Basic Kubernetes Concepts ✅ Mastered
Started with fundamental K8s concepts - Pods, Services, Deployments, and ConfigMaps. Built my first clusters and understood the orchestration magic.
Application Deployments ✅ Mastered
Deployed real applications like NextCloud, WordPress, Ghost CMS, and Bitwarden. Learned about persistent storage, networking, and service discovery.
Monitoring & Observability ✅ Mastered
Implemented Prometheus stack for comprehensive monitoring. Added Grafana dashboards, alerting rules, and learned about cloud-native observability.
GitOps & Automation 🔄 Exploring
Currently diving deep into ArgoCD for GitOps workflows. Building CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment strategies with Skaffold.
Advanced Networking 🔄 Exploring
Experimenting with Ingress controllers, service meshes, and network policies. Understanding CNI plugins and cluster networking patterns.
Security & Compliance 📅 Planned
Next phase focuses on Pod Security Standards, RBAC implementation, secrets management, and vulnerability scanning workflows.
Multi-Cluster Management 📅 Planned
Planning to explore cluster federation, multi-cluster deployments, and disaster recovery strategies across different environments.
🎬 ArgoCD GitOps Workflow Demo
(Live from my homelab)
📚 Continuous Learning Philosophy
Every project in this repository represents a step in my Kubernetes mastery journey. I believe in hands-on learning - building real applications, breaking things, fixing them, and documenting the entire process. Each failure teaches more than any documentation ever could!
📖 Personal Knowledge Base
I maintain a detailed wiki at read.helixx.cloud running on my homelab (99.99% uptime!). It contains in-depth guides, troubleshooting notes, and detailed playbooks for every experiment in this repository.
🌐 Web Applications 6 Projects
Production-ready web applications deployed with persistent storage, proper networking, and monitoring.
- NextCloud - Personal cloud storage with PostgreSQL backend
- WordPress - Content management with MySQL and Redis caching
- Ghost CMS - Modern publishing platform with SQLite
- Nginx-App - Custom web application with reverse proxy
- FreshRSS - Self-hosted RSS aggregator
- Pi-hole - Network-wide ad blocking DNS server
🔐 Security & Tools 4 Projects
Security-focused applications and developer tools for enhanced productivity and protection.
- Bitwarden - Password manager with HA configuration
- WireGuard - VPN server for secure remote access
- Shiori Bookmarks - Bookmark manager with full-text search
- Joplin - Note-taking application with synchronization
📊 Monitoring & Analytics 3 Projects
Comprehensive observability stack for cluster monitoring, logging, and performance analysis.
- Prometheus Stack - Complete monitoring with Grafana dashboards
- Splunk - Log aggregation and security information management
- MetalLB - Load balancer for bare-metal clusters
🚀 DevOps & Automation 5 Projects
GitOps workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure automation tools.
- Skaffold Deployments - Development workflow automation
- K3s Setup - Lightweight Kubernetes installation scripts
- K3s Updates - Automated cluster upgrade procedures
- Cluster Setup - Multi-node cluster bootstrapping
- HPA Templates - Horizontal Pod Autoscaler configurations
🔬 Experimental Projects ∞ Growing
Cutting-edge technologies and proof-of-concept implementations for learning and testing.
- ArgoCD GitOps - Declarative application delivery
- Service Mesh - Istio/Linkerd experimentation
- Chaos Engineering - Resilience testing frameworks
- Multi-Cluster - Federation and cross-cluster communication
🔧 Utilities & Scripts Multiple
Helper scripts, utilities, and automation tools that make Kubernetes management easier.
- Installation Scripts - Automated setup procedures
- Backup Solutions - Persistent data protection
- Health Checks - Cluster monitoring utilities
- Debug Tools - Troubleshooting and diagnostics
🎯 Project Philosophy
Each project serves a dual purpose: solving real problems and learning new concepts. I don't just deploy applications - I understand their architecture, optimize their performance, secure their communications, and monitor their health. Every deployment is a lesson in Kubernetes best practices.
