homelab/README.md

Homelab — k3s Cluster

2-node k3s cluster (1 control-plane, 1 worker) running a self-hosted homelab stack on ratboo.me.

Architecture

Nodes

Node	Role	OS	IP	Runtime
localhost.localdomain (dogbox)	control-plane	Fedora Linux 43 (Server Edition)	10.0.1.2	k3s v1.34.6 + containerd
lima-mac-worker	worker	Ubuntu 25.10 (Lima VM on macOS)	10.0.1.58	k3s v1.34.6 + containerd

Overview

                          Internet
                             │
                     Cloudflare DNS
                      *.ratboo.me
                             │
  ┌──────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┐
  │            localhost.localdomain (dogbox)             │
  │               Fedora 43 · 10.0.1.2                   │
  │                                                      │
  │  ┌─────────────────┐   ┌──────────────────────┐     │
  │  │  k3s server      │   │  Traefik (k3s)       │     │
  │  │  control-plane   │   │  :443 websecure      │     │
  │  └─────────────────┘   │  Let's Encrypt + CF   │     │
  │                         └──────────┬───────────┘     │
  │  ┌──────────────────┐             │                  │
  │  │ traefik-internal  │  Routes to pods across        │
  │  │ :80/:443 MetalLB  │  both nodes via CNI           │
  │  │ LB 10.0.1.250    │             │                  │
  │  └──────────────────┘             │                  │
  └───────────────┬───────────────────┼──────────────────┘
                  │                   │
             NFS /dogstore       k3s cluster
                  │                   │
  ┌───────────────┴───────────────────┼──────────────────┐
  │              lima-mac-worker (worker)                  │
  │         Ubuntu 25.10 · Lima VM on macOS               │
  │                    10.0.1.58                          │
  │                                                       │
  │              workload pods                            │
  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Networking

Public ingress — k3s bundles Traefik, configured via HelmChartConfig in traefik-config. TLS terminates at Traefik using Let's Encrypt with Cloudflare DNS-01 challenge. HTTP automatically redirects to HTTPS. klipper (servicelb) exposes the public Traefik on every node IP.

Public hostname	Service
plex.ratboo.me	Plex
watch.ratboo.me	Seerr
paperless.ratboo.me	Paperless-ngx
mealie.ratboo.me	Mealie

Internal ingress — A separate Traefik instance (traefik-internal) listens on 10.0.1.250 (ports 80 and 443), served by MetalLB L2. A DNS rewrite points *.internal to that IP. Internal services use Traefik IngressRoute CRDs with ingressClass: traefik-internal. Every service with a *-ingressroute.yaml template gets an *.dog hostname on this Traefik.

Internal hostname	Service
plex.dog	Plex
sonarr.dog	Sonarr
radarr.dog	Radarr
bazarr.dog	Bazarr
prowlarr.dog	Prowlarr
qbittorrent.dog	qBittorrent
seerr.dog	Seerr
paperless.dog	Paperless-ngx
mealie.dog	Mealie
homepage.dog	Homepage
glance.dog	Glance
headlamp.dog	Headlamp
zerobyte.dog	Zerobyte

No ingress: unpackerr (background download-extraction daemon, no web UI).

Storage

Mechanism	Use
NFS via hostPath /dogstore	Large/shared data — Plex media + transcode, Sonarr/Radarr/qBittorrent/unpackerr data trees, Paperless documents, Homepage/Glance configs, ACME cert storage
hostPath /home/alvin/service-data	App config directories on dogbox (Seerr, etc.)
local-path (default StorageClass)	k3s built-in provisioner for any PVCs (rancher.io/local-path)

Secrets

SOPS + age encryption. All secrets live in secrets/secrets.enc.yaml, encrypted at rest. The age key lives at /etc/sops/age/keys.txt on each node. Referenced secrets include Cloudflare API tokens, database passwords, Plex claim tokens, and application API keys.

