This is a highly opinionated template for deploying a single Kubernetes (k3s) cluster with Ansible and managing applications with Flux. Upon completion you will be able to expose web applications you choose to the internet with Cloudflare Tunnel.
There are some limitations or nuances to bring up before you would want to take a dive in trying this out:
- This was designed to run in your home network on bare metal machines or VMs NOT in the cloud.
- You MUST have a domain you can manage on Cloudflare.
- Secrets will be commited to your Git repository AND they will be encrypted by SOPS.
- By default your domain name will NOT be visible to the public.
- To reach internal-only apps you MUST have a DNS server that supports split DNS (Pi-Hole, Blocky, Dnsmasq, Unbound, etc...) deployed somewhere outside the cluster ON your home network.
With that out of the way please continue on if you are still interested...
- Introduction
- Prerequisites
- Repository structure
- Lets go!
- Post installation
- Troubleshooting
- What's next
- Thanks
The following components will be installed in your k3s cluster by default. Most are only included to get a minimum viable cluster up and running.
- flux - GitOps operator for managing Kubernetes clusters from a Git repository
- kube-vip - Load balancer for the Kubernetes control plane nodes
- metallb - Load balancer for Kubernetes services
- cert-manager - Operator to request SSL certificates and store them as Kubernetes resources
- calico - Container networking interface for inter pod and service networking
- external-dns - Operator to publish DNS records to Cloudflare (and other providers) based on Kubernetes ingresses
- k8s_gateway - DNS resolver that provides local DNS to your Kubernetes ingresses
- ingress-nginx - Kubernetes ingress controller used for a HTTP reverse proxy of Kubernetes ingresses
- local-path-provisioner - provision persistent local storage with Kubernetes
Additional applications include hajimari, error-pages, echo-server, system-upgrade-controller, reloader, and kured
Note: This template has not been tested on cloud providers like AWS EC2, Hetzner, Scaleway etc... Those cloud offerings probably have a better way of provsioning a Kubernetes cluster and it's advisable to use those instead of the Ansible playbooks included here. This repository can still be tweaked for the GitOps/Flux portion if there's a cluster working in one those environments.
First and foremost some experience in debugging/troubleshooting problems and a positive attitude is required :)
- One or more nodes with a fresh install of Fedora Server 37+ or Ubuntu 22.04 Server (not minimal).
- These nodes can be ARM64/AMD64 bare metal or VMs.
- An odd number of control plane nodes, greater than or equal to 3 is required if deploying more than one control plane node.
- A Cloudflare account with a domain, this will be managed by external-dns. You can register new domains directly thru Cloudflare.
๐ It is recommended to have 3 master nodes for a highly available control plane.
The Git repository contains the following directories under kubernetes
and are ordered below by how Flux will apply them.
๐ kubernetes # Kubernetes cluster defined as code
โโ๐ bootstrap # Flux installation
โโ๐ flux # Main Flux configuration of repository
โโ๐ apps # Apps deployed into the cluster grouped by namespace
Very first step will be to create a new public repository by clicking the big green Use this template button on this page.
Clone your new repo to you local workstation and cd
into it.
๐ All of the below commands are run on your local workstation, not on any of your cluster nodes.
๐ Install the most recent version of the CLI tools below. If you are having trouble with future steps, it is very likely you don't have the most recent version of these CLI tools, !especially sops AND yq!.
-
Install the following CLI tools on your workstation, if you are NOT using Homebrew on MacOS or Linux ignore steps 4 and 5.
-
This guide heavily relies on go-task as a framework for setting things up. It is advised to learn and understand the commands it is running under the hood.
-
Install Python 3 and pip3 using your Linux OS package manager, or Homebrew if using MacOS.
- Ensure
pip3
is working on your command line by runningpip3 --version
- Ensure
-
[Homebrew] Install go-task
brew install go-task/tap/go-task
-
[Homebrew] Install workstation dependencies
task init
It is advisable to install pre-commit and the pre-commit hooks that come with this repository.
-
Enable Pre-Commit
task precommit:init
-
Update Pre-Commit, though it will occasionally make mistakes, so verify its results.
task precommit:update
๐ Here we will create a Age Private and Public key. Using SOPS with Age allows us to encrypt secrets and use them in Ansible and Flux.
