If you want to add Kubernetes to your development workflow, try the easy way with a combination of Microk8s and Portainer.

flicker and technology changes. Just a few months ago I wrote a tutorial for TechRepublic about deploying Portainer in a Microk8s cluster for simplified Kubernetes development. Now this tutorial no longer works, because the latest Microk8s have a compilation problem, and Microk8s versions prior to 1.24 will not work with Portainer. Read on to learn about the new process for deploying this all-in-one container management system on a Microk8s cluster.
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What you need to deploy Portainer on Microk8s
You will need a Microk8s cluster with at least three nodes and a user with sudo privileges.
How to install Microk8s and join the cluster
Here’s a quick refresher on how to properly deploy a Microk8s array.
- Install Microk8s version 1.24 on all Ubuntu server nodes via Snap.
- Edit your /etc/hosts file to map hostnames to IP addresses.
- Set host names for each device.
- Set the appropriate timezone on all devices.
- Run
microk8s add-node
command on the console. - Run
microk8s join
command, as shown in the output fileadd-node
command, on each node. - Add your user to the microk8s group using
sudo usermod -aG microk8s $USER.
- Change the .kube folder permission with
chown -f -R $USER ~/.kube.
- Log out and log back in.
Now that your group is up and running, it’s time to deploy Portainer to the group.
How to deploy Portainer in Microk8s group
First, enable some of the Microk8s add-ons. Log into your Microk8s console and issue the following commands to enable the necessary add-ons:
microk8s enable dns
microk8s enable ha-cluster
microk8s enable ingress
microk8s enable metrics-server
microk8s enable rbac
microk8s enable hostpath-storage
Before enabling Portainer, you must enable the community repository with the command:
microk8s enable community
Now, you can enable Portainer with:
microk8s enable portainer
Give the Portainer enough time to spin – you can check the status with the following command:
microk8s kubectl get pods -n portainer
When you see Portainer listed as running, you can open a web browser and point it to http://SERVER:30777 or https://SERVER:30799, where SERVER is the IP address or domain of the hosting server.
You will be prompted to create an administrator user. After that’s taken care of, select Local Environment, and you’ll find yourself in the Portainer Dashboard (Figure A), where you can start managing your Kubernetes deployments.
Figure A

See the latest releases of Microk8s
Now you know how to properly deploy Portainer to a Microk8s pool; However, as this may change, you should keep an eye on the latest Microk8s on the Snap Store. Once the latest stable release of Microk8s is better able to compile, I highly recommend upgrading to this release and redeploying Portainer.