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Welcome — this guide shows how to install Minishift and bring up a local OpenShift cluster for development and testing. You’ll learn how to download Minishift, run it with VirtualBox as the hypervisor, and access the OpenShift web console and CLI. Minishift runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. For cross-platform compatibility in this demo we use VirtualBox as the hypervisor. For more details and platform-specific downloads, visit the Minishift site: https://minishift.io.
A browser screenshot of the OpenShift Minishift "Get Started" webpage showing navigation links (About, Get Started, Resources) and descriptive text about running Minishift locally and hypervisor options. The page includes headings, links, and bullet points for installation guidance.
Before you begin: ensure your machine meets the VM and memory requirements for running a local OpenShift cluster. Install VirtualBox (or another supported hypervisor) first, then download the Minishift binary for your OS.

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Prerequisites

  • VirtualBox (or another supported hypervisor) installed and working.
  • Minishift binary for your OS (download from the Minishift Releases page).
  • Command-line access (Terminal on macOS/Linux, PowerShell or Command Prompt on Windows).
Useful links:

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Step-by-step: Download and start Minishift

  1. Install VirtualBox if it is not already installed. Follow the VirtualBox installer for your platform and reboot if required.
  2. Download the Minishift release archive for your platform from the Minishift Releases page and extract it to a folder you control (for example C:\minishift-<version>\ on Windows).
  3. Open a terminal/command prompt, change into the folder where minishift (or minishift.exe) is located, and start Minishift.
On Windows Minishift may default to Hyper-V if available. To force VirtualBox, include the --vm-driver=virtualbox option when starting Minishift. Example Windows session:
When Minishift starts it downloads the required ISO and container images and creates a VM in VirtualBox. After the startup process completes you should see a running VM named minishift in the VirtualBox Manager.
Screenshot of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager "Welcome to VirtualBox" window featuring a penguin mascot holding a wrench and hammer. The left pane shows a virtual machine named "minishift" marked as running.

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What the start process does

During minishift start you will see status checks (network, hypervisor, image imports) and configuration data (memory, vCPU, disk size). Example trimmed output:
Note the web console URL printed by Minishift (for example https://192.168.99.102:8443). Minishift configures a simple, developer-friendly identity provider so you can log in with any username and any password. This authentication mode is meant for local development and testing only.
This demo uses Minishift’s developer-friendly authentication. Do not use this authentication mode for production environments.
For the purposes of this demo, log in to the web console as developer with any password (for example, developer) to explore the cluster.

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Explore the cluster

  • Use the web console to browse the catalog, create applications from builder images and templates, and view project resources.
  • Use the oc CLI for scripted workflows: oc new-project <project-name>, oc new-app, oc get pods, oc logs, etc.
  • To log in as the cluster administrator from the CLI run: oc login -u system:admin (as shown in the start output).
A screenshot of the OpenShift Origin web console showing the "Browse Catalog" page with various builder images and templates (e.g., .NET, Apache, Django, MySQL, MongoDB, Node.js). The right sidebar shows "My Projects" and Getting Started links.

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Quick reference — common commands

That’s it for this demo — you now have a local OpenShift cluster for development and testing with Minishift.

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