-
Create a Age Private / Public Key
age-keygen -o age.agekey
-
Set up the directory for the Age key and move the Age file to it
mkdir -p ~/.config/sops/age mv age.agekey ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt
-
Export the
SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE
variable in yourbashrc
,zshrc
orconfig.fish
and source it, e.g.export SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE=~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt source ~/.bashrc
-
Fill out the Age public key in the appropriate variable in configuration section below, note the public key should start with
age
...
In order to use cert-manager
with the Cloudflare DNS challenge you will need to create a API key.
-
Head over to Cloudflare and create a API key by going here.
-
Under the
API Keys
section, create a global API Key. -
Use the API Key in the appropriate variable in configuration section below.
๐ You may wish to update this later on to a Cloudflare API Token which can be scoped to certain resources. I do not recommend using a Cloudflare API Key, however for the purposes of this template it is easier getting started without having to define which scopes and resources are needed. For more information see the Cloudflare docs on API Keys and Tokens.
In order to expose services to the internet you will need to create a Cloudflare Tunnel.
-
Authenticate cloudflared to your domain
cloudflared tunnel login
-
Create the tunnel
cloudflared tunnel create k8s
-
In the
~/.cloudflared
directory there will be a json file with details you need to populate in configuration section below. You can ignore thecert.pem
file.
๐ The .config.env
file contains necessary configuration that is needed by Ansible and Flux.
-
Copy the
.config.sample.env
to.config.env
and start filling out all the environment variables.All are required unless otherwise noted in the comments.
cp .config.sample.env .config.env
-
Once that is done, verify the configuration is correct by running:
task verify
-
If you do not encounter any errors run start having the script wire up the templated files and place them where they need to be.
task configure
๐ Here we will be running a Ansible Playbook to prepare Fedora or Ubuntu Server for running a Kubernetes cluster.
๐ Nodes are not security hardened by default, you can do this with dev-sec/ansible-collection-hardening or similar if supported. This is an advanced configuration and generally not recommended unless you want to DevSecOps your cluster and nodes.
-
Ensure you are able to SSH into your nodes from your workstation using a private SSH key without a passphrase. This is how Ansible is able to connect to your remote nodes.
-
Install the Ansible deps
task ansible:init
-
Verify Ansible can view your config
task ansible:list
-
Verify Ansible can ping your nodes
task ansible:ping
-
Run the Fedora/Ubuntu Server Ansible prepare playbook
task ansible:prepare
-
Reboot the nodes (if not done in step 5)
task ansible:force-reboot
๐ Here we will be running a Ansible Playbook to install k3s with this wonderful k3s Ansible galaxy role. After completion, Ansible will drop a kubeconfig
in ./kubeconfig
for use with interacting with your cluster with kubectl
.
โข๏ธ If you run into problems, you can run task ansible:nuke
to destroy the k3s cluster and start over.
-
Verify Ansible can view your config
task ansible:list
-
Verify Ansible can ping your nodes
task ansible:ping
-
Install k3s with Ansible
task ansible:install
-
Verify the nodes are online
task cluster:nodes # NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION # k8s-0 Ready control-plane,master 4d20h v1.21.5+k3s1 # k8s-1 Ready worker 4d20h v1.21.5+k3s1
๐ Here we will be installing flux after some quick bootstrap steps.
-
Verify Flux can be installed
task cluster:verify # โบ checking prerequisites # โ kubectl 1.21.5 >=1.18.0-0 # โ Kubernetes 1.21.5+k3s1 >=1.16.0-0 # โ prerequisites checks passed
-
Push you changes to git
๐ Verify all the
*.sops.yaml
and*.sops.yml
files under the./ansible
, and./kubernetes
directories are encrypted with SOPSgit add -A git commit -m "Initial commit :rocket:" git push
-
Install Flux and sync the cluster to the Git repository
task cluster:install # namespace/flux-system configured # customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/alerts.notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io created
-
Verify Flux components are running in the cluster
task cluster:pods -- -n flux-system # NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE # helm-controller-5bbd94c75-89sb4 1/1 Running 0 1h # kustomize-controller-7b67b6b77d-nqc67 1/1 Running 0 1h # notification-controller-7c46575844-k4bvr 1/1 Running 0 1h # source-controller-7d6875bcb4-zqw9f 1/1 Running 0 1h
Mic check, 1, 2 - In a few moments applications should be lighting up like a Christmas tree ๐
You are able to run all the commands below with one task
task cluster:resources
-
View the Flux Git Repositories
task cluster:gitrepositories
-
View the Flux kustomizations
task cluster:kustomizations
-
View all the Flux Helm Releases
task cluster:helmreleases
-
View all the Flux Helm Repositories
task cluster:helmrepositories
-
View all the Pods
task cluster:pods
-
View all the certificates and certificate requests
task cluster:certificates
-
View all the ingresses
task cluster:ingresses
๐ Congratulations if all goes smooth you'll have a Kubernetes cluster managed by Flux, your Git repository is driving the state of your cluster.
