Setting Up a 1+2 Node Kubernetes Cluster with Dapr on Windows

1. Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your Windows machine:

1. Docker Desktop: Running with the WSL2 backend.
2. Kind: Install via PowerShell: choco install kind or download the binary.
3. Helm: For managing Dapr packages.
4. kubectl: The Kubernetes command-line tool.

2. Creating the Multi-Node Cluster

Docker Desktop's default Kubernetes does not support multiple nodes. We will use a kind configuration file to define our 3-node topology.

Create a file named cluster-config.yaml:

Apply the configuration: Open your terminal (PowerShell or CMD) and run:

Verify that all three nodes are up and running:

3. Installing Dapr via Helm

Once the multi-node cluster is ready, we proceed with the Dapr installation as specified.

Add and update the Helm repository:

4. Applying Custom Dapr Configuration

By default, Dapr enables mutual TLS (mTLS). To apply your specific configuration (disabling mTLS and setting TTL), create a file named dapr-config.yaml:

Deploy the configuration:

5. Verification on the Multi-Node Cluster

In a multi-node environment, it is crucial to ensure that the Dapr sidecars and control plane components are distributed across your nodes and are healthy.

Check Pod status and Node assignment:

Note: In the output, look at the NODE column. You should see the Dapr components distributed between your control-plane and worker nodes. If a node is under-resourced (common on Windows laptops), some pods might stay in Pending. Ensure Docker Desktop has at least 8GB of RAM allocated.

Summary Checklist

1. Cluster: Kind created 1 Control Plane and 2 Workers.
2. Dapr: Installed via Helm into dapr-system namespace.
3. Config: dapr-config applied to the default namespace with mTLS disabled.
4. Health: Verified using kubectl get pods -o wide.