As a developer you can deploy your docker containers to a local Kubernetes cluster on your laptop using minikube. You can then use Google Cloud Code extension for Visual Studio Code.

You can then make real time changes to your code and the app will deploy in the background automatically.

1. Install kubectl – https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/
2. Install minikube – https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-minikube/
   1. For Windows users, I recommend the Chocolaty approach
3. Configure Google Cloud Code to use minikube.
4. Deploy your application to your local minikube cluster in Visual Studio Code
5. Ensure you add your container registry in the .vscode\launch.json file – See Appendix

Ensure you running Visual Studio Code as Administrator.

Once deployed, you can make changes to your code and it will automatically be deployed to the cluster.

Quick Start – Create minikube Cluster in Windows (Hyper-V) and deploy a simple web server.

minikube start --vm-driver=hyperv
kubectl create deployment hello-minikube --image=k8s.gcr.io/echoserver:1.10
kubectl expose deployment hello-minikube --type=NodePort --port=8080
kubectl get pod
minikube service hello-minikube --url
minikube dashboard

Grab the output from minikube service hello-minikube –url and browse your web app/service.

Appendix

Starting the Cluster and deploying a default container.

VS Code Deployment

• Setup your Container Registry in the .vscode\launch.json
• Click Cloud Code on the bottom tray
• Click “Run on Kubernetes”
• Open a separate command prompt as administrator

.vscode\launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Run on Kubernetes",
            "type": "cloudcode.kubernetes",
            "request": "launch",
            "skaffoldConfig": "${workspaceFolder}\\skaffold.yaml",
            "watch": true,
            "cleanUp": true,
            "portForward": true,
            "imageRegistry": "romikocontainerregistry/minikube"
        },
        {
            "podSelector": {
                "app": "node-hello-world"
            },
            "type": "cloudcode",
            "language": "Node",
            "request": "attach",
            "debugPort": 9229,
            "localRoot": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "remoteRoot": "/hello-world",
            "name": "Debug on Kubernetes"
        }
    ]
}

minikube dashboard

We can see our new service is being deployed by VSCode Cloud Code extension. Whenever we make changes to the code, it will automatically deploy.

minikube service nodejs-hello-world-external --url

The above command will give us the url to browse the web app.

If I now change the text for Hello, world! It will automatically deploy. Just refresh the browser 🙂

Here in the status bar we can see deployments as we update code.

Debugging

Once you have deployed your app to Minikube, you can then kick off debugging. This is pretty awesome. Basically your development environment is now a full Kubernetes stack with attached debugging proving a seamless experience.

Check out https://cloud.google.com/code/docs/vscode/debug#nodejs for more information.

You will notice in the launch.json file we setup the debugger port etc. Below I am using port 9229. So all I need to do is start the app with

CMD [“node”, “–inspect=9229”, “app.js”]

or in the launch.json set the “args”: [“–inspect=9229”]. Only supported in launch request type.

Also ensure the Pod Selector is correct. You can use the pod name or label. You can confirm the pod name using the minikube dashboard.

http://127.0.0.1:61668/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/#/pod?namespace=default

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Run on Kubernetes",
            "type": "cloudcode.kubernetes",
            "request": "launch",
            "skaffoldConfig": "${workspaceFolder}\\skaffold.yaml",
            "watch": true,
            "cleanUp": true,
            "portForward": true,
            "imageRegistry": "dccausbcontainerregistry/minikube",
            "args": ["--inspect=9229"]
        },
        {
            "name": "Debug on Kubernetes",
            "podSelector": {
                "app": "nodejs-hello-world"
            },
            "type": "cloudcode",
            "language": "Node",
            "request": "attach",
            "debugPort": 9229,
            "localRoot": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "remoteRoot": "/hello-world"
        }
    ]
}

Now we can do the following

1. Click Run on Kubernetes
2. Set a Break Point
3. Click Debug on Kubernetes

TIPS

• Run command prompt, powershell and vscode as Administrator
• Use Choco for Windows installs
• If you going to reboot/sleep/shutdown your machine. Please run:

minikube stop

If you do not, you risk corrupting hyper-v and you will get all sorts of issues.