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In this tutorial, we’ll deploy a Kubernetes Pod named nginx to a Minikube cluster using kubectl. You’ll learn how to create the Pod, inspect its status, view detailed descriptions, and retrieve extended information. Let’s get started!

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Prerequisites

  • A running Minikube cluster (minikube start)
  • kubectl configured to communicate with your Minikube context
  • Internet access to pull the nginx image from Docker Hub

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1. Create a Pod with kubectl run

Execute the following command to launch a Pod named nginx using the official NGINX image: 
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx
Here:
  • nginx is both the Pod name and the container image.
  • You can append a tag (for example, nginx:1.21) or a custom registry URL if needed.

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2. Check Pod Status

After a moment, confirm the Pod has been created: 
kubectl get pods
Example output: 
NAME    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nginx   1/1     Running   0          3s
ColumnDescription
NAMEThe Pod’s name (unique within its namespace).
READYNumber of containers ready vs. total containers.
STATUSCurrent phase (e.g., Pending, Running).
RESTARTSCount of container restarts.
AGETime elapsed since the Pod was created.

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3. Describe a Pod

To inspect detailed metadata, events, and container status: 
kubectl describe pod nginx
You’ll see sections like metadata, labels, node assignment, IP addresses, and container details: 
Name:         nginx
Namespace:    default
Node:         minikube/192.168.99.100
Start Time:   Sat, 11 Jul 2020 00:49:39 -0400
Labels:       run=nginx
Status:       Running
IP:           172.17.0.3
IPs:
  IP:           172.17.0.3
Containers:
  nginx:
    Container ID:   docker://987785b312ad2e38c77132300f8709b8a027566462c2d18634ff13b34de25479
    Image:          nginx
Pod networking and IP addressing will be explored in detail in a later lesson.

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Events Log

Scrolling further down in the description reveals the event sequence: 
Events:
  Type     Reason      Age   From                    Message
  ----     ------      ----  ----                    -------
  Normal   Scheduled   46s   default-scheduler       Successfully assigned default/nginx to minikube
  Normal   Pulling     45s   kubelet, minikube       Pulling image "nginx"
  Normal   Pulled      44s   kubelet, minikube       Successfully pulled image "nginx"
  Normal   Created     44s   kubelet, minikube       Created container nginx
  Normal   Started     44s   kubelet, minikube       Started container nginx

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4. Get Extended (“Wide”) Output

To include the node name and the Pod’s IP address in your listing: 
kubectl get pods -o wide
Sample output: 
NAME    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP          NODE      NOMINATED NODE
nginx   1/1     Running   0          2m28s   172.17.0.3  minikube   <none>
Every Pod receives a unique internal IP within the cluster network.
In this lesson, you deployed an NGINX Pod on Minikube, inspected its state, and viewed detailed and wide outputs. Next, we’ll define Pods declaratively using YAML manifests.

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