Kubernetes Homelab Platform
Self-hosted bare-metal Kubernetes cluster running on physical nodes managed with Proxmox. Started as a k3s cluster and later rebuilt with kubeadm to own the full cluster lifecycle. GitOps delivery via ArgoCD integrated with Jenkins CI/CD pipelines and GitHub self-hosted runners, configuration management with Ansible and Ansible Vault, and secrets served by HashiCorp Vault. Observability runs on Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki, with event-driven autoscaling via KEDA and security posture managed with Wiz. A Go-based load testing application exercises real workloads across bare-metal nodes and AWS EC2 over a secure hybrid tunnel.
Architecture
Bare-metal cluster with a dedicated control plane and worker nodes, provisioned with kubeadm on Proxmox-managed hardware. All cluster state is applied from Git through ArgoCD; Jenkins and GitHub self-hosted runners drive CI, Ansible handles node configuration, and HashiCorp Vault serves secrets. Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki provide metrics and logs, and KEDA drives event-based autoscaling. A hybrid tunnel connects the cluster to AWS EC2 for cross-environment load testing.
Operational Value
Problem Solved
Hands-on platform for developing production Kubernetes skills without cloud cost.
- ✓ Full cluster lifecycle ownership with kubeadm — provisioning, upgrades, and node recovery
- ✓ GitOps workflow with ArgoCD: every cluster change delivered from Git
- ✓ CKA exam preparation with real workloads and failure scenarios
- ✓ Operational patterns rehearsed here before applying them to production EKS
Cost Impact
$0/month vs EKS equivalent
Detailed case study documentation is in progress.