Issue loading clusters when running Meshery via in-cluster setup on Minikube

I’m running a Minikube cluster on Windows 11 and was able to successfully deploy Meshery on it, but it doesn’t detect the cluster, and the dashboard stops working after about a minute - reloading or clicking any button doesn’t work

Steps followed:

  1. Started Minikube and enabled Metallb addon according to this guide
  2. Ran minikube tunnel
  3. Ran the make command in mesheryctl folder
  4. Ran mesheryctl system start. Succesfully deployed, dashboard opened in browser, logged in, shows that no clusters are available
  5. Ran mesheryctl system login, logged in succesfully
  6. Ran mesheryctl system config minikube and got the following output:
Configuring Meshery to access Minikube...
Error getting context: no contexts found
  1. Ran mesheryctl system check and this was the output:
Kubernetes API
--------------
✓ can initialize Kubernetes client
✓ can query the Kubernetes API

Kubernetes Version
--------------
✓ running the minimum Kubernetes version
✓ running the minimum kubectl version

Meshery Version
--------------
✓ Meshery Server is up-to-date (stable-v0.8.93)
!! CLI is not up-to-date (stable-)

Meshery Components
--------------
- No components configured in current context

Meshery Operators
--------------
✓ Meshery Operator is running
✓ Meshery Broker is running
!! Meshsync is not running

This is the view on the dashboard:

System details:
Windows 11 running WSL v2.5.7.0
Minikube v1.35.0 running with Docker Driver v4.41.2
Mesheryctl v0.8.93

@SriramKa, assuming that your current mesheryctl context is configured for platform: docker (verify using mesheryctl system context view), one thing that you might try doing is deploying Meshery internal to your cluster so as to avoid having to work through virtual network connectivity.

As far as I’ve understood, using the steps I executed, Meshery is deployed in-cluster itself, with the platform being kubernetes. Output of mesheryctl system context view:

Current Context: local

endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:9081
token: default
token-location: auth.json
platform: kubernetes
components: []
channel: stable
version: latest
provider: Meshery

Minikube is just using Docker as the driver, but the Meshery deployment is in-cluster itself. I had found a solution for Docker deployments of Meshery here, but wanted to troubleshoot an in-cluster installation regardless.

Further, output of kubectl config view:

apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority: C:\Users\USERNAME\.minikube\ca.crt
    extensions:
    - extension:
        last-update: Tue, 03 Jun 2025 17:51:33 IST
        provider: minikube.sigs.k8s.io
        version: v1.35.0
      name: cluster_info
    server: https://127.0.0.1:53961
  name: minikube
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: minikube
    extensions:
    - extension:
        last-update: Tue, 03 Jun 2025 17:51:33 IST
        provider: minikube.sigs.k8s.io
        version: v1.35.0
      name: context_info
    namespace: default
    user: minikube
  name: minikube
current-context: minikube
kind: Config
preferences: {}
users:
- name: minikube
  user:
    client-certificate: C:\Users\USERNAME\.minikube\profiles\minikube\client.crt
    client-key: C:\Users\USERNAME\.minikube\profiles\minikube\client.key

Would you suggest simply using an out-of-cluster deployment on Docker instead, and applying the virtual network connectivity steps?

@Lee, I’m not sure if I was supposed to tag you in the earlier reply, but what would you suggest? Would any different logs help in solving this?

Yes, logs from Meshery Server will help (e.g. mesheryctl system logs). It’d also be helpful for you to verify that Meshery Server has access to this cluster’s certificate files (client-certificate and client-key). If Meshery Server can’t follow that file path, then mesheryctl system config minikube will help prep your kubeconfig for Meshery Server to be able to properly authenticate to your cluster.

@Lee How do I verify certificate access for Meshery Server? Because, as mentioned in the original post, mesheryctl system config minikube gives a “no contexts available” error.
Also, how do I attach logs here? I don’t see any option to attach files, and the logs are pretty long to paste here :sweat_smile: