The easiest way to install fabric8 is either locally on your laptop or a local cluster or on the public cloud. However there are various other options too:
If you already have a cluster installed try this:
Kubernetes: If you have a working Kubernetes cluster use this guide to install fabric8
OpenShift: If you have a working OpenShift V3 cluster use this guide to install fabric8
This is the easiest and fastest way to get started with Fabric8 and Kubernetes locally. You just need to download 2 small binaries (minikube and gofabric8) - no need for VirtualBox or Vagrant! Check out how to Install Fabric8 on a MiniKube created cluster of Kuberetes
This is the easiest and fastest way to get started with Fabric8 and OpenShift Origin locally. You just need to download 2 small binaries (minishift and gofabric8) - no need for VirtualBox or Vagrant! Check out how to Install Fabric8 on a MiniShift created cluster of OpenShift Origin
The oc cluster up command starts a local OpenShift all-in-one cluster with a configured registry, router, image streams, and default templates. Check out how to Install Fabric8 on a oc cluster up created cluster of OpenShift Origin
If you already have Vagrant and VirtualBox installed and want to use it to work with Fabric8 and Kubernetes locally then this option is for you. All you need is Vagrant and VirtualBox installed locally. Check out how to Create the Fabric8 Vagrant Image for Kubernetes
If you already have Vagrant and VirtualBox installed and want to use it to work with Fabric8 and OpenShift Origin locally then this option is for you. All you need is Vagrant and VirtualBox installed locally. Check out how to Create the Fabric8 Vagrant Image for OpenShift Origin
CDK - Using the Red Hat Container Development Kit
You will need is Vagrant and VirtualBox installed locally along with a number of prerequisites. Check out Installing Fabric8 inside the CDK Vagrant Image
Google Container Engine - Kubernetes
Google Container Engine (GKE) is a Google hosted Kubernetes platform. There are many other ways to install Kubernetes as listed on the Kubernetes Getting Started page however if you want to get up and running quickly without having to setup infrastructure and run through installations then GKE is a great option. This guide will help you step-by-step install fabric8 using vanilla Kubernetes hosted on GKE.
New releases of fabric8 now have persistence enabled for some apps (like gogs, nexus, jenkins), so please see this guide on creating the necessary persistent volumes or opting out of persistence
For a smooth developer experience and for using the fabric8 tools a local OpenShift client needs to be setup. How this is done is described in this recipe.