Creating a Kubernetes Cluster (Without Jenkins X)

⚠️ As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the examples are verified only in GKE and EKS, given those are the only currently (February 2020) supported platforms for jx boot. Double-check the documentation to see whether that changed or be brave and try it out yourself with other Kubernetes flavors.

From now on, we will not use jx create cluster to create a Kubernetes cluster and install Jenkins X. Instead, I will assume that you will create a cluster any way you like (e.g., Terraform, gcloud, etc.) and we’ll focus only on how to set up Jenkins X. If you’re lazy and do not yet want to figure out the best way to create a cluster, the Gists that follow can get you up-to-speed fast. Just remember that the commands in them are not the recommended way to create a cluster, but rather the easiest and fastest method I could come up with.

I opted for commands instead of, let’s say, Terraform for two reasons.

• First of all, I’m trying to keep this neutral as a way to avoid influencing you about the tool you should use for managing infrastructure. Now, I’m aware that I already stated a couple of times that I prefer Terraform, so I cannot say that I am neutral (I’m not), so that argument is not really valid, so let’s jump to the second one.
• The more important reason for not using any tool for creating and setting up a cluster lies in the decision not to spend time explaining such a tool. This is neither the time nor the place to enter into configuration management discussion.