Install Kubernetes on openSUSE Leap (Step-by-Step 2026)

Here is how to install Kubernetes on openSUSE Leap using kubeadm in 2026. Tested and verified.

Prerequisites

sudo swapoff -a
sudo sed -i '/ swap / s/^/#/' /etc/fstab

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/k8s.conf
overlay
br_netfilter
EOF
sudo modprobe overlay && sudo modprobe br_netfilter

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/k8s.conf
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables  = 1
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables = 1
net.ipv4.ip_forward                 = 1
EOF
sudo sysctl --system

Install containerd

sudo zypper install -y containerd
containerd config default | sudo tee /etc/containerd/config.toml
sudo sed -i 's/SystemdCgroup = false/SystemdCgroup = true/' /etc/containerd/config.toml
sudo systemctl restart containerd
sudo systemctl enable containerd

Install Kubernetes

# Add Kubernetes repository
sudo zypper addrepo --gpgcheck https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.31/rpm/ kubernetes
sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys refresh

sudo zypper install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl
sudo systemctl enable --now kubelet

Initialize Cluster

sudo kubeadm init --pod-network-cidr=10.244.0.0/16

mkdir -p $HOME/.kube
sudo cp /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/.kube/config
sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/.kube/config

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/flannel-io/flannel/releases/latest/download/kube-flannel.yml

Related Resources

• Kubernetes Cheat Sheet
• K3s vs K8s
• Install K3s on Ubuntu