Stop Avoiding Kubernetes - Set Up a K3S Cluster at Home

Thanks to Plura.sh for sponsoring this video! Book a demo or try it out at https://plural.sh Kubernetes always looked way too complicated to me - until I actually sat down and set it up. In this video I spin up a full K3S cluster across three Zimaboard 2s, deploy a workload, and show off the load balancing, self-healing, and scaling that makes Kubernetes worth learning. Whether you're studying for a DevOps role or just want to tinker, your home lab is the cheapest and lowest pressure place to start. Full written guide with all the commands linked below. 📖 RESOURCES Written Guide: https://techhut.tv/kubernetes-homelab-k3s-cluster 🏆 FOLLOW TECHHUT X (Twitter): https://bit.ly/twitter-techhut MASTODON: https://bit.ly/mastodon-techhut BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/techhut.bsky.social INSTAGRAM: https://bit.ly/personal-insta 👏 SUPPORT TECHHUT (all links below this line will earn us commission) BUY A COFFEE: https://buymeacoffee.com/techhut YOUTUBE MEMBER: https://bit.ly/members-techhut —PAID/AFFILIATE LINKS BELOW— 🛎 RECOMMENDED SERVICES VPN I USE: https://airvpn.org/?referred_by=673908 📷 MY GEAR HARD DRIVES: https://serverpartdeals.com/techhut MinisForum Tablet: https://amzn.to/3SeMmds Beelink N200: https://amzn.to/3xZjeQs Raspberry Pi 5: https://amzn.to/4f3yUCN Q1 HE QMK Custom Keyboard: https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q1-he-qmk-wireless-custom-keyboar?ref=techhut ASUS ProArt Display: https://amzn.to/4i4cAKz 0:00 - Kubernetes in the Home Lab 0:46 - K8s vs Docker Compose - Which Should You Use? 1:17 - Hardware Overview: Zimaboard 2 2:12 - Sponsor: Plural 3:48 - Kubernetes Concepts Explained (Nodes, Pods, Services) 4:55 - What is K3S? 5:46 - Prep: Ubuntu & Static IPs on Each Node 6:15 - Installing K3S on the Server Node 6:58 - Getting the Node Token 7:27 - Joining the Agent Nodes to the Cluster 8:24 - Cluster is Up! 9:09 - Deploying Nginx Across All Three Nodes 10:47 - Applying the Deployment YAML 11:55 - Checking Pods, Services & Logs 12:30 - Load Balancing Demo 13:47 - Scaling Pods Up and Down 14:33 - Self-Healing Demo 15:11 - Unplugging a Node (Live Failover Test) 16:32 - Draining a Node Gracefully 17:55 - Wrap Up