This guide sets up a full Kubernetes L&D environment on a single high-performance VM using Minikube, CRI-O, in-cluster Caddy ingress with wildcard DNS, Ceph storage via Rook, and monitoring stack with Prometheus + Grafana.
---
## 📦 System Requirements
| Component | Specs |
|----------|-------|
| CPU | 16 cores |
| RAM | 64 GB |
| Disk | 1 TB NVMe (extensible) |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS |
| Domain | sudo-samurai.com (wildcard A record) |
| DNS | AWS Route 53 |
---
## 🧰 Tech Stack
- Minikube (Kubernetes Lab)
- CRI-O (Container Runtime)
- Caddy (Ingress Controller inside Kubernetes)
- Let's Encrypt with Wildcard DNS via Route 53
- Rook-Ceph for dynamic PVs
- Prometheus + Grafana for monitoring
---
## ☁️ DNS Setup in Route 53
Add a wildcard A record:
```
*.sudo-samurai.com → <Minikube VM Public IP>
```
Create an IAM user in AWS with Route 53 DNS permissions and note the `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` and `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`.
---
## 🚀 Installation Steps
> **Run the setup script included in this package**: [`setup.sh`](./setup.sh)
It installs:
- CRI-O
- kubectl, Helm, Minikube
- Starts Minikube with CRI-O
- Deploys Ceph (Rook)
- Sets up Grafana + Prometheus
- Installs Caddy as a Kubernetes Ingress Controller (wildcard SSL via Route 53)
---
## 🔑 AWS Credentials Secret
The script will prompt you to create a secret like:
```bash
kubectl create secret generic route53-credentials \
--from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=YOUR_KEY \
--from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=YOUR_SECRET \
-n caddy-system
```
---
## 🌐 Sample Ingress for Grafana
```yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: grafana-ingress
namespace: monitoring
annotations:
caddy.ingress.k8s.io/host: grafana.sudo-samurai.com
spec:
rules:
- host: grafana.sudo-samurai.com
http:
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: kube-prometheus-grafana
port:
number: 80
```
You can similarly create Ingress rules for Jenkins, GitLab, or any custom app.
---
## 🔐 Optional: Basic Auth with Caddy
Caddy supports HTTP Basic Auth via `basicauth` directive. This is not included by default in the Helm chart but can be added with Caddyfile extensions.
---
## ✅ Final Checks
| Step | Description |
|------|-------------|
| ✅ | DNS wildcard A-record set |
| ✅ | AWS IAM user created |
| ✅ | Minikube cluster started with CRI-O |
| ✅ | Caddy Ingress deployed in Kubernetes |
| ✅ | Rook-Ceph installed and working |
| ✅ | Prometheus + Grafana installed |
| ✅ | Services exposed via Ingress |
---
Happy hacking with your fully automated, production-like K8s lab 🎉