🏗️ Orchestration
Container orchestration and cluster management
🚀 GitOps & CD
Continuous delivery and declarative deployments
🌐 Networking
Load balancing, ingress, and service mesh
📊 Monitoring
Observability, metrics, and alerting
💾 Storage
Persistent storage and data management
🔐 Security
Authentication, authorization, and policy enforcement
🎓 Technology Selection Criteria
Every tool in my stack is chosen for learning value and real-world applicability. I prioritize cloud-native technologies that are widely adopted in production environments, ensuring my skills remain relevant and transferable.
🔄 Continuous Evolution
My tech stack evolves with the Kubernetes ecosystem. As new technologies mature and become production-ready, I integrate them into my learning environment. The "upcoming" tools represent my next learning targets based on industry trends and community adoption.
🧪 Current Experiments
Active research and testing of cutting-edge Kubernetes technologies.
- ArgoCD ApplicationSets - Multi-cluster app management
- Crossplane - Infrastructure as Code via K8s APIs
- Cilium CNI - eBPF-based networking and security
- Knative - Serverless workloads on Kubernetes
🔬 Proof of Concepts
Small-scale implementations to validate concepts before full deployment.
- Multi-tenancy - Namespace isolation strategies
- Disaster Recovery - Backup and restore procedures
- Auto-scaling - HPA and VPA configurations
- Cost Optimization - Resource efficiency testing
💡 Future Explorations
Technologies on my roadmap for upcoming learning phases.
- WebAssembly - WASM workloads in Kubernetes
- Edge Computing - K3s at the edge
- ML Workflows - Kubeflow and ML pipelines
- Blockchain - Distributed ledger applications
apply -f experiment-namespace.yaml
apply -f test-deployment.yaml
get pods -w # Watch for behavior
logs -f deployment/test-app
describe pod # Analyze results
🔬 Experimental Methodology
Every experiment follows a structured approach: hypothesis → implementation → testing → documentation → lessons learned. I maintain detailed notes about what works, what doesn't, and why. Failed experiments are just as valuable as successful ones!
⚠️ Homelab Testing Ground
My homelab serves as a safe space for breaking things. I can test destructive operations, security exploits, and experimental configurations without fear. If something goes wrong, it's a learning opportunity, not a production incident!
📚 Learning Materials
Curated resources that have shaped my Kubernetes understanding.
- Kubernetes Documentation - Official reference and tutorials
- CNCF Landscape - Cloud-native technology overview
- Kubernetes the Hard Way - Deep cluster understanding
- Production Kubernetes - Best practices guide
🛠️ Essential Tools
Command-line tools and utilities that make K8s management efficient.
- kubectx/kubens - Context and namespace switching
- k9s - Terminal-based cluster management
- lens - Visual cluster inspection
- stern - Multi-pod log tailing
🌐 Community Resources
Online communities and platforms for continuous learning.
- r/kubernetes - Reddit community discussions
- CNCF Slack - Real-time community support
- KubeCon Talks - Conference presentations
- Kubernetes Blog - Official updates and guides
📖 Personal Wiki & Documentation
My comprehensive knowledge base at read.helixx.cloud contains:
- Detailed Installation Guides - Step-by-step procedures
- Troubleshooting Playbooks - Common issues and solutions
- Architecture Diagrams - Visual system representations
- Lessons Learned - Insights from failed experiments
- Best Practices - Production-ready patterns
🔗 Useful Commands
get all --all-namespaces
# Resource consumption
top nodes && kubectl top pods
# Debug networking
run debug --image=nicolaka/netshoot -it --rm
🎯 Continuous Learning Goals
My learning never stops. Current focus areas include GitOps at scale, advanced networking, and platform engineering. Each project in this repository builds toward these larger objectives while solving immediate practical problems.