authentication​

# Configure SSO for applications
vantage app config slurm-microk8s-localhost \
  --auth-provider=keycloak \
  --keycloak-url=http://keycloak.localhost

Next Steps​

Support​

For MicroK8s-specific issues: