Split setup into 2 phases and updated docs

2026-08-19 00:03:05 +01:00 · 2026-08-19 00:03:05 +01:00 · a3cfba3d6a
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+# Quickstart: manual cluster (no Terraform)
+
+Gets a real k3s cluster running today, by hand, so you can learn/practice
+Flux and GitOps immediately instead of waiting on the Terraform/libvirt
+provider work in `docs/SETUP.md` to be sorted out. One throwaway VM, created
+directly with `virt-install` rather than the `dmacvicar/libvirt` Terraform
+provider. When the Terraform track is ready, tear this down (last section)
+and provision the "real" 3-node cluster properly instead.
+
+Shares steps 1–4 of `docs/SETUP.md` as prerequisites — do those first if you
+haven't:
+- Step 1: KVM/libvirt installed on the T630.
+- Step 2: the unprivileged `k8s` user exists, with `~/.ssh/k3s_homelab`
+  generated.
+- Step 3: `openssl rand -hex 32` isn't needed here (no agents joining, so no
+  cluster token) — skip it.
+- Step 4: `cloud-demo` pushed to Forgejo, with the `flux-write` token
+  generated.
+
+Everything below runs as `k8s` on the T630 (`sudo -iu k8s`).
+
+## 1. Create the VM
+
+```sh
+mkdir -p ~/vms
+curl -L -o ~/vms/noble-base.img \
+  https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
+
+# a writable overlay on top of the base image, sized up to 20G
+qemu-img create -f qcow2 -F qcow2 -b ~/vms/noble-base.img ~/vms/k3s-manual.qcow2 20G
+```
+
+Write the cloud-init user-data — paste in the contents of
+`~/.ssh/k3s_homelab.pub` where marked:
+
+```sh
+cat > ~/vms/k3s-manual-user-data.yaml <<'EOF'
+#cloud-config
+hostname: k3s-manual
+manage_etc_hosts: true
+
+users:
+  - name: k3s
+    groups: sudo
+    shell: /bin/bash
+    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
+    ssh_authorized_keys:
+      - PASTE ~/.ssh/k3s_homelab.pub CONTENTS HERE
+
+package_update: true
+packages:
+  - curl
+
+runcmd:
+  - curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -s - server
+  - mkdir -p /home/k3s/.kube
+  - k3s kubectl config view --raw > /home/k3s/.kube/config
+  - chown -R k3s:k3s /home/k3s/.kube
+EOF
+```
+
+This is a single, standalone server — no join token, no agents, no custom
+network (uses libvirt's default NAT network + DHCP). A k3s server node
+schedules workloads on itself by default, so this alone is a complete,
+usable cluster.
+
+```sh
+virt-install \
+  --name k3s-manual \
+  --memory 2048 \
+  --vcpus 2 \
+  --disk ~/vms/k3s-manual.qcow2 \
+  --import \
+  --os-variant ubuntu24.04 \
+  --network network=default \
+  --cloud-init user-data=~/vms/k3s-manual-user-data.yaml \
+  --graphics none \
+  --noautoconsole
+```
+
+## 2. Find its IP and get kubectl talking to it
+
+Give cloud-init ~2 minutes to finish installing k3s after the VM boots.
+
+```sh
+virsh domifaddr k3s-manual   # note the IP under the default network
+
+ssh k3s@<VM_IP> sudo cat /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml \
+  | sed "s/127.0.0.1/<VM_IP>/" > ~/.kube/config-manual
+
+export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config-manual
+kubectl get nodes   # expect 1 Ready node
+```
+
+## 3. Bootstrap Flux against Forgejo
+
+Same repo, same token, same target path as the full guide would use —
+nothing about this is cluster-specific:
+
+```sh
+flux bootstrap git \
+  --url=https://git.boglabob.com/codegit/cloud-demo \
+  --branch=main \
+  --path=clusters/homelab \
+  --username=codegit \
+  --password=<FLUX_WRITE_TOKEN> \
+  --token-auth \
+  --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config-manual
+```
+
+## 4. Continue with the shared steps
+
+From here, `docs/SETUP.md` steps 8 onward apply exactly as written,
+regardless of how the cluster was created — verifying the podinfo GitOps
+loop, registering the Forgejo Actions runner, exposing apps through Caddy,
+the Dashboard, remote kubectl access. Just use `~/.kube/config-manual` as
+the kubeconfig throughout instead of the Terraform-provisioned one.
+
+## Tearing this down
+
+Once the Terraform track in `docs/SETUP.md` is ready and you `tofu apply`
+the real 3-node cluster, remove this one:
+
+```sh
+# as k8s
+virsh destroy k3s-manual              # stop it
+virsh undefine k3s-manual --remove-all-storage   # delete VM + its disk
+rm ~/.kube/config-manual
+rm -rf ~/vms
+```
+
+Nothing else needs cleaning up — Flux's state lived entirely inside that
+VM's cluster and goes away with it. The Forgejo repo, deploy tokens, and
+the Forgejo Actions runner registration are all cluster-independent and
+carry over to the real cluster unchanged; just re-run `flux bootstrap`
+against its kubeconfig once it's up.