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Kubernetes ​

OrbStack includes a lightweight single-node Kubernetes cluster optimized for development, complete with GUI and network integration.

Native Kubernetes GUI

Container images ​

Kubernetes uses the same container engine as the rest of OrbStack, so built images are immediately available for use in Pods. There's no need to push images to a local registry.

Note that by default, Kubernetes always attempts to pull and update images tagged with :latest. To use local images, set a different tag (e.g. :dev or :1), or set imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent on your pod.

Services ​

All Kubernetes service types are accessible directly from Mac, so port forwarding is not needed.

cluster.local ​

Kubernetes cluster.local domains, such as service.namespace.svc.cluster.local, are accessible from Mac.

LoadBalancer & Ingress ​

LoadBalancer services, such as Ingress controllers, work out of the box. Ports are accessible at *.k8s.orb.local. This is a wildcard domain, so you can use virtual hosts like example.k8s.orb.local to access services.

No Ingress controller is installed by default. To install Ingress-NGINX:

bash
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/controller-v1.8.1/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/controller-v1.8.1/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml

Or Traefik:

bash
# Install Helm first: https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/
helm repo add traefik https://traefik.github.io/charts
helm repo update
helm install traefik traefik/traefik
# Install Helm first: https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/
helm repo add traefik https://traefik.github.io/charts
helm repo update
helm install traefik traefik/traefik

NodePort ​

Create a NodePort service as usual, then visit localhost:PORT:

bash
$ kubectl create deployment nginx --image nginx
$ kubectl expose deploy/nginx --type=NodePort --port=80
$ kubectl get svc
NAME       TYPE           CLUSTER-IP        EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)
nginx      NodePort       192.168.194.217   <none>         80:32042/TCP

$ curl -I localhost:32042
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.25.2
$ kubectl create deployment nginx --image nginx
$ kubectl expose deploy/nginx --type=NodePort --port=80
$ kubectl get svc
NAME       TYPE           CLUSTER-IP        EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)
nginx      NodePort       192.168.194.217   <none>         80:32042/TCP

$ curl -I localhost:32042
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.25.2

ClusterIP ​

ClusterIP addresses are accessible from Mac:

bash
$ kubectl get svc
NAME                 TYPE         CLUSTER-IP        EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)
my-release-grafana   ClusterIP    192.168.194.245   <none>         80/TCP

$ curl -I 192.168.194.245
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: /login
...
$ kubectl get svc
NAME                 TYPE         CLUSTER-IP        EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)
my-release-grafana   ClusterIP    192.168.194.245   <none>         80/TCP

$ curl -I 192.168.194.245
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: /login
...

Exposing ports to LAN ​

For security, NodePorts and LoadBalancer ports are only accessible to localhost by default. Enable "Expose services to local network devices" in OrbStack Settings > Kubernetes to allow access from other devices on your LAN.

This helps protect your services when working on untrusted networks.

Pod IPs ​

In addition to services, you can also connect to pods directly by IP. This can be useful for debugging or testing.

bash
$ kubectl get pods -o wide
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   IP
nginx-77b4fdf86c-fdmdn   1/1     Running   0          192.168.194.20

$ curl -I 192.168.194.20
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.25.2
...
$ kubectl get pods -o wide
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   IP
nginx-77b4fdf86c-fdmdn   1/1     Running   0          192.168.194.20

$ curl -I 192.168.194.20
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.25.2
...

Command line ​

kubectl is included with OrbStack.

To manage the cluster from the command line:

  • Start: orb start k8s
  • Stop: orb stop k8s
  • Restart: orb restart k8s
  • Delete: orb delete k8s

Custom clusters ​

To create multi-node clusters and customize other cluster features, you can use kind or k3d.

You can also use k3s or minikube to run Kubernetes in a machine.

Keep in mind that custom clusters may be less feature-complete than the OrbStack-managed cluster, and resource usage may be higher.

Custom CNIs ​

The default CNI is Flannel. Although replacing the CNI is not officially supported, it may be possible to install custom CNIs.

Istio ​

To install Istio, add the following flags to istioctl install or helm install:

bash
--set values.cni.cniBinDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/data/current/bin/ --set values.cni.cniConfDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d
--set values.cni.cniBinDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/data/current/bin/ --set values.cni.cniConfDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d

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