README.md

Homelab

This repository contains resources related to my homelab, currently called lamport. I give each of my servers a unique name so that I can keep track of them over time.

Currently my server is managed with Kubernetes. I've used Docker, Ansible, and bash scripts in the past. Kubernetes has been an interesting experiment and I think it's overall worthwhile since the ecosystem is so rich.

Installation

These instructions are for future me, so that I can re-create my cluster from scratch if needed.

Host Setup

At some point I should automate these steps, either as a part of a script, my dotfiles, ansible, etc.

• Install Tailscale

• Install Linuxbrew

• Install fish, vim, helix, rtx, languages (Deno), etc.

• Set fish as the default shell

• Configure fish

• Setup auto-updates with Ubuntu

  • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutomaticSecurityUpdates

• Set KUBE_CONFIG

• Update kernel parameters: https://docs.k3s.io/security/hardening-guide#set-kernel-parameters

• Increase number of file watchers:

  sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1990692
  sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=512
  sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_queued_events=65536
  

Cluster Setup

1. Copy k3s to /etc/rancher/k3s/

   sudo cp -r k3s/. /etc/rancher/k3s/
   

2. Install k3s.

   curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
   

3. Copy the Kubernetes configuration

   rm -rfv ~/.kube && mkdir ~/.kube && sudo cp /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml ~/.kube/config && sudo chown $USER:$USER ~/.kube/config && chmod 600 ~/.kube/config
   

4. Install helm and argocd.

   brew install helm argocd
   

5. Install Argo CD manually.

   [!NOTE] This will be imported into Argo CD itself as part of the CDK8s manifest

   kubectl create namespace argocd
   kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
   

6. Set the credentials in the secrets directory.

   • Be sure not to commit any changes to these files so that secrets don't leak.

   • These should be the only credentials that are manually set. Everything else can be retrieved from 1Password.

   • Annoyingly, the credential in 1password-secret.yaml must be base64 encoded.

     cat 1password-credentials.json | base64 -w 0
     

     kubectl create namespace 1password
     kubectl apply -f secrets/1password-secret.yaml
     kubectl apply -f secrets/1password-token.yaml
     

7. Deploy the manifests in this repo

   kubectl apply -f cdk8s/dist/apps.k8s.yaml
   

8. Get the initial Argo CD admin password.

   argocd admin initial-password -n argocd
   

9. Change Argo CD the admin password.