Tag: Kubernetes

  • Automated RKE2 Cluster Management

    One of the things I like about cloud-hosted Kubernetes solutions is that they take the pain out of node management. My latest home lab goal was to replicate some of that functionality with RKE2. Did I do it? Yes. Is there room for improvement? Of course, its a software project. The Problem With RKE1, I…

  • Moving On: Testing RKE2 Clusters in the Home Lab

    After recovering from an RKE crash, I figured it was time to look into different Kubernetes options. I ended up with a new offering from a familiar friend.

  • Home Lab – No More iSCSI – Backup Plans

    This post is part of a short series on migrating my home hypervisor off of iSCSI. It is worth nothing (and quite ironic) that I went through a fire drill last week when I crashed my RKE clusters. That event gave me some fresh eyes into the data that is important to me. How much…

  • Nothing says “Friday Night Fun” like crashing an RKE Cluster!

    Yes… I crashed my RKE clusters in a big way yesterday evening, and I spent a lot of time getting them back. I learned a few things in the process, and may have gotten the kickstart I need to investigate new Kubernetes flavors. It all started with an upgrade… All I wanted to do was…

  • Home Lab – No More iSCSI: Transfer, Shutdown, and Rebuild

    This post is part of a short series on migrating my home hypervisor off of iSCSI. Observations – Migrating Servers The focus of my hobby time over the few days has been moving production assets to the temporary server. Most of it is fairly vanilla, but I have a few observations worth noting. Let me…

  • Lessons in Managing my Kubernetes Cluster: Man Down!

    I had a bit of a panic this week as routine tasks took me down a rabbit hole in Kubernetes. The more I manage my home lab clusters, the more I realize I do not want to be responsible for bare metal clusters at work. It was a typical upgrade… With ArgoCD in place, the…

  • Hitting for the cycle…

    Well, I may not be hitting for the cycle, but I am certainly cycling Kubernetes nodes like it is my job. The recent OpenSSL security patches got me thinking that I need to cycle my cluster nodes. A Quick Primer In Kubernetes, a “node” is, well, a machine performing some bit of work. It could…

  • What’s in a (Release) Name?

    With Rancher gone, one of my clusters was dedicated to running Argo and my standard cluster tools. Another cluster has now become home for a majority of the monitoring tools, including the Grafana/Loki/Mimir/Tempo stack. That second cluster was running a little hot in terms of memory and CPU. I had 6 machines running what 4-5…

  • A Lesson in Occam’s Razor: Configuring Mimir Ruler with Grafana

    Occam’s Razor posits “Of two competing theories, the simpler explanation is to be preferred.” I believe my high school biology teacher taught the “KISS” method (Keep It Simple, Stupid) to convey a similar principle. As I was trying to get alerts set up in Mimir using the Grafana UI, I came across an issue that…

  • Walking away from Rancher

    I like to keep my home lab running for both hosting sites (like this one) and experimenting on different tools and techniques. It is pretty nice to be able to spin up some containers in a cluster without fear of disturbing other’s work. And, since I do not hold myself to any SLA commitments, it…