My minishift version is v1.16.1+d9a86c9 and I'm running openshift origin 3.9.
I want to use a horizontal pod autoscaler in minishift and for that I need the metrics pods to be installed. I have searched the minishift docs but there's no info about how to install the hauwkular metrics.
Apparently minishift start --metrics used to work, but it's not a valid flag anymore.
It has been removed from Minishift indeed, see https://github.com/minishift/minishift/pull/2241 (and same for the command-line tool oc cluster up: https://github.com/openshift/origin/pull/19209 )
However you can still install Hawkular with some extra steps, using the ansible playbook: see https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.9/install_config/cluster_metrics.html#deploying-the-metrics-components