Minikube Features, Architecture, and Future Plans

In general, Minikube supports everything you would expect from a Kubernetes cluster. You can use `kubectl exec` to get a bash shell inside a pod in your cluster. You can use the `kubectl port-forward` and `kubectl proxy` commands to forward traffic from localhost to a pod or the API server. Since Minikube is running locally instead of on a cloud provider, certain provider-specific features like LoadBalancers and PersistentVolumes will not work out-of-the-box. However, you can use NodePort LoadBalancers and HostPath PersistentVolumes. **Architecture** Minikube is built on top of Docker's [libmachine](https://github.com/docker/machine/tree/master/libmachine), and leverages the driver model to create, manage and interact with locally-run virtual machines. [RedSpread](https://redspread.com/) was kind enough to donate their [localkube](https://github.com/redspread/localkube) codebase to the Minikube repo, which we use to spin up a single-process Kubernetes cluster inside a VM. Localkube bundles etcd, DNS, the Kubelet and all the Kubernetes master components into a single Go binary, and runs them all via separate goroutines. **Upcoming Features** Minikube has been a lot of fun to work on so far, and we're always looking to improve Minikube to make the Kubernetes development experience better. If you have any ideas for features, don't hesitate to let us know in the [issue tracker](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues).  Here's a list of some of the things we're hoping to add to Minikube soon: - Native hypervisor support for macOS and Windows - We're planning to remove the dependency on Virtualbox, and integrate with the native hypervisors included in macOS and Windows (Hypervisor.framework and Hyper-v, respectively). - Improved support for Kubernetes features - We're planning to increase the range of supported Kubernetes features, to include things like Ingress. - Configurable versions of Kubernetes - Today Minikube only supports Kubernetes 1.3. We're planning to add support for user-configurable versions of Kubernetes, to make it easier to match what you have running in production on your laptop. **Community** We'd love to hear feedback on Minikube. To join the community: - Post issues or feature requests on [GitHub](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube) - Join us in the #minikube channel on [Slack](https://kubernetes.slack.com/) Please give Minikube a try, and let us know how it goes!

Minikube provides a local Kubernetes environment, but due to its local nature, some cloud provider features need alternative configurations. Its architecture relies on Docker's libmachine and RedSpread's localkube. Future plans include native hypervisor support for macOS and Windows, expanded Kubernetes feature support, and configurable Kubernetes versions. Community engagement is encouraged through GitHub and Slack.