Kubernetes Minikube: no External vswitch found

Since this is the beginning of the new year and all, I decided to learn something new. This time its Kubernetes and like any beginner, I started by installing Minikube.

The system that I am running on is Microsoft Surface Pro 4. The hypervisor of choice is Hyper-v which is native in Windows 10 Pro. I followed the instructions for installing Minikube using chocolatey and it installs just fine, this step went really smoothly.

However, when I tried to start it using the command “minikube start —vm-driver=hyperv”  the command failed spectacularly. Leaving me with the below error:

Turns out this is really caused by not specifying the virtual switch in your system. In the previous version of this article, I used the default switch, which doesn’t work when it comes to obtaining IP address. Yes, I’m a newbie in Hyper-V too as I am used to using VirtualBox.

The first thing you need to do is create the external switch in Hyper-V manager.

If you are unsure of the name of the hyper-v virtual switch, then just look it up in the Hyper-V Manager.

• Start Menu
• Hyper-V Manager
• Click on virtual switch manager
• Then you can see the names of the running virtual switches
• Select New virtual network switch, specify as external and press Create Virtual Switch
• Call it “Minikube”
• Make sure to select the correct network adapter. I used my wireless adapter in this case.
• 

Then start Minikube using this command:

Hopefully, this helps you if you got the same issue with me.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon last time, seems we can’t simply use the default switch cause I ended up with an infinite loop of:

So the article has been updated to use external switch instead.

Categorised in: Coding, Software Development