Getting Started with microk8s and Helm

This guide demonstrates how to get microk8s and Helm running on a debian-based server (e.g. ubuntu).

Install microk8s and Helm

Update System Packages

Assuming you are working with a freshly installed OS, be sure to first update the system packages before proceeding:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install snap

We will use the snap package manager for installing and managing microk8s. First, install the snap daemon

sudo apt install -y snapd

INFO

You may be asked during installation about which timezone you are in. This can occur twice, once for the region and once for a city. For both, enter the number corresponding to the option that best fits your location and press Enter to continue with installation.

Before continuing, check whether you can run commands using snap by executing snap list. If this returns an error, then the snap executable needs to be added to the PATH environment variable. This can be done easily be running the following command:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/snap/bin' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Use snap to install microk8s

Next, install the core dependency along with microk8s using snap:

sudo snap install core && sudo snap install microk8s --classic --channel=1.32

Verify you can run microk8s:

microk8s version

WARNING

If you see a message saying Insufficient permissions to access MicroK8s., then visit fixing microk8s permissions in the Troubleshooting section.

Install Helm

We will install helm using its install script that we can get using curl. First install curl:

sudo apt install curl

Install Helm:

curl -fsSL -o get_helm.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3
chmod 700 get_helm.sh
./get_helm.sh

Setup microk8s

Update Storage Location

Because we need to be able to download and store several container images, we need to ensure that there is enough disk space available. By default, microk8s will store everything on your root file system located at /. Depending on how your server was setup, bulk storage may be located on a different logical volume (LV) than your root file system. You can check this by running:

df -h

Example output. Here the root file system, installed at / (yellow arrow) only has 13GB available, but a different LV mounted at /mnt/vdb1 (green arrow) has 435GB.

If you need to use a different LV for storage, replace <new mount> in the following command with the mount path of the LV you want to use for storage and then execute the command:

cat <<EOF > /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/containerd
--config \${SNAP_DATA}/args/containerd.toml
--root <new mount>/var/lib/containerd
--state <new mount>/run/containerd
--address \${SNAP_COMMON}/run/containerd.sock
EOF

For the example above, we would replace <new mount> with /mnt/vdb1.

Restart microk8s to apply this change:

sudo snap restart microk8s

Generate the Configuration

Now create a folder for the microk8s configuration at ~/.kube:

mkdir -p ~/.kube && chmod 0700 ~/.kube

Generate a configuration file and store it in this new folder:

microk8s kubectl config view --raw > ~/.kube/config

TIP

You can shorten the command for interacting with the k8s API by creating an alias:

echo "alias kubectl='microk8s kubectl'" >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

This configuration is required for Helm to work properly. Check whether Helm can contact the microk8s API by running:

helm list

WARNING

If you see a message saying Error: Kubernetes cluster unreachable: Get "http://localhost:8080/version": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:8080: connect: connection refused, then try the following:

• Ensure you have permission to read/write the .kube/ folder: chown -f -R $USER ~/.kube
• Regenerate the microk8s configuration file: microk8s kubectl config view --raw > ~/.kube/config

Install Required Addons

Several features which are required by the flame node software can be enabled in microk8s through its "addons". Run the following to activate these addons:

microk8s enable dashboard
microk8s enable ingress
microk8s enable hostpath-storage
microk8s enable metrics-server

Final Checks

Ensure that you can run the following without errors

Service	Command	Expected Output	Troubleshooting Step
microk8s	microk8s version	MicroK8s v1.32.3 revision 8148	Check whether the current user is part of the microk8s group: groups If not, then end the current session and log back in or run newgrp microk8s
ingress	microk8s status	enabled: <br>...<br>ingress	Enable ingress addon: microk8s enable ingress
hostpath-storage	microk8s status	enabled: <br>...<br>hostpath-storage	Enable ingress addon: microk8s enable hostpath-storage
helm	helm list	NAME NAMESPACE REVISION UPDATED STATUS CHART APP VERSION	Go through the steps in the Generating the Configuration section

Troubleshooting

Fixing microk8s permissions

The default user for your server needs to be added to the "microk8s" group to execute commands for the microk8s service. Run the following to add the current user to the group:

sudo usermod -a -G microk8s $USER

Then you need to reload the user groups by either rebooting or running:

newgrp microk8s

Finally, check if you have sufficient permissions to interact with microk8s:

microk8s version