Quick Start with Minikube

Meshery can manage your Minikube clusters, and it is especially useful for multi-cluster management and deployments.

To manage your Minikube cluster, Meshery Server must discover it and add it as a Kubernetes connection.

Once your cluster is a connection, you can use Meshery to deploy your Meshery Designs to it. To learn more, see Deploying Meshery Designs.

There are two ways to create this connection:

Deploy Meshery in Minikube (in-cluster).
Deploy Meshery with Docker and connect it to Minikube (out-of-cluster).

Note: We recommend installing Meshery in your Minikube clusters.

Prerequisites

Install the Meshery command-line client, mesheryctl.
Install kubectl on your local machine.
Install Minikube on your local machine.
Install Helm.

Also see: Install Meshery on Kubernetes

Available Deployment Methods

Preflight Checks

Before you deploy Meshery on Minikube, prepare your environment.

1. Preflight: Cluster Connectivity

Start Minikube if it is not already running:

	
		minikube start

Check the status of your Minikube cluster:

	
		minikube status

Verify that your current context is minikube:

	
		kubectl config current-context

2. Preflight: Meshery Authentication

Commands such as mesheryctl connection create call Meshery Server’s API, so they need a running Meshery Server and a signed-in session. Do not sign in yet. The out-of-cluster steps below tell you to run mesheryctl system login after Meshery starts. See Authenticate with Meshery via CLI.

In-cluster Installation

Installation: Install Meshery on Kubernetes Using `mesheryctl`

To install Meshery inside your Minikube cluster, run:

	
		mesheryctl system start -p kubernetes

This command deploys the Meshery Helm chart into the meshery namespace.

To verify the deployment, run:

	
		helm list -A -n meshery

After deployment, reach Meshery UI through port forwarding:

	
		mesheryctl system dashboard --port-forward

For details, see the port-forwarding guide.

Meshery Server running in the cluster connects to it automatically. If the connection does not appear, sign in and create it yourself:

	
		mesheryctl connection create --type minikube

mesheryctl connection create --type minikube flattens your kubeconfig (~/.kube/config), writes it to ~/.meshery/kubeconfig.yaml, and uploads it to Meshery Server. It replaces the deprecated mesheryctl system config minikube.

Installation: Using Helm

You can also deploy Meshery directly with the Helm CLI. See the Helm Installation guide.

Out-of-cluster Installation

To install Meshery on Docker (out-of-cluster) and connect it to your Minikube cluster, follow these steps.

Installation: Install Meshery on Docker

Start Meshery on Docker:

	
		mesheryctl system start -p docker

This command starts Meshery in Docker containers. To verify that Meshery is running, run:

	
		docker ps

Meshery UI is available on your local machine at http://localhost:9081.

Sign in with mesheryctl system login, then connect Meshery to your Minikube cluster. If you use the Docker driver, complete the steps in Minikube Docker Driver Users first.

	
		mesheryctl connection create --type minikube

Minikube Docker Driver Users

If you run Minikube with the Docker driver, both Minikube and Meshery run in Docker containers, and you need a few extra steps so that Meshery can reach your cluster. First, put the Meshery and Minikube containers on the same Docker networks:


 docker network connect bridge meshery-meshery-1


 docker network connect minikube meshery-meshery-1

Next, update the Kubernetes API server address in your kubeconfig before you run mesheryctl connection create --type minikube, as described below.

Next Step: Update the Kubernetes API Server Address for Meshery Access

Because both Meshery and Minikube run in containers, the Meshery container cannot use the localhost address that Docker forwards the API server port to. Change the API server address in your kubeconfig to Minikube’s own IP address instead.

To get the Minikube IP, run minikube ip. The API server listens on port 8443 inside the Minikube container by default.

Open your kubeconfig (~/.kube/config) in an editor and change the server field of the minikube cluster entry:

	
		server: https://{minikubeIP}:8443

Then connect Meshery to your cluster:

	
		mesheryctl connection create --type minikube

Note: Instead of running mesheryctl connection create, you can upload your kubeconfig in Meshery UI, as described next.

Uploading Configuration File in the Meshery Web UI

Note: Meshery can connect to your Minikube cluster only when Meshery itself runs locally, on Kubernetes or Docker. The hosted Meshery Playground cannot reach a cluster on your machine.

To upload your kubeconfig after you start Meshery locally:

In the Meshery UI, navigate to Lifecycle from the menu on the left.
Select Connections.
Click Create Connection and choose Kubernetes.
In the Import Kubeconfig step, upload your kubeconfig file and select the contexts to import.
Review the import and confirm it.

For details, see Registering a Connection.

Note: If you get a connection refused error when you upload your kubeconfig, change your cluster’s server URL to Minikube’s external API address, as described in Minikube Docker Driver Users.

Troubleshooting Meshery Installation

If you run into problems during installation, see Troubleshooting Meshery Installations.

Post-Installation Steps

Verify the health of your Meshery deployment with mesheryctl system check.

Accessing Meshery UI

Once Meshery is running, mesheryctl system start opens Meshery UI in your default browser. On Docker, Meshery UI listens at http://localhost:9081 by default. On Kubernetes, mesheryctl opens the address of the meshery service in the meshery namespace, which the Helm chart creates as a LoadBalancer service on port 9081.

To open Meshery UI in your default browser at any time, run:


mesheryctl system dashboard

If your cluster does not give the meshery service a reachable address, forward a local port to Meshery instead. By default, mesheryctl listens on local port 9081; use -p to choose another port.


mesheryctl system dashboard --port-forward

You can also port-forward with kubectl:


kubectl port-forward svc/meshery 9081:9081 --namespace meshery

Verify Kubernetes Connection

Whichever way you installed Meshery, verify that Meshery is connected to your cluster:

In the Meshery UI, navigate to Lifecycle from the menu on the left.
Select Connections.
Ensure that your cluster appears in the list of connections and is marked as Connected.
Click the cluster name to run a connectivity test and confirm that Meshery can reach your cluster.

Customizing Your Meshery Provider Callback URL

You can customize the callback URL that your Meshery Provider redirects to after sign-in. This helps when Meshery runs behind several layers of networking infrastructure.

For production deployments, we recommend that you expose Meshery UI through a reverse proxy or a load balancer. A custom callback URL makes sure that sign-in completes even when requests pass through several routing layers.

Note: For production deployments, use a Remote Provider so that you control which identity providers can sign users in. Learn more about this in the Extensibility: Providers guide.

To set a custom callback URL, set the MESHERY_SERVER_CALLBACK_URL environment variable when you start Meshery:


MESHERY_SERVER_CALLBACK_URL=https://custom-host mesheryctl system start

On Kubernetes, Meshery UI is then available at the EXTERNAL-IP of the meshery service. Run kubectl get svc meshery -n meshery to find it.

KubeSphere

Production Deployment