Docker Desktop Lab¶

Docker Desktop ships a full single-node Kubernetes cluster you can turn on with a checkbox — useful if you already run Docker Desktop daily and don't want a second tool to manage for local Kubernetes work.

Prerequisites¶

Docker Desktop installed (macOS or Windows)
kubectl installed (bundled with Docker Desktop, or install separately)
At least 4 GB of memory allocated to Docker Desktop in Settings → Resources

1. Enable Kubernetes¶

Docker Desktop → Settings → Kubernetes → check Enable Kubernetes → Apply & Restart.

This takes a couple of minutes the first time — Docker Desktop is pulling and starting the actual control-plane components.

2. Confirm the context¶

Docker Desktop registers a docker-desktop context and normally switches to it automatically. Don't skip this check if you also have minikube or kind clusters configured — it's easy to apply a manifest to the wrong one.

kubectl config get-contexts
kubectl config current-context
# docker-desktop

If it's pointed elsewhere:

kubectl config use-context docker-desktop

Check the cluster is actually healthy:

kubectl cluster-info
kubectl get nodes
# NAME             STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
# docker-desktop   Ready    control-plane   5m    v1.31.0

3. Deploy a workload¶

kubectl create namespace docker-desktop-lab

kubectl create deployment web \
  --image=nginx:1.27 \
  --replicas=2 \
  -n docker-desktop-lab

kubectl rollout status deployment/web -n docker-desktop-lab

Waiting for deployment "web" rollout to finish: 0 of 2 updated replicas are available...
deployment "web" successfully rolled out

4. Expose it¶

Docker Desktop's Kubernetes has working LoadBalancer support out of the box — services of that type get localhost as their external address, no cloud provider needed:

kubectl expose deployment web \
  --type=LoadBalancer \
  --port=80 \
  --target-port=80 \
  -n docker-desktop-lab

kubectl get service web -n docker-desktop-lab

NAME   TYPE           CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
web    LoadBalancer   10.103.42.1    localhost     80:31894/TCP   10s

curl http://localhost:80

You should see the nginx welcome page. If you'd rather not bind port 80, kubectl port-forward works too and doesn't require the Service to be LoadBalancer:

kubectl port-forward service/web 8080:80 -n docker-desktop-lab

curl http://localhost:8080

5. Inspect pods, events, and logs¶

kubectl get pods -n docker-desktop-lab -o wide
kubectl describe pod -l app=web -n docker-desktop-lab
kubectl get events -n docker-desktop-lab --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp
kubectl logs deployment/web -n docker-desktop-lab

describe pod is the single most useful command when something doesn't come up as expected — its Events section at the bottom shows the scheduler's and kubelet's actual decisions (image pull, container create, readiness state) in order.

Resource limits matter here too

Docker Desktop's Kubernetes node has exactly as much CPU/memory as you've allocated to Docker Desktop overall. A pod stuck Pending on this lab is almost always a resources problem, not a Kubernetes problem — check Settings → Resources before debugging further.

Troubleshooting¶

kubectl can't connect — Docker Desktop's Kubernetes takes a minute to finish starting after "Enable Kubernetes"; check the whale icon shows "Kubernetes is running" before retrying.
Wrong context — kubectl config use-context docker-desktop.
Port 80 already in use — expose with a different --target-port/use port-forward on a free local port instead (8081:80).
Pod Pending — check kubectl describe pod events for Insufficient cpu/Insufficient memory, then raise the CPU/memory allocated to Docker Desktop.

Cleanup¶

kubectl delete namespace docker-desktop-lab

To fully remove the cluster (not just this lab's objects), uncheck Enable Kubernetes in Docker Desktop settings — this deletes all cluster state.

Next¶

Continue to the Podman Lab for a daemonless alternative and generating Kubernetes YAML directly from a running container.