MicroK8s features
MicroK8s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution. Run enterprise-grade Kubernetes on your laptop, Raspberry Pi, or Intel NUC, or in any public cloud while consuming minimal resources.
High availability (HA)
HA Kubernetes clusters can withstand a failure on any component and continue serving workloads without interruption.
MicroK8s delivers a production-grade Kubernetes cluster simply by adding more MicroK8s nodes. There is no extra configuration required - install MicroK8s on three machines, run the join command to link them together and in moments, you have a production-grade Kubernetes cluster with HA enabled automatically.
Autonomous HA Kubernetes
Autonomy combined with high availability delivers a full Kubernetes with minimal setup, able to support mission-critical workloads with operational efficiency.
MicroK8s uses Dqlite, a high-availability SQLite, as its datastore. As soon as the cluster includes three or more nodes, Dqlite is resilient and the API services are distributed on all of them. If one node should fail or be restarted, Kubernetes keeps running and will recover itself back to full HA when the node becomes available again, with no administrative action.
Strict confinement
Get isolation and minimise risk with strict confinement. Run sophisticated and otherwise high-risk internet of things (IoT) workloads while vulnerabilities are limited to a single application.
With strict confinement enabled, the system ensures that MicroK8s and its container workloads can only access files, system resources, and hardware for which access has been granted.
By restricting Kubernetes to the absolutely necessary permissions, strict confinement eliminates vulnerable interactions both within the host device and externally, greatly reducing the attack surface.
Automated cluster creation and management
MicroK8s supports automated cluster creation and life cycle management with ClusterAPI (CAPI).
CAPI abstracts away the details of infrastructure provisioning, networking, and other low-level tasks, so users can define their desired cluster configuration using simple YAML manifests.
MicroK8s and CAPI allow you to easily provision clusters and deploy them behind proxies.
Rolling upgrades for high-availability (HA) clusters and worker notes mean you can upgrade clusters with no downtime. It also supports in-place upgrades for non-HA control planes.
NVIDIA GPU support, ideal for AI/ML and HPC
Enable the MicroK8s GPU addon, and your Kubernetes workloads will be able to run on containers optimised for AI/ML workloads or High Performance computing (HPC) tasks.
MicroK8s uses the NVIDIA GPU Operator to support the necessary drivers, configuration and container runtimes. For the most effective use of your NVIDIA hardware, this includes support for Multi-instance GPUs (MIG).
Custom launch configurations
MicroK8s was always simple to install, but now it's simple to install, the way you want it. Use a custom Container Network Interface (CNI), set specific service options, configure registries, and enable the add-ons you want - all without an extra keystroke. Brilliant for automated, repeatable, reliable deployment and especially useful for air-gapped instals, embedded applications, and integration with public clouds.
Better user experience with addons
To keep MicroK8s light and flexible, the standard install only has the components needed to deploy Kubernetes. Depending on the use case, there are plenty of additional Kubernetes services or operators that would be nice to have.
MicroK8s addresses this with addons — extra services that can easily be added to MicroK8s. You can enable or disable addons at any time. Most are pre-configured to 'just work' without any further set up.
There are addons specifically created and supported by the MicroK8s team and a large selection of addons made by our community and partners. If your favourite is missing, you can easily make your own.
MicroK8s and Ubuntu Core
Both MicroK8s and Ubuntu Core focus on reliability and security, with features such as self-healing, high availability and automatic OTA updates.
Combining Ubuntu Core and MicroK8s streamlines and embeds Kubernetes, with optimisations for size and performance in IoT and Edge applications.