Getting Started with Knative

    Knative Quickstart Environments are for experimentation use only. For production installation, see our Administrator’s Guide

    Before you can get started with a Knative Quickstart deployment you must install kind, the Kubernetes CLI, and the Knative CLI.

    You can use (Kubernetes in Docker) to run a local Kubernetes cluster with Docker container nodes.

    The Kubernetes CLI (kubectl), allows you to run commands against Kubernetes clusters. You can use to deploy applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, and view logs.

    The Knative CLI (kn) provides a quick and easy interface for creating Knative resources, such as Knative Services and Event Sources, without the need to create or modify YAML files directly.

    kn also simplifies completion of otherwise complex procedures such as autoscaling and traffic splitting.

    Installing the kn CLI

    Using Homebrew

    For macOS, you can install kn by using .

    Note: Quickstart requires kn version 0.25 or later. To upgrade an existing install to the latest version, run brew upgrade kn.

    Using a binary

    You can install kn by downloading the executable binary for your system and placing it in the system path. Note that you will need kn version 0.25 or later.

    1. Download the binary for your system from the kn release page.

    2. Rename the binary to kn and make it executable by running the commands:

      1. mv <path-to-binary-file> kn
      2. chmod +x kn

      Where <path-to-binary-file> is the path to the binary file you downloaded in the previous step, for example, kn-darwin-amd64 or kn-linux-amd64.

      1. mv kn /usr/local/bin

    Using Go

    1. Check out the client repository:

      1. git clone https://github.com/knative/client.git
      2. cd client/

    2. Build an executable binary:

    3. Move kn into your system path, and verify that kn commands are working properly. For example:

      1. kn version

    Using a container image

    Links to images are available here:

    You can run kn from a container image. For example:

    1. docker run --rm -v "$HOME/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config" gcr.io/knative-releases/knative.dev/client/cmd/kn:latest service list

    Note

    Running kn from a container image does not place the binary on a permanent path. This procedure must be repeated each time you want to use kn.

    Having issues upgrading kn?

    If you are having issues upgrading using Homebrew, it may be due to a change to a CLI repository, where master branch was renamed to main. If so, run

    1. brew tap --repair
    2. brew update

    to resolve the issue.

    Install the Knative “Quickstart” environment

    You can get started with a local deployment of Knative by using the Knative plugin.

    Installing the quickstart plugin

    For macOS, you can install the quickstart plugin by using .

    1. brew install knative-sandbox/kn-plugins/quickstart

    Using a binary

    You can install the quickstart plugin by downloading the executable binary for your system and placing it on your PATH (for example, in /usr/local/bin).

    A link to the latest stable binary release is available on the quickstart release page.

    Using Go

    1. Check out the kn-plugin-quickstart repository:

    2. Build an executable binary:

      1. hack/build.sh

    3. Move the executable binary file to a directory on your PATH:

      1. mv kn-quickstart /usr/local/bin

    4. Verify that the plugin is working, for example:

      1. kn quickstart --help

    The quickstart plugin completes the following functions:

    1. Checks if you have installed, and creates a cluster called knative.
    2. Installs Knative Serving with Kourier as the default networking layer, and nip.io as the DNS.
    3. Installs Knative Eventing and creates an in-memory Broker and Channel implementation.

    Install Knative and Kubernetes on a local Docker Daemon using kn quickstart

      Having issues with Kind?

      We’ve found that some users (specifically Linux) may have trouble with Docker and, subsequently, Kind. Though this tutorial assumes you have Kind installed, you can easily follow along with a different installation.

      We have provide an alternative Quickstart on minikube here: https://github.com/csantanapr/knative-minikube

      Installing may take a few minutes. After the plugin is finished, check to make sure you have a Cluster called