k3s Node Upgrades Without Downtime
Upgrade k3s without dropping workloads: the cordon and drain sequence, then system-upgrade-controller Plans that automate it, with PDB and Longhorn gotchas.
Tag: k3s
All the articles with the tag "k3s".
OpenCost on k3s: What Your Pods Cost
A home lab has no cloud invoice. Feed OpenCost your power rate and hardware price, then see which namespace on your k3s cluster is the real monthly cost hog.
Cluster API for Homelab k3s
Cluster API turns k3s cluster lifecycle into YAML: create, scale, and upgrade whole clusters as code with a management cluster, no more one off scripts.
Falco + Trivy in k3s: Runtime Security on Small Clusters
Combine image scanning and runtime detection in k3s with Falco and Trivy Operator. Practical Helm setup, working rules, and alert routing for small clusters.
External Secrets Operator + Vault on k3s
Pull secrets out of git with External Secrets Operator and Vault on k3s: real server mode, Kubernetes auth that actually works, rotation and audit trails.
k3s on Pi 5 Cluster: Real or Toy?
A k3s cluster on Raspberry Pi 5 is real Kubernetes with real limits. Which workloads stick, why the M.2 HAT is mandatory, and when to go buy mini-PCs.
Kustomize Without Helm: When Overlays Win
Skip Helm for home lab Kubernetes. Kustomize base + overlays give you dev/staging/prod variants with zero templating pain.
Ingress Choices in k3s: Traefik vs ingress-nginx vs HAProxy
Traefik, ingress-nginx, or HAProxy on k3s? ingress-nginx retired in March 2026. Install commands, IngressRoute vs Ingress, and the ServiceLB port trap.
k3s Backups: etcd Snapshots + Velero
etcd snapshots and Velero on k3s: the native S3 upload flags, the local-path hostPath trap that silently skips your PV data, and a restore drill that works.
MetalLB for Bare-Metal LoadBalancer
Give your bare-metal Kubernetes cluster load-balanced services with MetalLB. Layer 2, BGP, IPAddressPools, and when to use each.
Longhorn vs OpenEBS for k3s Storage
Longhorn is opinionated and simple. OpenEBS is modular with more levers. How the two storage drivers differ on architecture and speed for a 3-node k3s.
ArgoCD for Home Lab GitOps
ArgoCD runs GitOps on k3s: install it, lay out the repo, and manage apps declaratively from Git. Covers sealed-secrets, sync waves, and app-of-apps.