After mastering ansible to automate his homelab Kubernetes cluster, the writer grappled with Gitea installation issues, such as lost configurations without persistent storage. Following some setbacks with load balancers, storage solutions, and monitoring setups, they learned the importance of automation to rebuild the cluster efficiently. Using Ansible not just for cluster deployment but also for Kubernetes resource management, the writer began documenting their stack, keeping an eye on alternative tools for the future.
After multiple rebuilds of my homelab cluster and starting a new job, I revisited Ansible to automate the process. I initially crafted a custom playbook for my Raspberry Pi cluster running k3s, then integrated the official k3s-ansible playbook as a submodule for easier updates and management. Now, with a streamlined inventory and playbook setup, I can deploy a repeatable working cluster, with plans to further refine the services and backup strategies.
A while ago (2019 according to the repo), I was learning about the Internet of Things (IoT) and went through the process to prototype a smart indicator light. I made it communicate with AWS IoT where I could both change the color of the light on the device (and it would report to the cloud)… Read more: Building a smart device without writing code
My hosting contract with wordpress.com is up in a few weeks, and I decided to migrate to Namecheap/EasyWP. In case you follow the site and it looks/behaves differently–it was me!