# From Zero to Hero: Getting Started with k0s and Traefik **URL:** https://community.traefik.io/t/from-zero-to-hero-getting-started-with-k0s-and-traefik/8933 **Category:** Blog **Created:** [December 8, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/from-zero-to-hero-getting-started-with-k0s-and-traefik/8933 "2020-12-08T16:31:29Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![Blog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/blog/32/4855_2.png) [@Blog](https://community.traefik.io/u/Blog) #### Post date: [December 8, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/from-zero-to-hero-getting-started-with-k0s-and-traefik/8933/1 "2020-12-08T16:31:29Z")
[K0s](https://k0sproject.io/) is a new Kubernetes distribution from Mirantis. It's similar to Rancher Labs' K3s, yet it ships with only the bare minimum of extensions. This allows flexibility for users who want to customize it to their needs by defining their own ingress, storage, and other controllers in the CRD manifest, configuring the cluster during bootstrap. In the examples below, I’ll guide you through how to accomplish getting a functioning Kubernetes cluster by: 1. Installing k0s on a clean Linux VM 2. Configuring Traefik and MetalLB as an extension 3. Starting k0s 4. Deploying the Traefik Dashboard IngressRoute and an example service ## Step 1 Before we start, you should plan to do this on a clean install of Linux, probably in a VM. You will be running k0s as a server/worker, and the worker installs components into the `/var/lib` filesystem as root (so root access is a requirement). My understanding is there are plans to allow non-root workers in the future. Hopefully, in addition to non-root, the k0s binary will allow worker installations in a configurable location. > Note: Cleanly shutting down and wiping the cluster is not a feature yet in the k0s binary. For now, rebooting the system and wiping `/var/lib/k0s` is the easiest option. Once you have a clean Linux VM (I’m using Ubuntu 20.04.1), you’ll want to install the Helm and `kubectl` binaries. ``` curl -O https://get.helm.sh/helm-v3.4.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz tar xvzf helm-v3.4.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz sudo mv linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" chmod +x kubectl sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin ``` Once those are installed, install the k0s binary, create the working directory for k0s, and create a default config. > Note: The installer and running k0s itself both require root ``` # make sure you're running as root curl -sSLf get.k0s.sh | sh # create the working directory and set the permissions mkdir -p /var/lib/k0s && chmod 755 /var/lib/k0s # create the default config k0s default-config > /var/lib/k0s/k0s.yaml ``` ## Step 2 In this step, you’ll configure Traefik and [MetalLB](https://metallb.universe.tf/) as extensions that will be installed during the cluster's bootstrap. Traefik will function as an ingress controller and MetalLB will allow you to access services from a logical IP address deployed as a [service load balancer](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/#loadbalancer). You will want to have a small range of IP addresses that are addressable on your network, preferably outside the range of your DHCP server. Modify the newly created k0s.yaml file in `/var/lib/k0s/k0s.yaml`: ``` apiVersion: k0s.k0sproject.io/v1beta1 kind: Cluster metadata: name: k0s ... extensions: helm: repositories: - name: traefik url: https://helm.traefik.io/traefik - name: bitnami url: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami charts: - name: traefik chartname: traefik/traefik version: "9.11.0" namespace: default - name: metallb chartname: bitnami/metallb version: "1.0.1" namespace: default values: |2 configInline: address-pools: - name: generic-cluster-pool protocol: layer2 addresses: - 172.16.100.215-172.16.100.220 ``` Again, be sure to provide a range of IPs for MetalLB that are addressable on your network if you want to access the LoadBalancer and Ingress services from outside this machine. ## Step 3 Now it's time to run k0s and let it automatically set up the server and worker, and deploy and configure Traefik and MetalLB: ``` cd /var/lib/k0s k0s server --enable-worker /dev/null & ``` After a minute or two, you should be able to access the cluster using the certificate generated by k0s, located in `/var/lib/k0s/pki/admin.conf`, and see that MetalLB was deployed along with the Traefik Ingress Controller. ``` root@k0s-host:/home/k0s# export KUBECONFIG=/var/lib/k0s/pki/admin.conf root@k0s-host:/home/k0s# kubectl get all NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE pod/metallb-1607085578-controller-864c9757f6-bpx6r 