You can download Kubernetes to deploy a Kubernetes cluster on a local machine, into the cloud, or for your own datacenter.

Several such as kube-apiserver or can also be deployed as container images within the cluster.

If you don’t want to manage a Kubernetes cluster yourself, you could pick a managed service, including . There are also other standardized and custom solutions across a wide range of cloud and bare metal environments.

If you’re learning Kubernetes, use the tools supported by the Kubernetes community, or tools in the ecosystem to set up a Kubernetes cluster on a local machine. See .

For a cluster you’re managing yourself, the officially supported tool for deploying Kubernetes is .

Kubernetes is designed for its to run on Linux. Within your cluster you can run applications on Linux or other operating systems, including Windows.