Overview¶

This documentation describes the design, setup, and operation of a bare-metal Kubernetes home lab.

The cluster is built using kubeadm on Ubuntu Server, with a strong focus on: - clarity - reproducibility - production-like behavior

While this is a home lab, all design choices aim to stay as close as possible to real-world Kubernetes environments.

Cluster goals¶

The main goals of this Kubernetes Home Lab are:

Learn Kubernetes fundamentals on bare metal
Understand cluster internals and networking
Practice installation, upgrades and troubleshooting
Experiment with CNI, storage and GitOps tools
Maintain a simple but realistic setup

High-level architecture¶

The cluster consists of: - one dedicated control plane node - multiple worker nodes - a flat Layer 2 home LAN - static IP addressing or DHCP reservations - a dedicated Pod network

All nodes run: - Ubuntu Server - containerd as container runtime - kubeadm-managed Kubernetes components

Design principles¶

This cluster follows a few key design principles:

Simplicity over complexity
Predictability over automation
Reproducibility over convenience
Documentation-first approach

Each component is installed and configured explicitly to ensure full understanding of what happens under the hood.

Scope and limitations¶

This home lab intentionally has the following limitations:

Single control plane (no HA)
No external load balancer
No cloud provider integration
No managed services

These limitations keep the cluster easy to reason about while still allowing meaningful Kubernetes experimentation.

Documentation structure¶

The documentation is organized as follows:

Hardware description reminds the physical foundation
Network topology explains physical and logical connectivity
OS preparation ensures all nodes are Kubernetes-ready
Kubernetes installation describes kubeadm setup
CNI configuration focuses on pod networking
Validation ensures cluster health and correctness

Each section builds on the previous one and should be followed in order.