Minoko Labs

k9s displays CPU and MEM columns for pods and nodes, but on bare-metal kubeadm clusters these show “N/A” by default. This occurs because k9s relies on the Kubernetes Metrics API, which requires metrics-server to be installed. The Problem Without metrics-server: NAME CPU MEM k8s-master01 N/A N/A k8s-worker01 N/A N/A Managed Kubernetes services (EKS, GKE, AKS) typically pre-install metrics-server. Bare-metal kubeadm clusters do not include it. Solution Install metrics-server via Helm with configuration for kubeadm’s self-signed certificates. ...

I was updating my blog’s Hugo version and PaperMod theme when I realized I hadn’t touched these dependencies in months. The Hugo Docker image was 8 versions behind, and the theme had accumulated dozens of commits. Not broken, just stale. I wanted something that would automatically check for updates and create merge requests - something I could review and merge on my own schedule, without having to remember to check. ...

My homelab has a dedicated DMZ network (192.168.4.0/24) that’s physically separated from my main LAN. The only machine currently on this network is minis, a Fedora workstation that also serves as a Kubernetes node for DMZ-facing workloads. I’ve been running a basic router on this segment, but I picked up a faster unit and wanted to document the before/after performance difference. Network Topology ┌─────────────────┐ │ OPNsense │ │ Main Firewall │ └────────┬────────┘ │ ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ │ LAN │ │ WLAN │ │ DMZ │ │192.168.2.x│ │192.168.3.x│ │192.168.4.x│ └─────┬─────┘ └───────────┘ └─────┬─────┘ │ │ K8s Cluster ┌─────┴─────┐ (4 nodes) │DMZ Router │ ← Upgrading this └─────┬─────┘ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ │ minis │ │192.168.4.50│ └───────────┘ Baseline Performance (Before Upgrade) Date: 2025-12-31 Router: Netgear GS110TP (8-port Gigabit Smart Switch with PoE) Test Machine: minis (Fedora 42, connected via ethernet) ...

I’ve been using Claude Code (Anthropic’s CLI coding assistant) for a few months now, and one thing that kept bugging me was being tethered to my desk. What if I wanted to kick off a long-running task while away from my computer? Or review what Claude had done while sitting on the couch? The solution turned out to be surprisingly simple: tmux on a home server + Termius on my phone. ...

If you’re running a homelab with multiple network segments, there’s a good chance you have at least one machine connected to more than one network. Maybe your workstation has a wired connection to your DMZ and wireless to your trusted WLAN. Convenient? Yes. A potential security hole? Also yes. The Problem My workstation sits on two networks: wireless connected to my home WLAN (192.168.3.0/24) and wired into my DMZ (192.168.4.0/24). The DMZ is intentionally isolated—it’s where I run services exposed to the internet. The WLAN is where everything else lives: personal devices, management interfaces, the stuff I actually care about protecting. ...

I run a Hugo blog on my homelab Kubernetes cluster, and I wanted a proper GitOps workflow where pushing to main automatically deploys changes. No manual kubectl apply, no SSH-ing into servers, no scripts to remember. Just git push and walk away. This post covers how I set up ArgoCD to deploy this blog with automatic image updates using the ArgoCD Image Updater. The Goal ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ │ Git Push │────▶│ GitLab CI │────▶│ Container │────▶│ ArgoCD │ │ (main) │ │ (build) │ │ Registry │ │ (deploy) │ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ ▼ │ │ ┌───────────────┐ │ └─────────────▶│ Image Updater │ │ │ (detect new) │ ▼ └───────────────┘ Tags image with │ git SHA (d67fe5d) ▼ ┌───────────────┐ │ Kubernetes │ │ (updated) │ └───────────────┘ The workflow: ...

When I needed to add a node from my DMZ to my Kubernetes cluster on the LAN, I discovered OPNsense has a comprehensive REST API that lets you manage firewall rules programmatically. No clicking through the UI - just curl commands that create rules properly tracked in the configuration and included in backups. The Problem My Kubernetes cluster lives on my LAN (192.168.2.0/24), but I wanted to add a machine from my DMZ (192.168.4.0/24). By default, DMZ traffic can’t reach the LAN - that’s the whole point of a DMZ. I needed to punch specific holes for Kubernetes traffic while keeping everything else blocked. ...

If you’ve ever tried to drain a Kubernetes node in a homelab cluster and found yourself staring at a terminal that just… hangs, you’ve probably run into PodDisruptionBudget (PDB) conflicts. Here’s why it happens and how to fix it. The Problem I was upgrading my Kubernetes cluster from 1.34 to 1.35, which requires draining each node before upgrading. Simple enough, right? kubectl drain k8s-worker01 --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data And then… nothing. The command just sat there. No error, no progress, just waiting. ...

If you’ve ever run kubectl describe node on your control plane and wondered about this taint: Taints: node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane:NoSchedule Here’s what it does and why you want to keep it. What It Does This taint prevents regular pods from being scheduled on control plane nodes. Only pods that explicitly tolerate the taint can run there. Why It Matters Your control plane runs critical components: etcd - The cluster’s brain (all state lives here) kube-apiserver - The API everything talks to kube-controller-manager - Manages controllers kube-scheduler - Decides where pods run If a misbehaving application pod consumes all CPU or memory on the control plane, these components starve and your entire cluster becomes unresponsive. ...

etcd is the heart of a Kubernetes cluster - it stores all cluster state including deployments, secrets, configmaps, and PVC definitions. Losing etcd means losing your entire cluster configuration. Yet many homelab setups neglect etcd backups until it’s too late. This post walks through setting up automated etcd backups using a Kubernetes CronJob that uploads snapshots to MinIO. The Challenge etcd runs as a static pod on the control plane node, which makes backing it up trickier than a regular application: ...