Articles tagged with "k3s"
A K3s PVC stuck in Pending often traces back to one fact: local-path-provisioner never enforces capacity limits. This post digs into hypervisor thin provisioning, Volume Node Affinity Conflicts, and the backup misconceptions hiding in K3s local storage design.
When CPU/memory-based HPA on K3s can't keep up with event-driven workloads, should you extend HPA or adopt KEDA, the CNCF-graduated project? Here's a 3-point decision framework, plus what to watch for on K3s.
A deep dive into how live-migrating a K3s control plane VM on Proxmox can break etcd quorum, explained through heartbeat/election-timeout mechanics and Proxmox affinity design, with concrete operational countermeasures.
Ever had a K3s cluster blocked by Docker Hub's pull rate limit? Here's how a Harbor private registry with Proxy Cache dodges the limit, plus vulnerability scanning, signing, and production-grade operational design.
Right-sizing nodes and adopting Spot VMs on AKS often plateaus because LoadBalancer-per-service billing and monitoring add-ons are structural fixed costs that operational tuning can't touch. We break down the real bottleneck and compare it to K3s's lightweight cost structure.
MCP servers and AI agents on K3s don't reveal why they called a given tool just from logs. Here's how OpenTelemetry's GenAI semantic conventions make non-deterministic execution observable.
Are you still designing K3s cluster management access around a corporate VPN? Learn 3 practical steps to secure kubectl and Rancher dashboard access with identity instead of network perimeter, plus the pitfall most teams hit when they implement zero trust.
You can't know how resilient your production K3s environment really is until something actually breaks. Monitoring and alerting only detect failure after the fact. This guide covers how to get started with chaos engineering using CNCF's LitmusChaos on K3s, and how to judge which workloads are safe to break first and which ones demand extra caution.
A real-world MCP permission bypass shows why Kubernetes/K3s clusters need disciplined RBAC design and audit-log separation before letting AI agents operate them.
You set up an HPA in K3s and Pods still won't scale. The usual culprits are unset resource requests silently disabling metrics, and a self-reinforcing HPA/VPA feedback loop. Here's how to diagnose and fix it.
In a K3s cluster, ping succeeds but HTTP requests just hang — the culprit may be an MTU mismatch inside your VXLAN overlay network. This guide covers Flannel/Calico MTU design, the PMTU blackhole phenomenon, and a step-by-step diagnostic process.
Ten years after Kubernetes launched, AI agents and LLM inference have upended three of its core assumptions: how GPUs are allocated, how autoscaling decisions are made, and how model serving is built. Here's how to rethink your K3s cluster with Dynamic Resource Allocation, KEDA, and KServe.
You configured a kubernetes service monitor on K3s, but nothing shows up in Prometheus Targets. 90% of the time, the cause is one of four connection points: label selectors, port names, RBAC, or the namespaceSelector. Here's a step-by-step diagnostic guide.
A growing number of individuals are replacing ISP-supplied routers with self-built mini PCs running open-source firmware. The same logic applies to edge Kubernetes: a hardware selection checklist and a GitOps operating model for standardizing dedicated appliances out of the fleet.
You've adopted SAST, DAST, and container scanning — yet incidents still slip into production. This article reframes CI/CD pipeline security as a four-layer design problem and walks through concrete implementation patterns for K3s/Kubernetes environments.
Even with cert-manager installed, K3s production certificates can silently expire due to Issuer misconfiguration, failed DNS validation, Let's Encrypt rate limits, or Secrets that never get reloaded. This post covers the monitoring and design choices that turn ACME auto-renewal from 'installed' into 'actually working.'
When you can't rely on a cloud load balancer for on-prem or edge K3s clusters, why does Layer2 (ARP) load balancing eventually hit a wall? A practical look at MetalLB's BGP mode vs. Cilium's BGP Control Plane, and how to decide when to migrate.
The people who go from zero Kubernetes experience to Kubestronaut (holder of every CNCF certification) share one trait: they built a breakable K3s homelab before touching an exam prep book. Here's why.
Container security guidelines often stop at 'we run a scanner.' This guide walks through the practical checklist you need to pass before production in K3s: minimal base images, vulnerability scanning, SBOM generation, signing, and admission control.
Why do Kubernetes costs on EKS/AKS balloon unexpectedly? We break down how autoscaling and cross-AZ billing hide costs, and explore how K3s-based managed infrastructure turns them into a fixed cost.
Why do Kubernetes operations roles stay unfilled for months? It isn't a lack of tool knowledge — it's that the discipline has splintered into too many specialties. Instead of hiring more heads, absorb the specialization into the platform with managed K3s.
