Kube-faq

# Kubernetes Work on Windows

This is a small guide for working with Kubernetes / Openshift / OKD on Windows.

It's not about installing the upper on Windows. The primary focus here is a DevOps / GitOps view managing one or many clusters from a Windows PC.

One of the main advantages is, that your typically not able to install everything on this Windows PC, because it's managed by your organisation / customer, ...

(if you can manage it by your own it's easier to install a Linux Desktop or use WSL2 on it!)

OK, let's begin. We want to work and comfortable edit environment on Windows.

## Toolset

OK, what do we need:

- Editor

- Terminal Emulator

- Shell (unixoide Shell)

- ssh

- kubectl

- openshift CLI

- helm

- kubeseal (from Sealed Secrets)

## GUI Programs

You need three Programs which install with GUI Installers (you can install all 3 without Admin privileges):

- Visual Studio Code <https://code.visualstudio.com/>

- Git Installer <https://git-scm.com/downloads>

- ConEmu as Terminal Emulation <https://conemu.github.io/>

Install all 3 with the default options for your environment.

## Commandline programs

Add a directory `bin` to your homedirectory (for example `c:\Users\myusername\bin`). Add this to your Path:

- Windows Taskbar (right click) -> select "System"

- In the Settings window under "Related Settings" click "Advanced system settings"

- In the "Advanced" tab click "Environment variables"

- You have now to lists: "variables for myuser" & "system variables"

- double click "Path" in "variables for myuser" and add the path from above

Cool, ...

Now we install the following Windows binaries (`.EXE`) files in this directory:

- oc -> the OpenShift / OKD Command line (<https://github.com/okd-project/okd/releases/> use the newest `openshift-client-windows` package from here, unpack it and kick the `oc.exe` to the bin dir)

- kubectl -> the Kubernetes Command line (<https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.26.0/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe>)

- helm -> the package manager for Kubernetes (<https://github.com/helm/helm/releases>)

- kubeseal -> generate Sealed Secrets for Kubernetes and OpenShift (<https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets/releases>)

## Customizings

### Recommended Visual Studio Coder extensions

- Openshift Extension Pack (by Red Hat)

- Remote Development (by Microsoft)

- Git Extension Pack (by Don Jayamanne)

### Shell environment

We use the git supplied bash and utilities for our unixoid environment (or linuxoid if you prefer it this way).

- *Visual Studio Code*: The terminal uses Powershell normally. You can switch to bash by:

  - Open "Terminal -> New Terminal"

  - click on the down-arrow on the right side of the Terminal

  - Click "Choose standard profile"

  - Click on "Git Bash"

- *ConEmu*: We want to use Bash as default terminal shell.

  - Goto "Settings" (the menu comes in the menu button on the top right cornert (under the Windows close button))

  - In Settings: "Startup -> Specified named task: {Bash::Git bash}

  - Save settings

At last wie want to show the actual kubernetes config in the command prompt (we use the famous [kube-ps1](https://github.com/jonmosco/kube-ps1) project for this):

- open a bash Window (either in VS-Code or ConEmu)

- download the `kube-ps1.sh` script from the [kube-ps1](https://github.com/jonmosco/kube-ps1) GitHub repo and place it in your `bin` directory:

    `curl -Lo ~/bin/kube-ps1.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jonmosco/kube-ps1/master/kube-ps1.sh`

- create an appropriate `.bash_profile` in your home directory with this:

    ```shell

    cat << EOF > ~/.bash_profile

    source ~/bin/kube-ps1.sh

    function get_cluster_short() {

      echo "$1" | sed 's&.*/api-\([^-]*\)-.*:6443/\(.*\)&\1/\2&'

    }

    KUBE_PS1_CLUSTER_FUNCTION=get_cluster_short

    # PS1='[\u@\h \W $(kube_ps1)]\$ '

    PS1='$(kube_ps1) \w \$ '

    mkdir -p ~/lib/bash-completion

    for comp in ~/lib/bash-completion/*.sh

    do

      . $comp

    done

    alias k=kubectl

    alias more=less

    EOF

    ```

- add the completion rules for commands:

    ```shell

    kubectl completion bash > ~/lib/bash-completion/kubectl.sh

    oc completion bash > ~/lib/bash-completion/oc.sh

    helm completion bash > ~/lib/bash-completion/helm.sh

    ```