Tweakers · Technologie

Kubernetes from scratch: Alain's 'hard way' in the meter cupboard

At the Tweakers Developers Summit 2026, Alain will share his experience building a Kubernetes cluster from bare metal at home, emphasizing understanding the underlying technology.

Alain built a Kubernetes cluster from scratch in his meter cupboard, bypassing tools like kubeadm and managed cloud services to understand its inner workings.

He installed Alpine Linux, configured virtualization, networking, storage (Ceph), and monitoring manually. This 'hard way' took about two years, inspired by 'Kubernetes the Hard Way'.

A key insight is Kubernetes' reliance on the OS. Containers are managed by the Linux kernel, and hardware drivers must be installed at the OS level.

Alain contrasts this with HPC schedulers, noting Kubernetes' marketing versus technical reality. Distinguishing layers is crucial for troubleshooting.

The home cluster, running for six years, hosts various services, including a critical DHCP server for his family. Maintenance is an ongoing learning process.

His talk targets developers wanting to understand Kubernetes' underlying components, like the control plane and Linux kernel interaction.

The session is for the curious about hardware and Linux, not for quick cluster deployment. Alain's message: 'If you want to know how Kubernetes works, build it yourself.'

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