โข๏ธ If you run into problems, you can run task ansible:nuke
to destroy the k3s cluster and start over.
๐ง Now it's time to pause and go get some coffee โ because next is describing how DNS is handled.
direnv will make it so anytime you cd
to your repo's directory it export the required environment variables (e.g. KUBECONFIG
). To set this up make sure you hook it into your shell and after that is done, run direnv allow
while in your repos directory.
๐ The external-dns
application created in the networking
namespace will handle creating public DNS records. By default, echo-server
and the flux-webhook
are the only public sub-domains exposed. In order to make additional applications public you must set an ingress annotation (external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/target
) like done in the HelmRelease
for echo-server
.
For split DNS to work it is required to have ${SECRET_DOMAIN}
point to the ${METALLB_K8S_GATEWAY_ADDR}
load balancer IP address on your home DNS server. This will ensure DNS requests for ${SECRET_DOMAIN}
will only get routed to your k8s_gateway
service thus providing internal DNS resolution to your cluster applications/ingresses from any device that uses your home DNS server.
For and example with Pi-Hole apply the following file and restart dnsmasq:
# /etc/dnsmasq.d/99-k8s-gateway-forward.conf
server=/${SECRET_DOMAIN}/${METALLB_K8S_GATEWAY_ADDR}
Now try to resolve an internal-only domain with dig @${pi-hole-ip} hajimari.${SECRET_DOMAIN}
it should resolve to your ${METALLB_INGRESS_ADDR}
IP.
If having trouble you can ask for help in this Github discussion.
If nothing is working, that is expected. This is DNS after all!
Renovatebot will scan your repository and offer PRs when it finds dependencies out of date. Common dependencies it will discover and update are Flux, Ansible Galaxy Roles, Terraform Providers, Kubernetes Helm Charts, Kubernetes Container Images, Pre-commit hooks updates, and more!
The base Renovate configuration provided in your repository can be view at .github/renovate.json5. If you notice this only runs on weekends and you can change the schedule to anything you want or simply remove it.
To enable Renovate on your repository, click the 'Configure' button over at their Github app page and choose your repository. Over time Renovate will create PRs for out-of-date dependencies it finds. Any merged PRs that are in the kubernetes directory Flux will deploy.
Flux is pull-based by design meaning it will periodically check your git repository for changes, using a webhook you can enable Flux to update your cluster on git push
. In order to configure Github to send push
events from your repository to the Flux webhook receiver you will need two things:
-
Webhook URL - Your webhook receiver will be deployed on
https://flux-webhook.${BOOTSTRAP_CLOUDFLARE_DOMAIN}/hook/:hookId
. In order to find out your hook id you can run the following command:kubectl -n flux-system get receiver/github-receiver # NAME AGE READY STATUS # github-receiver 6h8m True Receiver initialized with URL: /hook/12ebd1e363c641dc3c2e430ecf3cee2b3c7a5ac9e1234506f6f5f3ce1230e123
So if my domain was
onedr0p.com
the full url would look like this:https://flux-webhook.onedr0p.com/hook/12ebd1e363c641dc3c2e430ecf3cee2b3c7a5ac9e1234506f6f5f3ce1230e123
-
Webhook secret - Your webhook secret can be found by decrypting the
secret.sops.yaml
using the following command:sops -d ./kubernetes/apps/flux-system/addons/webhooks/github/secret.sops.yaml | yq .stringData.token
Note: Don't forget to update the
BOOTSTRAP_FLUX_GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET
variable in your.config.env
file so it matches the generated secret if applicable
Now that you have the webhook url and secret, it's time to set everything up on the Github repository side. Navigate to the settings of your repository on Github, under "Settings/Webhooks" press the "Add webhook" button. Fill in the webhook url and your secret.
