kind - Kubernetes That Doesn't Completely Suck

Local Kubernetes is a fucking nightmare. Minikube eats your RAM, Docker Desktop's "Kubernetes" is a joke, and VMs are slow as hell. kind runs real Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as nodes - it's the least painful way to test multi-node setups locally.

How It Actually Works

kind cheats by running each Kubernetes "node" as a Docker container with systemd inside. Sounds hacky? It is. Does it work? Usually.

• Each "node" is a fat Docker container with systemd, kubelet, and all the Kubernetes bits
• Uses kubeadm to bootstrap each container like a real node
• Your Docker daemon becomes your "datacenter" - multiple containers = multiple nodes
• kubectl talks to it like any real cluster

When kind Doesn't Suck

Multi-node testing: Unlike Docker Desktop, you can actually test pod scheduling, network policies, and node failures. Critical for anything beyond hello-world demos.

CI/CD pipelines: Starts faster than minikube (usually 30-60 seconds if Docker isn't being an asshole). GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins love it.

Resource efficiency: Uses about 500MB RAM idle on my machine. Compare that to minikube's 2GB+ hunger or VMware Fusion eating your CPU.

When It Breaks

Docker daemon shitting itself will kill your clusters. WSL2 networking is pure chaos on Windows. Port conflicts if you're already running shit on 80/443. The known issues list is longer than your arm.

Current Reality Check

As of August 2025, we're at version 0.30.0. Still not 1.0 after years, but stable enough that major projects use it in CI. The SIG-Testing folks keep it alive, mostly @BenTheElder and @aojea fixing the shit that breaks.

Bottom line: kind works when you need real Kubernetes locally without the VM overhead. Just don't expect miracles when Docker decides to have a bad day.

Prerequisites That Actually Matter

You need Docker working. That's it. Don't fuck around with Podman or nerdctl unless you enjoy debugging obscure container runtime issues.

Docker Desktop on Mac/Windows works but eats resources. On Linux, just install Docker engine. Check it's actually running:

docker ps  # Should not error

Installation Methods That Work

Homebrew (macOS) - usually the least broken:

brew install kind

Go install - if your Go setup isn't fucked:

go install sigs.k8s.io/kind@v0.30.0

Make sure $GOPATH/bin is in your PATH or you'll be confused why kind command doesn't exist.

Direct download - when package managers fail you:

## Linux x86_64
curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.30.0/kind-linux-amd64
chmod +x ./kind
sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin/kind

Windows people: use Chocolatey (choco install kind) or download the exe from GitHub releases. You can also use Scoop (scoop install kind) or winget (winget install Kubernetes.kind).

Actually Creating a Cluster

kind create cluster

This will:

1. Pull the kindest/node Docker image (1GB+, hope your internet doesn't suck)
2. Start a container running systemd + Kubernetes
3. Configure kubectl to talk to it
4. Take 30-60 seconds unless Docker decides to have a moment

When it works, you'll see:

Creating cluster \"kind\" ...
 ✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.30.0) 🖼
 ✓ Preparing nodes 📦
 ✓ Writing configuration 📜
 ✓ Starting control-plane 🕹️
 ✓ Installing CNI 🔌
 ✓ Installing StorageClass 💾
Set kubectl context to \"kind-kind\"

When It Doesn't Work

"failed to create cluster" - Usually Docker daemon issues:

docker ps  # Does this work?
sudo systemctl restart docker  # Linux
## Or restart Docker Desktop on Mac/Windows

Check Docker system requirements and memory limits. The Docker troubleshooting guide covers daemon issues.

"context deadline exceeded" - Network timeout downloading images:

docker pull kindest/node:latest  # Try manually

Check your network connection and Docker registry configuration. Corporate firewalls often block image pulls.

"port 6443 already in use" - You have conflicting services:

lsof -i :6443  # See what's using the API server port
kind delete cluster  # Clean up previous attempts

"kubectl: connection refused" - Context is fucked:

kind get clusters
kubectl config get-contexts
kubectl config use-context kind-kind

See the kubectl context documentation and kubeconfig troubleshooting for more help.

Multi-Node Clusters (When You Need Real Testing)

Create a config file multi-node.yaml:

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
- role: control-plane
- role: worker
- role: worker

kind create cluster --config=multi-node.yaml --name=multi

This creates 3 containers = 3 nodes. Uses more RAM but you can actually test pod scheduling, node failures, network policies, taints and tolerations, and resource quotas.

Managing Multiple Clusters

kind create cluster --name dev
kind create cluster --name test
kind get clusters
kubectl config get-contexts  # Shows kind-dev, kind-test contexts
kubectl config use-context kind-test

Cleanup (Do This or Hate Your RAM Usage)

kind delete cluster --name dev
kind delete cluster  # Deletes default cluster
docker system prune  # Clean up orphaned images

The official docs have more details, including advanced configuration and ingress setup. The troubleshooting guide covers common issues. But honestly, if the above doesn't work, you've got bigger Docker problems to solve first.

Still, shit breaks in weird ways. Here's what people actually ask when kind fucks up: