Homelab

This repository contains resources related to my homelab, currently called torvalds. 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.

Details

I've spent a lot of time making this project pleasant to work with. Here are some things I'm proud of:

• Close to zero host setup
  • It's literally just a few commands to deploy my entire cluster
• Entirely written in TypeScript built with cdk8s and Deno
• Automated backups
  • The applications I care about are regularly backed up to BorgBase
• HTTPS ingress with Tailscale
• All secrets managed with 1Password
• Jenkins CI w/ Earthly used by my open-source projects
• Entirely automated deployment for updates, upgrades, etc.
  • Commit-to-deployment takes about 1min
• Automated dependency updates
  • For Docker images (w/ pinned SHAs)
  • For Helm charts
  • For Jenkins plugins
  • For Deno dependencies
  • My approach allows all of my dependencies to be pinned and updated regularly

Installation

Talos

1. Create secrets.yaml

2. Create the configuration file:

   talosctl gen config \
     --with-secrets secrets.yaml \
     --config-patch-control-plane @patches/scheduling.yaml \
     --config-patch @patches/image.yaml \
     --config-patch @patches/tailscale.yaml \
     torvalds https://192.168.1.81:6443 --force

3. Configure endpoints in talosconfig

   • This allows commands to be run without the --endpoints argument

4. Move the talosconfig:

   • This allows commands to be run without the --talosconfig argument

   mv talosconfig ~/.talos/config

5. Apply the configuration:

   talosctl apply-config --insecure --nodes 192.168.1.81 --file controlplane.yaml

6. If needed, update:

   talosctl apply-config --nodes 192.168.1.81 --file controlplane.yaml

   Upgrade:

   talosctl upgrade --nodes 192.168.1.81 --image <image>

7. Bootstrap the Kubernetes cluster:

   talosctl bootstrap --nodes 192.168.1.8    talosctl bootstrap --nodes 192.168.1.811

8. Create a Kubernetes configuration:

   talosctl kubeconfig --nodes 192.168.1.81

Kubernetes

1. Install helm:

   brew install helm

2. Install Argo CD manually:

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

   kubectl create namespace argocd
   helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm
   helm install argocd argo/argo-cd --namespace argocd

3. 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

4. Build and deploy the manifests in this repo:

   cd cdk8s && deno task up

5. Get the initial Argo CD admin password:

   kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

6. Change Argo CD the admin password.

ZFS

Adapted from https://www.roosmaa.net/blog/2024/setting-up-zfs-on-talos/

1. Create a shell with pods/shell.yaml:

   kubectl apply -f pods/shell.yaml

2. Try to run a ZFS command:

   kubectl exec pod/shell -n maintenance -- \
     nsenter --mount=/proc/1/ns/mnt -- \
     zpool status

3. Create a ZFS pool:

   # for nvme storage
   kubectl exec pod/shell -n maintenance -- \
     nsenter --mount=/proc/1/ns/mnt -- \
     zpool create -m legacy -f zfspv-pool-nvme \
     /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-Samsung_SSD_990_PRO_4TB_S7KGNU0X511734N
   
   # for hdd storage
   kubectl exec pod/shell -n maintenance -- \
     nsenter --mount=/proc/1/ns/mnt -- \
     zpool create -m legacy -f zfspv-pool-hdd raidz2 \
     /dev/sda \
     /dev/sdb \
     /dev/sdc \
     /dev/sdd \
     /dev/sde

4. Install OpenEBS:

   helm repo add openebs https://openebs.github.io/openebs
   helm install openebs --namespace openebs openebs/openebs --set engines.replicated.mayastor.enabled=false --set engines.local.lvm.enabled=false --set zfs-localpv.zfsNode.encrKeysDir=/var --create-namespace