If you are using Windows as your development machine, the simplest way to get a Kubernetes cluster for local development is to use the built-in support for running a single node Kubernetes cluster that is available in Docker 18.06 and later. This will let you use Helm to deploy Apache OpenWhisk to Kubernetes on your computer without needing any additional virtualization software installed.
You can use the Chocolatey package manager to quickly set up your Docker cluster on Windows.
choco install docker-desktopchoco install kubernetes-helmStep-by-step instructions on enabling Kubernetes in Docker are available as part of the Getting started documentation from Docker.
In a nutshell, open the Docker preferences window, switch to the Advanced panel and make sure you have at least 4GB of Memory allocated to Docker. Then switch to the Kubernetes panel, and check the box to enable Kubernetes.
You will be using a NodePort ingress to access OpenWhisk. Assuming kubectl describe nodes | find "InternalIP" returns 192.168.65.3 and port 31001 is available to be used on your host machine, a mycluster.yaml for a standard deployment of OpenWhisk would be:
whisk: ingress: type: NodePort apiHostName: localhost apiHostPort: 31001 useInternally: false nginx: httpsNodePort: 31001 # A single node cluster; so disable affinity affinity: enabled: false toleration: enabled: false invoker: options: "-Dwhisk.kubernetes.user-pod-node-affinity.enabled=false"
If you notice errors or pods stuck in the pending state (init-couchdb as an example), try running kubectl get pvc --all-namespaces. If you notice that claims are stuck in the Pending state, you may need to follow the workaround mentioned in this Docker for Windows Github Issue.
One nice feature of using Kubernetes in Docker, is that the containers being run in Kubernetes are also directly visible/accessible via the usual Docker commands. Furthermore, it is straightforward to deploy local images by adding a stanza to your mycluster.yaml. For example, to use a locally built controller image, just add the stanza below to your mycluster.yaml to override the default behavior of pulling a stable openwhisk/controller image from Docker Hub.
controller: imageName: "whisk/controller" imageTag: "latest"
Using Kubernetes in Docker for Windows is only appropriate for development and testing purposes. It is not recommended for production deployments of OpenWhisk.
TLS termination will be handled by OpenWhisk's nginx service and will use self-signed certificates. You will need to invoke wsk with the -i command line argument to bypass certificate checking.