Deploy a Kubernetes cluster backed by Flux
Welcome to my 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.
π Introduction
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
- cert-manager - Operator to request SSL certificates and store them as Kubernetes resources
- cilium - 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 can be enabled in the addons configuration file
π Pre-start checklist
Before we get started, everything below must be taken into consideration.
- Bring a positive attitude and be ready to learn and fail a lot. The more you fail, the more you can learn from.
- 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.
- Your domain name will NOT be visible to the public.
- You MUST have a DNS server that supports split DNS (e.g. Pi-Hole) deployed somewhere outside your cluster ON your home network.
- You have to use nodes that have access to the internet. This is not going to work in air-gapped environments.
With that out of the way please continue on if you are still interested...
π» System Preparation
This projects supported Linux distro for running Kubernetes is Debian, Ubuntu might work but it is not currently supported due to these reasons.
Debian for AMD64
π Download the latest stable release of Debian from here
There is a decent guide here on how to get Debian installed.
-
Deviations from that guide
Choose "Guided - use entire disk" Choose "All files in one partition" Delete Swap partition Uncheck all Debian desktop environment options
-
[Post install] Remove CD/DVD as apt source
su - sed -i '/deb cdrom/d' /etc/apt/sources.list apt update exit
-
[Post install] Enable sudo for your non-root user
su - apt install -y sudo usermod -aG sudo ${username} echo "${username} ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" | tee /etc/sudoers.d/${username} exit newgrp sudo sudo apt update
-
[Post install] Add SSH keys (or use
ssh-copy-id
on the client that is connecting)π First make sure your ssh keys are up-to-date and added to your github account as instructed.
mkdir -m 700 ~/.ssh sudo apt install -y curl curl https://github.com/${github_username}.keys > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Debian for RasPi4
π Download the latest stable release of Debian from here. Do not use Raspbian.
If you choose to use a RasPi4 for the cluster, it is recommended to have a 8GB model (4GB minimum). Most important is to boot from an external SSD/NVMe, rather than the SD card. This is supported natively, however if you have an early RasPi4, you may need to update the bootloader.
According to the documentation here, after you have flashed the image onto a SSD/NVMe you must mount the drive and do the following.
-
Edit
sysconf.txt
-
Change
root_authorized_key
to your desired public SSH key. -
Change
root_pw
to your desired root password. -
Change
hostname
to your desired hostname. -
[Post install] Follow steps 3 & 4 from Debian for AMD64 section.
-
[Post install] Install
python3
which is needed by Ansible.sudo apt install -y python3
π First Steps
The very first step will be to create a new public repository by clicking the big green Use this template button on this page. Next clone your new repo to you local workstation and cd
into it.
π All commands are run on your local workstation within your repository directory
π§ Workstation Tools
Lets get the required workstation tools installed and configured.
-
Install the most recent version of task
π See the task installation docs for other platforms
# Brew brew install go-task
-
Install the most recent version of direnv
π See the direnv installation docs for other platforms
π After installing
direnv
be sure to hook it into your shell and after that is done rundirenv allow
while in your repos directory.# Brew brew install direnv
-
Setup a Python virual env and install Ansible by running the following task command.
π This commands requires Python 3.8+ to be installed
# Platform agnostic task deps
-
Install the required tools: age, flux, cloudflared, kubectl, sops
# Brew task brew:deps
π Configuration
π Both bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
and bootstrap/vars/addons.yaml
files contain necessary information that is needed by bootstrap process.
-
Generate the
bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
andbootstrap/vars/addons.yaml
configuration files.task init
-
Setup Age private / public key
π Using SOPS with Age allows us to encrypt secrets and use them in Ansible and Flux.
2a. Create a Age private / public key (this file is gitignored)
age-keygen -o age.key
2b. Fill out the appropriate vars in
bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
-
Create Cloudflare API Token
π To use
cert-manager
with the Cloudflare DNS challenge you will need to create a API Token.3a. Head over to Cloudflare and create a API Token by going here.
3b. Under the
API Tokens
section click the blueCreate Token
button.3c. Click the blue
Use template
button for theEdit zone DNS
template.3d. Name your token something like
home-kubernetes
3e. Under
Permissions
, click+ Add More
and add each permission below:Zone - DNS - Edit Account - Cloudflare Tunnel - Read
3f. Limit the permissions to a specific account and zone resources.
3g. Fill out the appropriate vars in
bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
-
Create Cloudflare Tunnel
π To expose services to the internet you will need to create a Cloudflare Tunnel.
4a. Authenticate cloudflared to your domain
cloudflared tunnel login
4b. Create the tunnel
cloudflared tunnel create k8s
4c. In the
~/.cloudflared
directory there will be a json file with details you need. Ignore thecert.pem
file.4d. Fill out the appropriate vars in
bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
-
Complete filling out the rest of the
bootstrap/vars/config.yaml
configuration file.5a. [Optional] Update
bootstrap/vars/addons.yaml
and enable applications you would like included. -
Once done run the following command which will verify and generate all the files needed to continue.
task configure
π The configure task will create a ./ansible
directory and the following directories under ./kubernetes
.
π kubernetes # Kubernetes cluster defined as code
ββπ bootstrap # Flux installation (not tracked by Flux)
ββπ flux # Main Flux configuration of repository
ββπ apps # Apps deployed into the cluster grouped by namespace
β‘ Node Preparation
π Here we will be running an Ansible playbook to prepare your nodes for running a Kubernetes cluster.
-
Ensure you are able to SSH into your nodes from your workstation using a private SSH key without a passphrase. For example using a SSH agent. This is how Ansible is able to connect to your remote nodes.
