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Using Minikube with VirtualBox

·300 words·2 mins
Thorsten Lenzen
Author
Thorsten Lenzen
Coding, Devops and Homelab maniac…

Minikube with VirtualBox Installation Guide
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Overview
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This guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring Minikube with VirtualBox on Windows using winget package manager.

Prerequisites
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  • Windows 10/11
  • Administrator access
  • Virtualization enabled in BIOS
  • winget package manager (pre-installed on Windows 11, available on Windows 10)

Installation Steps
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1. Install VirtualBox
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Download Virtual box from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and install the package.

Beware: The Winget package does not seem to work!

2. Install kubectl
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winget install Kubernetes.kubectl

3. Install Minikube
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winget install Kubernetes.minikube

4. Restart your terminal
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Close and reopen your terminal (or PowerShell) to ensure the PATH is updated.

5. Start Minikube with VirtualBox driver
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minikube start --driver=virtualbox

Configuration
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Set VirtualBox as Default Driver (Optional)
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minikube config set driver virtualbox

Now you can just use minikube start without specifying the driver each time.

Verification
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Verify Installation
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minikube status
kubectl get nodes

Expected output for minikube status:

minikube
type: Control Plane
host: Running
kubelet: Running
apiserver: Running
kubeconfig: Configured

Common Commands
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# Stop minikube
minikube stop

# Delete the cluster
minikube delete

# Access Kubernetes dashboard
minikube dashboard

# SSH into the minikube VM
minikube ssh

# Check minikube version
minikube version

# View minikube logs
minikube logs

Troubleshooting
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Issue: Virtualization not enabled
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Solution:

Ensure virtualization (VT-x/AMD-V) is enabled in your BIOS settings.

Issue: VirtualBox not working
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Solution:

  • Check VirtualBox is working by opening VirtualBox GUI
  • Ensure no other hypervisor (like Hyper-V) is conflicting

Issue: Insufficient resources
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Solution:

Try starting with more resources:

minikube start --driver=virtualbox --cpus=2 --memory=4096

Issue: Path not recognized after installation
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Solution: Restart your terminal or computer to refresh environment variables.

Summary
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That’s it! You should now have Minikube running on VirtualBox and be ready to start deploying Kubernetes applications locally.