Skip to content

Quickstart

Prerequisites

Start with kube-bind

Quick Development Setup

Note: This setup requires Docker as it uses advanced network configuration to minimize external DNS dependencies and enable inter-cluster connectivity.

For a quick development environment with local Kind clusters, use the kubectl bind dev command:

kubectl bind dev create

Example output: 

kube-bind Development Environment Setup

EXPERIMENTAL: kube-bind dev command is in preview
Requirements: Docker must be installed and running

Host entry exists for kube-bind.dev.local
✓ Host entry exists for kube-bind.dev.local
Kind cluster kind-provider already exists, skipping creation
Wrote kubeconfig kind-provider.kubeconfig
Helm chart installed successfully
Creating kind cluster kind-consumer with network kube-bind-dev
Kind cluster kind-consumer created
Wrote kubeconfig kind-consumer.kubeconfig
kube-bind dev environment is ready!

Configuration:
• Provider cluster kubeconfig: kind-provider.kubeconfig
• Consumer cluster kubeconfig: kind-consumer.kubeconfig
• kube-bind server URL: http://kube-bind.dev.local:8080

Next Steps:

1. Login to authenticate to the provider cluster:
kubectl bind login http://kube-bind.dev.local:8080

2. Bind an API service from provider to consumer:
KUBECONFIG=kind-consumer.kubeconfig kubectl bind --konnector-host-alias 192.168.155.2:kube-bind.dev.local

This command will:

  • Create two Kind clusters: kind-provider (API provider) and kind-consumer (API consumer)
  • Deploy the kube-bind backend to the provider cluster
  • Generate kubeconfig files for both clusters
  • Set up local DNS entries for kube-bind.dev.local
  • Start the kube-bind server at http://kube-bind.dev.local:8080

After the development environment is ready, you can:

  1. Authenticate to the provider cluster: 

    kubectl bind login http://kube-bind.dev.local:8080
    This will open a browser for authentication and save the configuration.

  2. Bind API services from provider to consumer:

Bind using CLI (step 2) in the output.

KUBECONFIG=kind-consumer.kubeconfig kubectl bind --konnector-host-alias <docker-internal-ip-address>:kube-bind.dev.local
This opens the kube-bind web UI where you can select and bind API services.

  1. Verify bound resources: 

    KUBECONFIG=kind-consumer.kubeconfig kubectl get crd
KUBECONFIG=kind-consumer.kubeconfig kubectl get apiservicebindings -n kube-bind

  2. Create example resource 

    kubectl bind dev example | KUBECONFIG=kind-consumer.kubeconfig kubectl create -f -

  3. Check resource synced to provider 

    KUBECONFIG=kind-provider.kubeconfig kubectl get mangodbs.mangodb.com -A

Production Deployment

For production deployments, you can deploy a kube-bind backend using helm:

Once you have a kube-bind backend running (either development or production), you can connect to it:

Connect to kube-bind Server

kubectl bind login https://my-kube-bind-server.example.com

Open kube-bind Web UI and bind services

kubectl bind