-
Verify Ansible can view your config
task ansible:list
-
Verify Ansible can ping your nodes
task ansible:ping
-
Run the Ansible prepare playbook (nodes wil reboot when done)
task ansible:prepare
β΅ Kubernetes Installation
π Here we will be running a Ansible Playbook to install k3s with this Ansible galaxy role. If you run into problems, you can run task ansible:nuke
to destroy the k3s cluster and start over from this point.
-
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
π If this command fails you likely haven't configured
direnv
as mentioned previously in the guide.kubectl get nodes -o wide # NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION # k8s-0 Ready control-plane,etcd,master 1h v1.27.3+k3s1 # k8s-1 Ready worker 1h v1.27.3+k3s1
-
The
kubeconfig
for interacting with your cluster should have been created in the root of your repository.
πΉ GitOps with Flux
π Here we will be installing flux after some quick bootstrap steps.
-
Verify Flux can be installed
flux check --pre # βΊ checking prerequisites # β kubectl 1.27.3 >=1.18.0-0 # β Kubernetes 1.27.3+k3s1 >=1.16.0-0 # β prerequisites checks passed
-
Push you changes to git
π Verify all the
*.sops.yaml
and*.sops.yaml
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
kubectl -n flux-system get pods -o wide # 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
π€ Verification Steps
Mic check, 1, 2 - In a few moments applications should be lighting up like Christmas in July π
-
Output all the common resources in your cluster.
π Feel free to use the provided cluster tasks for validation of cluster resources or continue to get familiar with the
kubectl
andflux
CLI tools.task cluster:resources
-
β οΈ It might takecert-manager
awhile to generate certificates, this is normal so be patient. -
π Congratulations if all goes smooth you will have a Kubernetes cluster managed by Flux and your Git repository is driving the state of your cluster.
-
π§ Now it's time to pause and go get some motel motor oil β and admire you made it this far!
π£ Post installation
π DNS
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 the correct ingress class name and ingress annotations like done in the HelmRelease
for echo-server
.
For split DNS to work it is required to have ${bootstrap_cloudflare_domain}
point to the ${bootstrap_k8s_gateway_addr}
load balancer IP address on your home DNS server. This will ensure DNS requests for ${bootstrap_cloudflare_domain}
will only get routed to your k8s_gateway
service thus providing internal DNS resolution to your cluster applications/ingresses from any device that uses your home DNS server.
For and example with Pi-Hole apply the following file and restart dnsmasq:
# /etc/dnsmasq.d/99-k8s-gateway-forward.conf
server=/${bootstrap_cloudflare_domain}/${bootstrap_k8s_gateway_addr}
Now try to resolve an internal-only domain with dig @${pi-hole-ip} hajimari.${bootstrap_cloudflare_domain}
it should resolve to your ${bootstrap_internal_nginx_addr}
IP.
If you're having trouble with DNS be sure to check out these two Github discussions, Internal DNS and Pod DNS resolution broken.
Nothing working? That is expected, this is DNS after all!
π Certificates
By default this template will deploy a wildcard certificate with the Let's Encrypt staging environment. This is to prevent you from getting rate-limited on configuration that might not be valid on bootstrap using the production server. If you had bootstrap_acme_production_enabled
set to false
in your config.yaml
, make sure to switch to the Let's Encrypt production servers as outlined in that file. Do not enable the production certificate until you are sure you will keep the cluster up for more than a few hours.
πͺ Github Webhook
By default Flux will periodically check your git repository for changes. In order to have Flux reconcile on git push
you must configure Github to send push
events.
-
Obtain the webhook path
π Hook id and path should look like
/hook/12ebd1e363c641dc3c2e430ecf3cee2b3c7a5ac9e1234506f6f5f3ce1230e123
kubectl -n flux-system get receiver github-receiver -o jsonpath='{.status.webhookPath}'
-
Piece together the full URL with the webhook path appended
https://flux-webhook.${bootstrap_cloudflare_domain}/hook/12ebd1e363c641dc3c2e430ecf3cee2b3c7a5ac9e1234506f6f5f3ce1230e123
-
Navigate to the settings of your repository on Github, under "Settings/Webhooks" press the "Add webhook" button. Fill in the webhook url and your
bootstrap_flux_github_webhook_token
secret and save.
π€ Renovatebot
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, 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. Renovate will create PRs for out-of-date dependencies it finds and when merged Flux will apply them to your cluster.
π Debugging
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 & Git Repository & OCI Repository and verify they are healthy.
flux get sources oci -A flux get sources git -A 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 -o wide
-
Then check the logs of the pod if its there.
kubectl -n <namespace> logs <pod-name> -f # or stern -n <namespace> <fuzzy-name>
-
If a resource exists try to describe it to see what problems it might have.
kubectl -n <namespace> describe <resource> <name>
-
Check the namespace events
kubectl get events -n <namespace> --sort-by='.metadata.creationTimestamp'
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.
π Help
- 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.
β What's next
The cluster is your oyster (or something like that). Below are some optional considerations you might want to review.
Ship it
To browse or get ideas on applications people are running, community member @whazor created this website as a creative way to search Flux HelmReleases across Github.
Storage
The included CSI (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. If you need any of those features be sure to check out the projects like rook-ceph, longhorn, openebs, democratic-csi, csi-driver-nfs,
and synology-csi.
Authenticate Flux over SSH
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://git@github.com/$user/$repo ref: branch: main secretRef: name: github-deploy-key
-
Commit and push changes
-
Force flux to reconcile your changes
flux reconcile -n flux-system kustomization cluster --with-source
-
Verify git repository is now using SSH:
flux get sources git -A
-
Optionally set your repository to Private in your repository settings.
π€ Thanks
Big shout out to all the contributors, sponsors and everyone else who has helped on this project.