Are you burning incident-response time checking Prometheus, Loki, and Jaeger separately? Learn how to correlate metrics, logs, and traces with OpenTelemetry to cut investigation time on K3s clusters, with practical Collector deployment patterns.
When adopting CNCF projects for your Kubernetes stack, are you judging them by GitHub stars and name recognition alone? Learn the Sandbox/Incubating/Graduated maturity framework and the Harbor case study to know what to check before production.
Handing AI agents static API keys is an operating model that eventually breaks down. This article explains why static secrets hit a wall when running MCP servers on Kubernetes, and how Keycloak combined with SPIFFE/SPIRE enables a 'keyless' authentication design.
GitLab Auto DevOps runs SAST/DAST automatically the moment you turn it on. But a scan 'running' and a vulnerable image never reaching your production K3s cluster are two completely different things. Here's how to build an audit gate between CI/CD and the cluster.
Why does troubleshooting a Kubernetes overlay network take so long? This article breaks down how CNI works, the differences between Flannel VXLAN and Calico BGP, and the step-by-step process for isolating MTU mismatches that every K3s operator should know.
When you can't add a privileged container or inject a sidecar into a production Kubernetes cluster, how do you diagnose Pod traffic and syscalls? We explain how the eBPF tool Inspektor Gadget works, and what happened to it in 2026.
Your kubernetes service monitor isn't being scraped and there's no error to explain why. The root cause is almost always one of three things: label mismatches, a missing namespaceSelector, or RBAC. Here's how to diagnose each one against the official docs.
Kubernetes GPU multi-tenancy isn't a binary choice between namespace isolation and dedicated nodes. This article breaks down the cost-vs-isolation trade-off and how to design a hybrid approach.
Splitting dev/staging/production by Git branch is a GitOps anti-pattern that undermines Kubernetes' declarative foundations. Learn why drift happens, how to migrate to a directory-based, trunk-based setup, and how to design for fleet-scale growth.
Kubernetes certificate management is technically a matter of days. What actually takes time is the organizational process of getting sign-off. Here's how cert-manager automates the technical side, and how to design away the operational debt that remains.
Code generated and executed by AI agents can no longer be treated as a trusted, reviewed product. This article explains the limits of container isolation and why Kata Containers' microVM isolation is becoming essential when designing AI agent sandboxes on Kubernetes.
Why doesn't live migrating a VM (KubeVirt) between Kubernetes nodes break the connection? We break down Calico's IP persistence and BGP route convergence, and what it means for teams moving off VMware.
Container image signing explained: tags can be overwritten by anyone, and passing CI tests doesn't guarantee the image running in production is the one you built. Learn how Sigstore and Kyverno work together to reject unsigned images on Kubernetes/K3s, integrated into a GitOps workflow.
World Cup broadcasts duplicate every camera feed across two independent paths and simply discard whichever packet arrives second. That seemingly wasteful design shares the same philosophy as Kubernetes high availability and multi-AZ architecture.
AI-generated Kubernetes manifests pass kubectl apply and 'work' — but getting Kubernetes resource design wrong drives massive overprovisioning. Here's why AI struggles with production-grade requests/limits and what to check before you ship.
Fleet management for K3s edge operations breaks down once you're troubleshooting devices one at a time by hand. Here's how declarative management and Rancher Fleet let you design edge operations that don't depend on any single person.
A single checkout request was quietly triggering five separate service calls behind the scenes. The culprit isn't bad code — it's the "chatty call" architecture that Kubernetes microservices tend to fall into. This article explains the distributed N+1 problem and how to fix it.
AI compute demand has flipped from training to inference, with inference compute projected to reach 1.5x training capacity by 2030. Drawing on KubeCon Japan discussions and the CNCF AI Conformance Program, this article outlines what Kubernetes/K3s clusters need to look like in the inference era.
A field report from a large-scale K3s edge deployment covering 2,000+ devices: why lightweight Kubernetes gets chosen, and the hidden network cost of push-based metrics collection in a hybrid cluster architecture, backed by concrete numbers. For engineers and platform operators.
Generative AI has made it possible for almost anyone to write code, yet as more companies adopt AI, demand for MLOps talent who can reliably run GPUs and model serving on Kubernetes keeps rising. Here's why, and how a managed Kubernetes platform can help.
Kubernetes Secrets are only Base64-encoded, not encrypted. Learn how plaintext-equivalent storage in etcd and over-permissioned RBAC lead to real incidents, plus the concrete Secrets management practices you need for production K3s.
