I’ve been pretty resistant to Kubernetes. Most of my work is done on one of the public clouds so the features that Kubernetes provides seem like an unnecessary abstraction layer. That being said, I don’t think Kubernetes is going anywhere anytime soon so I might as well learn my way around. Time to build a cluster!
Hardware
I wanted to do this on the cheap with enough horsepower that the system wasn’t terrible to use. I landed on a 4 node setup. 1 controller node and 3 workers. I selected some used Intel NUCs, I bought 4 8th gen units with i3 processors. The worker nodes I setup with an 16GB Optane boot drive, a used 180GB Intel SSD and 32GB of memory. The controller node has only 16GB of ram but has a larger 512GB nvme drive.
For the power distribution I did something a little funky. The computers each take 19V and I had an MikroTik switch that would accept voltages between 11 and 30. Googling around I found an industrial transformer that would work.
One input to spare! Plugged everything in and it seems to work without issue.
Currently running without issue on a shelf in my basement. I think it might be time to invest in a label maker.