homelab-gitops

About #

You might've seen my blog on my home server, but probably not. So, I started my home server back in 2022. At first, whenever I wanted to set up an app, my first choice of deploying things was a docker-compose.yaml. It's really simple, my favorite thing about it is where I can mount the configuration of a particular app, in a specified directory. I usually put it in the same directory as the docker-compose.yaml, and it makes backing up really easy. I can just get entire directory, put it on another machine, run docker compose up -d and voilà, the same app with the exact configuration just works.

Why Kubernetes? #

You may wonder: if a simple docker-compose.yaml works, why move on to really complex, production-grade tools like Kubernetes? Do I need 99.6969% uptime? No. Is a simple docker-compose.yaml reliable enough for my needs? Yes. Then why did I move? The answer is probably boring for you: learning and job relevance.

What really drove me to migrate to Kubernetes was a video by Mischa van den Burg. Basically, he said that his homelab is a project that he can show when applying for jobs.

Not only that, I think Kubernetes is a necessary tool to learn when it comes to making scalable apps these days. This is a great way for me to learn through my small homelab.