Namespaces

Namespace	Contents
kube-system	k3s Traefik + traefik-config (HelmChartConfig + redirect middleware), traefik-internal, MetalLB controller + speakers, CoreDNS, metrics-server
media	Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, unpackerr, Seerr
apps	Paperless-ngx + Postgres + Redis, Mealie, Homepage, Glance, Headlamp, Zerobyte

Services

Chart	Namespace	Services	Notes
traefik-config	kube-system	Traefik HelmChartConfig overlay	Cloudflare DNS-01, ACME on hostPath /dogstore
traefik-internal	kube-system	Internal Traefik instance	LB via MetalLB at 10.0.1.250, ports 80/443/9095
metallb	kube-system	MetalLB L2 pool	Single-IP pool (10.0.1.250) for internal LB
media	media	Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, unpackerr, Seerr	Media stack with /dogstore data paths
paperless	apps	Paperless-ngx, Redis, PostgreSQL	Postgres 15, Redis 7
mealie	apps	Mealie (v3.16.0)	Gemini API integration for recipes
dashboards	apps	Homepage, Glance	Internal-only via traefik-internal
headlamp	apps	Headlamp	K8s dashboard, internal-only via traefik-internal
utils	apps	Zerobyte	Backup service, internal-only via traefik-internal

Prerequisites

• Two Linux machines with NFS /dogstore mounted on both
• curl, helm, kubectl, sops, age installed

Bootstrap

1. Install k3s server (manager node)

./scripts/bootstrap.sh server

This prints the worker join command at the end.

2. Install k3s agent (worker node)

K3S_URL="https://<manager-ip>:6443" K3S_TOKEN="<token>" ./scripts/bootstrap.sh agent

3. Set up SOPS encryption

Generate an age keypair (run on each node):

./scripts/bootstrap.sh sops-keygen

Copy the public key into .sops.yaml, replacing the placeholder. Then encrypt your secrets:

# Edit secrets/secrets.enc.yaml — replace REPLACE_WITH_* placeholders with real values
sops -e -i secrets/secrets.enc.yaml

4. Apply secrets

./scripts/bootstrap.sh apply-secrets

5. Deploy MetalLB and internal Traefik (manual)

These are deployed separately before the main charts because other services depend on them:

helm dependency build charts/metallb
helm upgrade --install metallb charts/metallb -n kube-system --wait
helm upgrade --install traefik-internal charts/traefik-internal -n kube-system --wait

6. Deploy all application charts

./scripts/bootstrap.sh deploy

This installs (in order): traefik-config, media, paperless, mealie, dashboards, utils, headlamp.

Or deploy individually:

# Traefik config goes in kube-system (managed by k3s)
helm upgrade --install traefik-config charts/traefik-config -n kube-system

kubectl create namespace apps
helm upgrade --install headlamp charts/headlamp -n apps
helm upgrade --install dashboards charts/dashboards -n apps
helm upgrade --install paperless charts/paperless -n apps
helm upgrade --install mealie charts/mealie -n apps
helm upgrade --install utils charts/utils -n apps

kubectl create namespace media
helm upgrade --install media charts/media -n media

Optional: Install Longhorn

The bootstrap script includes a Longhorn install command, but it is not currently deployed:

./scripts/bootstrap.sh longhorn

Verifying

# Check all pods
kubectl get pods -A

# Check ingress routes
kubectl get ingress -A
kubectl get ingressroute -A

# Test a specific service
curl -I https://mealie.ratboo.me

Secret Rotation

1. Decrypt: sops secrets/secrets.enc.yaml (opens in $EDITOR)
2. Change the values
3. Save and close (SOPS re-encrypts automatically)
4. Apply: ./scripts/bootstrap.sh apply-secrets
5. Restart affected pods: kubectl rollout restart deployment/<name> -n <namespace>

Repo Structure

homelab/
├── README.md
├── AGENTS.md
├── .sops.yaml
├── scripts/
│   └── bootstrap.sh
├── charts/
│   ├── traefik-config/      # k3s Traefik overrides (HelmChartConfig)
│   ├── traefik-internal/    # Separate internal Traefik instance
│   ├── metallb/             # MetalLB L2 for internal LB IP
│   ├── media/               # Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, unpackerr, Seerr
│   ├── paperless/           # Paperless-ngx + Postgres + Redis
│   ├── mealie/              # Mealie recipe manager
│   ├── dashboards/          # Homepage + Glance (internal only)
│   ├── headlamp/            # Headlamp K8s dashboard (internal only)
│   └── utils/               # Zerobyte backup
└── secrets/
    └── secrets.enc.yaml