Setting Up K3s Using k3sup - The Easy Way

Hello! I'm going to show you how to set up a lightweight Kubernetes cluster using K3s and k3sup (pronounced "ketchup"). This is way easier than manually SSH-ing and running init commands on your server.

I use k3s as a lightweight alternative to stock Kubernetes. It's great for small clusters - such as the one I host on Hetzner.

Prerequisites

A remote server (I'm using a $10 Hetzner server, but you can use any provider you like)
SSH access to your server (You must be able to ssh into your remote machine)

Installing k3sup Locally

First, grab k3sup using this command:

curl -sLS https://get.k3sup.dev | sh
sudo install k3sup /usr/local/bin/

Setting Up K3s Server

Here's how to install K3s on your remote server:

export IP=<your-server-ip>
k3sup install --ip $IP --user root

That's literally it. k3sup will SSH into your server, install K3s, and download the kubeconfig file to your local machine.

Testing Your Cluster

Let's make sure everything's working:

export KUBECONFIG=/Users/$(whoami)/kubeconfig
kubectl get nodes

You should see your node listed as READY. Pretty cool, right?

Why This is Awesome

K3s is perfect for dev environments and small projects because:

It's super lightweight (< 100MB binary)
Single binary installation
Low memory footprint
Perfect for edge computing and IoT

Next Steps

Now you can start deploying your apps! Here's a quick test deployment:

kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx
kubectl expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer
kubectl get svc

Also, if you interact with multiple k8s clusters, remember to name the context something unique.

Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong, check these common issues:

Make sure port 6443 is open on your server
Verify your SSH key permissions are correct
Check the K3s service status with systemctl status k3s

Happy clustering 🚀

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dyllon