2025-12-03 Notes

December 3, 2025 · Mario Jason Braganza

Goals + Recap

Figured out every thing I needed that I needed to spin up the cluster the way I wanted it.
Apps are a different thing apparently. This now, is my next windmill to tilt at. I assumed most apps I use would have neatly created Helm packages available. There aren’t. So will learn how to convert from docker-compose to kubernetes manifests and deploy accordingly

The plan is to redo the cluster again and do my own instance of
- K3s
- Sealed Secrets
- Certmanager
- ~~Letsencrypt~~ (using pre existing Letsencrypt certs)
- Get Traefik Ingress to work
- Figure out a way to get certs automatically into the cluster
And once that is done, figure out an app to move (Miniflux or Hedgedoc?); 2025-12-03: Kanboard it is!
Begin by moving (lifting and shifting in popular parlance) Kanboard to the cluster
- Cert will probably be needed (Wildcard cert works now, just like it does without the cluster)
- Convert a docker-compose to kubernetes manifests
- Learn how to configure an app with code
- Learn how to store data and back it up
- Figure out secrets, if there are any (for now sealed secrets ok, figure out vault and vault injection later)
- Learn how to tunnel through and reverse proxy
- Make Kubernetes manifests work with flux
- Once another app is done, then start live deploys. Prototype locally and once it works, migrate to production immediately
- Convert Kubernetes manifests to Helm Charts (optional, based on energy)

Writing the recap daily helps me focus!
2025-12-03 11:54: Ok, went down a rabbit hole. I think I need to figure out how to write my own yaml
2025-12-03 12:10: Realised most code editors generate scratch manifests from templates to fill in. This should hopefully make things easier. IntelliJ Idea for e.g.¹, lets me just type in kdeployment and it creates one with the most frequent values
2025-12-03 12:44: Lunch. Think I watched enough videos to get a grasp on what I need to write. Will begin with Kanboard when I come back

Ok, back to work
2025-12-03 18:00: Been so busy, I forgot to update here
It’s been a steady iterative process. Have gotten the namespace, a configmap, a pv/pvc combo and a deployment all working for a test kanboard install
Figured out how to move the location of where my containers will store data by modifying the local path provisioner’s settings. They now save to my big hard disk
Trying to figure out how to expose the app to the outside world! (reading up tells me I need a clusterip service and a Traefik Ingress Route)
2025-12-03 19:06: It works! I think I have most of my bases covered!
2025-12-03 19:12: Stopping for the day. Time for dinner and bed. Note to Self: Can slow down to a normal routine tomorrow onwards

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