Kubernetes Setup Using Ansible and Vagrant



Why do we require multi node cluster setup?

Multi node Kubernetes clusters offer a production-like environment which has various advantages. Even though Minikube provides an excellent platform for getting started, it doesn’t provide the opportunity to work with multi node clusters which can help solve problems or bugs that are related to application design and architecture. For instance, Ops can reproduce an issue in a multi node cluster environment, Testers can deploy multiple versions of an application for executing test cases and verifying changes. These benefits enable teams to resolve issues faster which make the more agile.

Why use Vagrant and Ansible?

Vagrant is a tool that will allow us to create a virtual environment easily and it eliminates pitfalls that cause the works-on-my-machine phenomenon. It can be used with multiple providers such as Oracle VirtualBox, VMware, Docker, and so on. It allows us to create a disposable environment by making use of configuration files.

Ansible is an infrastructure automation engine that automates software configuration management. It is agentless and allows us to use SSH keys for connecting to remote machines. Ansible playbooks are written in yaml and offer inventory management in simple text files.


  • Vagrant should be installed on your machine. Installation binaries can be found here.
  • Oracle VirtualBox can be used as a Vagrant provider or make use of similar providers as described in Vagrant’s official documentation.
  • Ansible should be installed in your machine. Refer to the Ansible installation guide for platform specific installation.

Setup overview

We will be setting up a Kubernetes cluster that will consist of one master and two worker nodes. All the nodes will run Ubuntu Xenial 64-bit OS and Ansible playbooks will be used for provisioning.

Step 1: Creating a Vagrantfile

Use the text editor of your choice and create a file with named Vagrantfile, inserting the code below. The value of N denotes the number of nodes present in the cluster, it can be modified accordingly. In the below example, we are setting the value of N as 2.

IMAGE_NAME = "bento/ubuntu-16.04"
N = 2
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
config.ssh.insert_key = false
config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
v.memory = 1024
v.cpus = 2
config.vm.define "k8s-master" do |master|
master.vm.box = IMAGE_NAME
master.vm.network "private_network", ip: ""
master.vm.hostname = "k8s-master"
master.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
ansible.playbook = "kubernetes-setup/master-playbook.yml"
(1..N).each do |i|
config.vm.define "node-#{i}" do |node|
node.vm.box = IMAGE_NAME
node.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.50.#{i + 10}"
node.vm.hostname = "node-#{i}"
node.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
ansible.playbook = "kubernetes-setup/node-playbook.yml"

Step 2: Create an Ansible playbook for Kubernetes master.

Create a directory named kubernetes-setup in the same directory as the Vagrantfile. Create two files named master-playbook.yml and node-playbook.yml in the directory kubernetes-setup.

In the file master-playbook.yml, add the code below.

Step 2.1: Install Docker and its dependent components.

We will be installing the following packages, and then adding a user named “vagrant” to the “docker” group.
– docker-ce
– docker-ce-cli
– containerd.io

- hosts: all
 become: true
 - name: Install packages that allow apt to be used over HTTPS
 name: "{{ packages }}"
 state: present
 update_cache: yes
 - apt-transport-https
 - ca-certificates
 - curl
 - gnupg-agent
 - software-properties-common

 - name: Add an apt signing key for Docker
 url: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg
 state: present

 - name: Add apt repository for stable version
 repo: deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu xenial stable
 state: present

 - name: Install docker and its dependecies
 name: "{{ packages }}"
 state: present
 update_cache: yes
 - docker-ce
 - docker-ce-cli
 - containerd.io
 - docker status

 - name: Add vagrant user to docker group
 name: vagrant
 group: docker

Step 2.2: Kubelet will not start if the system has swap enabled, so we are disabling swap using the below code.

 - name: Remove swapfile from /etc/fstab
 name: "{{ item }}"
 fstype: swap
 state: absent
 - swap
 - none

 - name: Disable swap
 command: swapoff -a
 when: ansible_swaptotal_mb > 0

Step 2.3: Installing kubelet, kubeadm and kubectl using the below code.

 - name: Add an apt signing key for Kubernetes
 url: https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg
 state: present

 - name: Adding apt repository for Kubernetes
 repo: deb https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main
 state: present
 filename: kubernetes.list

 - name: Install Kubernetes binaries
 name: "{{ packages }}"
 state: present
 update_cache: yes
 - kubelet
 - kubeadm
 - kubectl

Step 2.3: Initialize the Kubernetes cluster with kubeadm using the below code (applicable only on master node).

 - name: Initialize the Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm
 command: kubeadm init --apiserver-advertise-address="" --apiserver-cert-extra-sans="" --node-name k8s-master --pod-network-cidr=

Step 2.4: Setup the kube config file for the vagrant user to access the Kubernetes cluster using the below code.

 - name: Setup kubeconfig for vagrant user
 command: "{{ item }}"
 - mkdir -p /home/vagrant/.kube
 - cp -i /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf /home/vagrant/.kube/config
 - chown vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/.kube/config

Step 2.5: Setup the container networking provider and the network policy engine using the below code.

 - name: Install calico pod network
 become: false
 command: kubectl create -f https://docs.projectcalico.org/v3.4/getting-started/kubernetes/installation/hosted/calico.yaml

Step 2.6: Generate kube join command for joining the node to the Kubernetes cluster and store the command in the file named join-command.

 - name: Generate join command
 command: kubeadm token create --print-join-command
 register: join_command

 - name: Copy join command to local file
 local_action: copy content="{{ join_command.stdout_lines[0] }}" dest="./join-command"

Step 2.7: Setup a handler for checking Docker daemon using the below code.

 - name: docker status
 service: name=docker state=started

Step 3: Create the Ansible playbook for Kubernetes node.

Create a file named node-playbook.yml in the directory kubernetes-setup.

Add the code below into node-playbook.yml

Step 3.1: Start adding the code from Steps 2.1 till 2.3.

Step 3.2: Join the nodes to the Kubernetes cluster using below code.

 - name: Copy the join command to server location
 copy: src=join-command dest=/tmp/join-command.sh mode=0777

 - name: Join the node to cluster
 command: sh /tmp/join-command.sh

Step 3.3: Add the code from step 2.7 to finish this playbook.

Step 4: Upon completing the Vagrantfile and playbooks follow the below steps.

$ cd /path/to/Vagrantfile
$ vagrant up

Upon completion of all the above steps, the Kubernetes cluster should be up and running.
We can login to the master or worker nodes using Vagrant as follows:

$ ## Accessing master
$ vagrant ssh k8s-master
vagrant@k8s-master:~$ kubectl get nodes
k8s-master Ready master 18m v1.13.3
node-1 Ready  12m v1.13.3
node-2 Ready  6m22s v1.13.3
$ ## Accessing nodes
$ vagrant ssh node-1
$ vagrant ssh node-2

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