Prerequisites for Bare-Metal K3s Homelab

Prerequisites

Before provisioning the bare-metal K3s cluster, set up your local operator workstation and verify target node access.

Step 1: Install workstation tooling

Ensure your local workstation has the necessary automation and Kubernetes management tools installed:

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install ansible kubectl helm pre-commit

Linux (APT)

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y curl git ansible kubectl helm pre-commit

Dev Container Workstation

Alternatively, run the repo’s containerized workstation environment:

./scripts/dev-container.sh up
./scripts/dev-container.sh shell

Step 2: Configure SSH access to the host

Ansible manages bare-metal nodes over SSH. Generate an SSH key pair if you do not already have one:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "homelab-admin"

Copy your public key to the target node legion (100.66.139.118 or your LAN IP):

ssh-copy-id sudhanva@100.66.139.118

Verify passwordless sudo on the target host by adding the user to sudoers:

sudo usermod -aG sudo sudhanva
echo "sudhanva ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/sudhanva

Step 3: Gather account credentials

Have the following credentials ready for platform integration:

• Tailscale: An OAuth client secret with permissions to manage Tailscale devices and Kubernetes operator resources.
• Cloudflare: An API token with Zone.DNS edit permissions for your managed domain (sudhanva.me).
• GitHub: A personal access token for Git authentication and ArgoCD Image Updater write-back.

Step 4: Next steps

Once your workstation tools and target host SSH access are verified, proceed to:

• Prepare the bare-metal machine in Host Preparation.
• Configure Ansible variables in Ansible Configuration.
• Bootstrap the cluster in K3s Bootstrap.