Build. Break. Learn. Repeat.

Local Kubernetes labs with full node access.

klabctl creates production-like multi-node clusters on Multipass with kubeadm. Separate control-plane and worker VMs, Calico, and a kubeconfig on your machine. No managed cluster cost.

Install klabctl View on GitHub

klabctl creates a multi-node kubeadm cluster: three control-plane nodes, two workers, and Calico.

A lab, not a toy cluster

Use kind or Minikube when you only need to run an app. Use klabctl when you want the node, the join flow, and the control plane.

One command

klabctl create launches the VMs, installs containerd and kubeadm, initializes the control plane, joins the nodes, and installs Calico.

Real nodes

Control-plane and worker counts are yours. A 3 control-plane, 2 worker lab is a create flag, not a diagram.

Shell on every VM

Inspect kubelet, certificates, containerd, and systemd. Restart a node. Practice the failures managed clusters hide.

Install

Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, and Ubuntu-based systems such as Linux Mint and Pop!_OS. Install Multipass first. KVM has to be enabled. The Multipass installation guide has the current steps.

# Multipass runs the cluster VMs
sudo snap install multipass

# klabctl
sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:skalekontrol/klabctl
sudo apt update
sudo apt install klabctl

Install kubectl on the host before kubectl get nodes. For the default 1.36 cluster, host kubectl 1.35, 1.36, or 1.37 is in range.

Commands

Examples use a cluster named k8s. Its VMs are k8s-cp1, k8s-worker1, and so on. Multipass has to be installed before any command except version.

list nodes create shell start stop refresh delete version

List clusters

list prints clusters created with the klabctl naming convention, and how many of their VMs are running.

klabctl list

List nodes

Without a name, nodes lists every Multipass VM. With a name, it lists only that cluster.

klabctl nodes
klabctl nodes k8s

Create a cluster

The default lab is one control plane and one worker, Kubernetes 1.36, 2 vCPU, 4G RAM, and 10G disk on each node. Host kubectl needs to be installed. Create writes kubeconfig-k8s.yaml, merges it into ~/.kube/config, and switches the current context to k8s.

# Default lab
klabctl create k8s

# Three control planes and two workers
klabctl create lab --control-planes 3 --workers 2

# Sizes are per node
klabctl create lab \
  --control-planes 3 --workers 2 \
  --cp-cpus 2 --cp-memory 4G --cp-disk 20G \
  --worker-cpus 2 --worker-memory 4G --worker-disk 20G

kubectl get nodes

Shell into a node

shell opens a shell on a cluster VM. The default node is <cluster>-cp1. Pass a node name to open a worker or another control plane.

# Shell on the first control plane
klabctl shell k8s

# Shell on a worker
klabctl shell k8s k8s-worker1

Start a cluster

start boots that cluster’s VMs, then refreshes kubeconfig and the hosts file because the IP addresses can change.

klabctl start k8s

Stop a cluster

stop shuts down that cluster’s VMs and leaves every other Multipass VM alone.

klabctl stop k8s

Refresh kubeconfig

After a restart, the control-plane IP may have changed. refresh rewrites kubeconfig-k8s.yaml from k8s-cp1 and writes k8s-hosts with the current addresses.

klabctl refresh k8s

Delete a cluster

delete removes that cluster’s VMs, its context from ~/.kube/config, kubeconfig-k8s.yaml, and k8s-hosts. It asks before deleting. --yes skips the prompt. --purge reclaims disk from deleted Multipass instances.

klabctl delete k8s
klabctl delete k8s --yes --purge

Version and help

version prints the installed klabctl release and does not need Multipass.

klabctl version
klabctl help

Kubernetes versions

The same release is installed on every node. Pick a minor for its newest patch, or pin a patch.

Setting	Value
Default	1.36, newest patch
Targeted minors	1.35, 1.36, 1.37

klabctl create lab --k8s-version 1.35
klabctl create lab --k8s-version 1.36.5