Quickstart

This guide walks you through creating your first kubestart cluster and connecting to it with kubectl.

Prerequisites

• A kubestart account — sign up if you don’t have one.
• kubectl installed — installation guide.

Step 1: Log in

Go to kubestart.io and log in with your account. You’ll land on the dashboard.

Step 2: Create a cluster

1. Click Create Cluster on the dashboard.
2. Select a package (Small is great for trying things out).
3. Choose a region close to your users.
4. Complete the checkout process.

Your cluster will begin provisioning immediately. The dashboard shows real-time progress through the provisioning stages.

Step 3: Wait for provisioning

Provisioning typically takes 2–4 minutes. You’ll see the status progress through:

Stage	Description
Initiated	Order received, configuration generated
Provisioning	Cluster resources being created
Completed	Cluster is ready to use

Step 4: Allow your IP address

Before you can connect, you need to add your IP to the cluster’s firewall allowlist:

1. Open the cluster detail page.
2. In the API Access section, click Add my IP.
3. Click Save.

Changes take about 2 minutes to propagate. See Networking — API access firewall for details.

Step 5: Download kubeconfig

Once the cluster status shows Completed:

1. Open the cluster detail page.
2. Click Download Kubeconfig.
3. Save the file (e.g., ~/.kube/kubestart-config).

Step 6: Connect

Point kubectl at your new cluster:

export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/kubestart-config
kubectl get nodes

You should see your cluster’s node(s) in Ready state.

Step 7: Deploy a workload

Try deploying a simple application:

kubectl create deployment hello --image=nginx:alpine
kubectl expose deployment hello --port=80 --type=ClusterIP
kubectl get pods

Next steps

• Manage Add-ons — Enable monitoring, ingress, and more.
• Concepts — Learn about packages, regions, and add-ons.