When adding more Pods to Kubernetes doesn't fix latency, the real cause may not be CPU at all, but invisible throttling or database connection pool exhaustion. Here's how to diagnose and fix the hidden ceiling.
Handing off Kubernetes incident response to AI doesn't help if the causal chain across a distributed system stays invisible. This piece covers the distributed tracing foundation that makes AIOps actually work, plus practical steps for adopting OpenTelemetry.
The trial-and-error troubleshooting behind a home-lab wall-mounted dashboard is the same trap that hits edge Kubernetes clusters scattered across factories and stores. Drawing on official K3s, Prometheus, and Grafana docs, this piece lays out design principles for not deferring observability.
Splitting environments by namespace doesn't automatically carry over policies or resource limits. This article breaks down the pitfalls of Kubernetes multi-tenancy and compares three practical solutions: Capsule, vCluster, and HNC.
Stacking more QA tests doesn't reduce production incidents, because it's fundamentally impossible to enumerate every edge case in advance. This article explains the 'design for failure' mindset behind feature flags, monitoring, and automated rollback in Kubernetes, plus a practical adoption roadmap for K3s environments.
The CNCF 'Graduated' badge is not a safety certificate. Drawing on TOC public meeting notes and official documentation, this article explains the real review process behind Sandbox, Incubating, and Graduated status, and how to judge OSS maturity before adopting it in production.
You're great at subnet design, so why does Pod-to-Pod communication in Kubernetes trip you up every time? We break down the fundamentals of Kubernetes networking—CNI, Service Mesh, and NetworkPolicy—by contrasting them with traditional network design.
Every new dev, test, and staging environment adds to your Kubernetes cloud bill. Learn how namespace isolation, ResourceQuota, and a hybrid dedicated-cluster-for-production model balance cost and isolation.
Kubernetes high availability isn't achieved simply by adding more replicas. Using the broadcast industry's SMPTE ST 2022-7 dual-path transmission as a lens, this article unpacks what Topology Spread Constraints and multi-AZ design actually mean.
The quality-gate mindset and test automation skills QA engineers already have map directly onto Kubernetes operations aptitude. Here's a realistic six-month roadmap for making the switch, and how to clear the biggest obstacle in the way.
Generating Kubernetes manifests at AI speed doesn't make production Kubernetes operations faster. This article breaks down three real bottlenecks — CPU throttling, the HPA/VPA conflict, and database connection starvation — and how to split the work between AI and humans.
Shadow AI isn't just unauthorized SaaS tools. It's happening inside your Kubernetes clusters too. Here's the risk it creates, and how Admission Control turns detection into real governance.
An explainer on the relationship between platform engineering and Kubernetes — the design philosophy of shielding developers from K8s complexity, the three pillars of building an IDP, and managed K3s as an alternative.
Most production incidents happen because teams deploy everything at once. This article walks through how to design canary releases, automated rollback, and monitoring on Kubernetes using Argo Rollouts and GitOps — with practical steps small teams can actually sustain.
As VMware migration costs and cloud bills climb in 2026, more companies are reconsidering private cloud. This article examines the real build cost and Day 2 operational burden of self-managed OpenStack + K3s, using actual operational data and industry statistics, to clarify when in-house builds make sense versus a managed Kubernetes service.
As AI automates infrastructure, are DevOps engineers really becoming irrelevant? The reality is the opposite — demand for MLOps Kubernetes talent is surging. Here are the 5 skills you need in 2026.
CNCF's 2026 survey shows 66% of GenAI organizations run on Kubernetes. From GPU scheduling to multi-tenancy and cost optimization — here's why K8s has become the de facto AI platform, and how managed K8s can cut your build time to zero.
What is the 'stage-skipping trap' that DevOps engineers fall into? A comprehensive guide to why Managed Kubernetes is the optimal solution, explained through infrastructure evolution theory
Explore how to leverage Kubernetes v1.36 'Haru' enhanced User Namespaces and security features in K3s lightweight environments. Discover managed K3s operational strategies and 2026 infrastructure selection guidelines that achieve 60% cost reduction compared to EKS.
Learn how to deploy K3s to edge and IoT environments. Covers Raspberry Pi setup, air-gapped installations, fleet management, and industry use cases.
Complete guide to deploying a lightweight K3s Kubernetes cluster on Proxmox VE, covering VM templates, HA configuration, storage, and Ingress setup.
Learn how to run K3s in production with confidence. Covers HA architecture, security hardening, monitoring, backup strategies, and resource management.
Compare K3s and standard Kubernetes across architecture, resource usage, and use cases. Find out which Kubernetes distribution fits your project best.