Kubernetes and platform engineering
Design, improve, and operate Kubernetes and EKS platforms with reliable deployment workflows, GitOps, observability, and practical team ownership.
Internal platform
Building a workshop Kubernetes and infrastructure platform
An internal k3s and infrastructure platform is used for iterative architecture, automation, observability, storage, node optimization, and documentation practice.
Context
Environment and why the work mattered
Internal workshop and homelab infrastructure
An internal k3s and infrastructure platform is used for iterative architecture, automation, observability, storage, node optimization, and documentation practice.
Architecture summary
Internal platform layers
A public, non-sensitive summary of the internal infrastructure layers.
- Workshop hardware
- Linux nodes
- k3s cluster
- MetalLB and ingress
- Helm workloads
- Monitoring and logs
- Documentation and rebuilds
Challenge
Problems and risks addressed
- Workshop infrastructure needs to support experimentation without being treated as client production.
- Compute, storage, management, IoT, and future tenant networks need clear separation over time.
- Rebuilds and iterative architecture require documentation and automation rather than one-off manual changes.
- Public summaries must avoid publishing exploitable network details.
Constraints
Delivery constraints and judgment calls
- The environment is internal and not equivalent to a client production estate.
- Network endpoints, private keys, and sensitive rules are not public.
- Some architecture is intentionally iterative and may change.
- The value is in experimentation, automation, and operating ownership.
Responsibilities
Nico Smuts's role
Internal experimentation that supports infrastructure automation and operating-model practice.
- Designed and iterated on the internal workshop platform.
- Used k3s, Ansible, MetalLB, Helm, Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, and persistent storage patterns.
- Documented rebuilds, infrastructure state, and future network separation.
- Used the environment to test practical automation and observability patterns.
Approach
Technical and operational approach
- Built a lightweight Kubernetes platform using k3s and supporting infrastructure automation.
- Added load-balancing, Helm-based deployment, monitoring, logging, and storage patterns.
- Documented the platform so rebuilds and architecture changes remain traceable.
- Separated public learning from private network and management details.
Deliverables
Tangible outputs
- k3s platform
- Ansible automation
- MetalLB load-balancing
- Helm deployments
- Prometheus and Grafana monitoring
- Loki logging
- Persistent storage patterns
- Infrastructure documentation
Outcomes
Verified results and public-safe outcomes
- The internal platform supports experimentation with Kubernetes and infrastructure ownership.
- Documentation and automation improve rebuildability and operational clarity.
- The environment provides a safe place to test patterns before using them in more serious contexts.
- The public case is clearly labelled as internal and not client production.
Technologies
Tools and capability areas involved
Related services
Service paths connected to this work
Related services are resolved from the centralized service catalogue.
Related work
Other case studies with overlapping patterns
Discovery
Discuss a similar problem without assuming the same result.
Every environment has different constraints. Start with the current state, risk, access model, and the operational outcome you need.