Rancher's local-path-provisioner
is a great start for storage but soon you might find you need more features like replicated block storage, or to connect to a NFS/SMB/iSCSI server. Check out the projects below to read up more on some storage solutions that might work for you.
- rook-ceph
- longhorn
- openebs
- nfs-subdir-external-provisioner
- democratic-csi
- csi-driver-nfs
- synology-csi
Authenticating Flux to your git repository has a couple benefits like using a private git repository and/or using the Flux Image Automation Controllers.
By default this template only works on a public GitHub repository, it is advised to keep your repository public.
The benefits of a public repository include:
- Debugging or asking for help, you can provide a link to a resource you are having issues with.
- Adding a topic to your repository of
k8s-at-home
to be included in the k8s-at-home-search. This search helps people discover different configurations of Helm charts across others Flux based repositories.
Expand to read guide on adding Flux SSH authentication
- Generate new SSH key:
ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521 -C "github-deploy-key" -f ./kubernetes/bootstrap/github-deploy.key -q -P ""
- Paste public key in the deploy keys section of your repository settings
- Create sops secret in
./kubernetes/bootstrap/github-deploy-key.sops.yaml
with the contents of:apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: github-deploy-key namespace: flux-system stringData: # 3a. Contents of github-deploy-key identity: | -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY----- ... -----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY----- # 3b. Output of curl --silent https://api.github.com/meta | jq --raw-output '"github.com "+.ssh_keys[]' known_hosts: | github.com ssh-ed25519 ... github.com ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 ... github.com ssh-rsa ...
- Encrypt secret:
sops --encrypt --in-place ./kubernetes/bootstrap/github-deploy-key.sops.yaml
- Apply secret to cluster:
sops --decrypt ./kubernetes/bootstrap/github-deploy-key.sops.yaml | kubectl apply -f -
- Update
./kubernetes/flux/config/cluster.yaml
:apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta2 kind: GitRepository metadata: name: home-kubernetes namespace: flux-system spec: interval: 10m # 6a: Change this to your user and repo names url: ssh://[email protected]/$user/$repo ref: branch: main secretRef: name: github-deploy-key
- Commit and push changes
- Force flux to reconcile your changes
task cluster:reconcile
- Verify git repository is now using SSH:
task cluster:gitrepositories
- Optionally set your repository to Private in your repository settings.
Included in your cluster is the Kubernetes Dashboard. Inorder to log into this you will have to get the secret token from the cluster using the command below.
kubectl -n monitoring get secret kubernetes-dashboard -o jsonpath='{.data.token}' | base64 -d
You should be able to access the dashboard at https://kubernetes.${SECRET_DOMAIN}
Below is a general guide on trying to debug an issue with an resource or application. For example, if a workload/resource is not showing up or a pod has started but in a CrashLoopBackOff
or Pending
state.
- Start by checking all Flux Kustomizations and verify they are healthy.
flux get ks -A
- Then check all the Flux Helm Releases and verify they are healthy.
flux get hr -A
- Then check the if the pod is present.
kubectl -n <namespace> get pods
- Then check the logs of the pod if its there.
kubectl -n <namespace> logs <pod-name> -f
Note: If a resource exists, running kubectl -n <namespace> describe <resource> <name>
might give you insight into what the problem(s) could be.
Resolving problems that you have could take some tweaking of your YAML manifests in order to get things working, other times it could be a external factor like permissions on NFS. If you are unable to figure out your problem see the help section below.
- Make a post in this repository's GitHub Discussions.
- Start a thread in the
support
orflux-cluster-template
channel in the k8s@home Discord server.
The world is your cluster, have at it!
Big shout out to all the authors and contributors to the projects that we are using in this repository.
@whazor created this website as a creative way to search Helm Releases across GitHub. You may use it as a means to get ideas on how to configure an applications' Helm values.