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Vmware Workstation Kubernetes — Editor's Choice

sudo sysctl --system

While VMware Workstation is a desktop hypervisor, it is frequently used as a host environment for learning and testing Kubernetes clusters locally. Most modern articles focus on using Workstation to host lightweight Kubernetes distributions or using it as a sandbox for vSphere with Tanzu concepts. Local Kubernetes on VMware Workstation For developers looking to run Kubernetes directly on their desktop via VMware Workstation, several lightweight tools are commonly used to orchestrate the nodes: Minikube

Kubernetes requires specific networking modules to work correctly. Create a configuration file: vmware workstation kubernetes

50–100 GB of SSD space to ensure fast I/O for container operations.

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gpg curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl sudo apt-mark hold kubelet kubeadm kubectl sudo sysctl --system While VMware Workstation is a

| Role | Hostname | vCPU | RAM | Disk | OS | |---------------|---------------|------|------|------|---------------------------| | Control Plane | k8s-master | 2 | 4 GB | 20 GB| Ubuntu 22.04 / Rocky 9 | | Worker 1 | k8s-worker1 | 2 | 4 GB | 20 GB| Same as control plane | | Worker 2 | k8s-worker2 | 2 | 4 GB | 20 GB| Same as control plane |

VMware Workstation Pro includes a CLI tool called vctl that can spin up a local Kubernetes cluster using (Kubernetes in Docker). As of March 2025, VMware Workstation Pro is available at no charge for all use cases, including commercial [14]. Open Terminal/CMD : Ensure Workstation is installed. Create a configuration file: 50–100 GB of SSD

Set up kubeconfig for your regular user:

Verify on master:

For a stable multi-node cluster (e.g., 1 master, 2 workers), your host machine should ideally have: At least 16 GB (allocating 2-4 GB per node).

We are ready to spin up the cluster.