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Container Platform

K3s

Lightweight Kubernetes — perfect for edge and small clusters

🐧 Linux🍎 Mac🪟 Windows📋 Quick reference →
Reviewed: Tested on: Kubernetes 1.29 · Terraform 1.8 · Ubuntu 22.04

If you're on Kubernetes 1.27 or older

  • Ingress: networking.k8s.io/v1 is required — v1beta1 removed in 1.22+
  • Pod Security: PodSecurityPolicy removed in 1.25 — use Pod Security Admission (PSA) labels
  • HPA v2 autoscaling/v2 is stable — check API version in manifests

If you're on Kubernetes 1.28

  • Sidecar containers (1.29+) change init-container ordering — review sidecar docs before upgrade
  • Verify metrics-server and HPA after control plane bump

Alternative — team standard for Local Kubernetes

Recommended: kind →

What is this?

K3s is a tiny, production-ready Kubernetes distribution that installs in one command.

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Config files for K3s

Where to create or edit the main configuration — paths below match the setup steps.

  • /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml

    Location: K3s server node

    Cluster kubeconfig — copy to ~/.kube/config

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Step 01

Install K3s

(01)Install single-node cluster

Linux
1curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
2sudo k3s kubectl get nodes
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Step 02

Configure K3s

(01)Use kubectl

Linux
1sudo cat /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml > ~/.kube/config
2kubectl get pods -A
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Step 03

Verify

(01)Check cluster

Linux
1kubectl get nodes
2kubectl run test --image=nginx --restart=Never