Hey everyone! I'm looking into self-hosting k3s on the Hetzner CCX23 server. I want to keep costs down as I start this journey but I also aim to create a reliable Kubernetes cluster. I'm planning on hosting a database on it too. Can anyone share their thoughts on how challenging this might be and what kind of maintenance effort I should expect?
5 Answers
Hey OP! I suggest checking out the 'awesome hcloud' GitHub page. It's a goldmine of resources for Hetzner users. You might also get some good insights by posting in the unofficial r/hetzner subreddit where folks have a ton of experience with this stuff.
I’ve set up k3s with the official k3s-ansible method, and I even created a wrapper that includes Helm for easier management. There are also other great options like k3sup and the vitobotta's hetzner-k3s project if you need alternatives.
The difficulty really varies based on your level of experience. For maintenance, that also hinges on what else you deploy besides the cluster. Using solutions like 'terraform-hcloud-kube-hetzner' can automate a lot of tasks like OS updates and Kubernetes upgrades. But about CCX23 being sufficient, I found it might be a bit short on resources, especially if you want to run a functional cluster.
Thanks for the input! I previously tried a managed cluster with Digital Ocean and it worked decently for what I needed, but now I might simplify things with just a VPS.
I run a small cluster using KubeOne, and I highly recommend it. It handles a lot of integrations out of the box and supports private networking. However, the documentation might not cover all the details, so feel free to check out my config for some guidance!
Setting up k3s is a breeze with the 'hetzner-k3s'. It's really straightforward and user-friendly!
Thanks for the tip!