kubeadm helps you bootstrap a minimum viable Kubernetes cluster that conforms to best practices. With kubeadm, your cluster should pass Kubernetes Conformance tests. Kubeadm also supports other cluster lifecycle functions, such as upgrades, downgrade, and managing bootstrap tokens.

Because you can install kubeadm on various types of machine (e.g. laptop, server, Raspberry Pi, etc.), it’s well suited for integration with provisioning systems such as Terraform or Ansible.

kubeadm’s simplicity means it can serve a wide range of use cases:

New users can start with kubeadm to try Kubernetes out for the first time.
Users familiar with Kubernetes can spin up clusters with kubeadm and test their applications.
Larger projects can include kubeadm as a building block in a more complex system that can also include other installer tools.

kubeadm is designed to be a simple way for new users to start trying Kubernetes out, possibly for the first time, a way for existing users to test their application on and stitch together a cluster easily, and also to be a building block in other ecosystem and/or installer tool with a larger scope.

You can install kubeadm very easily on operating systems that support installing deb or rpm packages. The responsible SIG for kubeadm, SIG Cluster Lifecycle, provides these packages pre-built for you, but you may also on other OSes.