1/1 Running 0 81s pod/metallb-1607085578-speaker-245c2 1/1 Running 0 60s pod/traefik-1607085579-77bbc57699-b2f2t 1/1 Running 0 81s NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE service/kubernetes ClusterIP 10.96.0.1 443/TCP 96s service/traefik-1607085579 LoadBalancer 10.105.119.102 172.16.100.215 80:32153/TCP,443:30791/TCP 84s NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE NODE SELECTOR AGE daemonset.apps/metallb-1607085578-speaker 1 1 1 1 1 kubernetes.io/os=linux 87s NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE deployment.apps/metallb-1607085578-controller 1/1 1 1 87s deployment.apps/traefik-1607085579 1/1 1 1 84s NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY AGE replicaset.apps/metallb-1607085578-controller-864c9757f6 1 1 1 81s replicaset.apps/traefik-1607085579-77bbc57699 1 1 1 81s ``` Take note of the IP address assigned to the Traefik Load Balancer here: ``` NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE service/traefik-1607085579 LoadBalancer 10.105.119.102 172.16.100.215 80:32153/TCP,443:30791/TCP 84s ``` You will need the `EXTERNAL-IP` (in this case, `172.16.100.215`) later, when accessing Ingress resources on your cluster. ## Step 4 - Deploy the Traefik dashboard - Deploy the sample “whoami” service Now that you have a functional and addressable load balancer on your cluster, you can easily deploy the Traefik dashboard and access it from anywhere on your local network (provided that you configured MetalLB with an addressable range). Create the Traefik Dashboard IngressRoute in a YAML file: ``` apiVersion: traefik.containo.us/v1alpha1 kind: IngressRoute metadata: name: dashboard spec: entryPoints: - web routes: - match: PathPrefix(`/dashboard`) || PathPrefix(`/api`) kind: Rule services: - name: api@internal kind: TraefikService ``` And deploy it: ``` root@k0s-host:~# kubectl apply -f traefik-dashboard.yaml ingressroute.traefik.containo.us/dashboard created ``` You can now access it from your browser by visiting http://172.16.100.215/dashboard/: Great, now let’s deploy a simple “whoami” service. Create the `whoami` Deployment, Service, and IngressRoute manifest: ``` apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: whoami-deployment spec: replicas: 1 selector: matchLabels: app: whoami template: metadata: labels: app: whoami spec: containers: - name: whoami-container image: containous/whoami --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: whoami-service spec: ports: - name: http targetPort: 80 port: 80 selector: app: whoami --- apiVersion: traefik.containo.us/v1alpha1 kind: IngressRoute metadata: name: whoami-insecure namespace: default spec: entryPoints: - web routes: - match: Path(`/whoami`) kind: Rule services: - name: whoami-service port: 80 ``` And now, deploy and test it… ``` root@k0s-host:~# kubectl apply -f whoami.yaml deployment.apps/whoami-deployment created service/whoami-service created ingressroute.traefik.containo.us/whoami-insecure created # test the route root@k0s-host:~# curl http://172.16.100.215/whoami Hostname: whoami-deployment-85bfbd48f-7l77c IP: 127.0.0.1 IP: ::1 IP: 10.244.214.198 IP: fe80::b049:f8ff:fe77:3e64 RemoteAddr: 10.244.214.196:34858 GET /whoami HTTP/1.1 Host: 172.16.100.215 User-Agent: curl/7.68.0 Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: gzip X-Forwarded-For: 172.16.100.77 X-Forwarded-Host: 172.16.100.215 X-Forwarded-Port: 80 X-Forwarded-Proto: http X-Forwarded-Server: traefik-1607085579-77bbc57699-b2f2t X-Real-Ip: 172.16.100.77 ``` ## Summary This post covered installing k0s, setting up a fully functional Load Balancer and Ingress controller for use in your local environment. From here, you could use a tool such as [ngrok](https://ngrok.io) to expose your Load Balancer to the world and [set up Let’s Encrypt](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/v2.0/user-guides/crd-acme/) so you can provision your own SSL certificates. The design of k0s as a single binary installer that allows modular customizability makes it a unique offering in the Kubernetes community. You can learn more about how to leverage Kubernetes Ingress with Traefik on our site. In addition, you can learn more about installing k0s on [Mirantis' blog](https://www.mirantis.com/blog/how-to-set-up-k0s-kubernetes-a-quick-and-dirty-guide/). While k0s is still relatively new to the scene, I hope this post gives you an idea of what it’s capable of and how you can start experimenting with your own customized Kubernetes setup. * * * This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://traefik.io/blog/from-zero-to-hero-getting-started-with-k0s-and-traefik/](https://traefik.io/blog/from-zero-to-hero-getting-started-with-k0s-and-traefik/)