Environments

This is a home Kubernetes lab setup with a single dev environment.

Environment Structure

cluster/
└── dev/
    ├── config.yaml           # Dev environment config
    └── argocd-values.yaml    # ArgoCD Helm values

Configuration Files

cluster/dev/config.yaml

clusterEnv: dev
clusterPath: cluster/dev

repoURL: https://github.com/simran2491/k8s-playground-cluster
targetRevision: main

argocd:
  version: "9.4.10"

apps:
  argocd-project:
    enabled: true

  namespace-manager:
    enabled: true
    destinationNamespace: default

  cert-manager:
    enabled: true
    version: "1.17.2"

  metallb:
    enabled: true
    version: "0.14.8"

  nginx-ingress:
    enabled: true
    version: "4.11.3"

  external-dns:
    enabled: true
    version: "1.15.0"
    provider: cloudflare
    domain: ssdk8s.xyz

  cluster-configs:
    enabled: true

  local-path-provisioner:
    enabled: true
    version: "v0.0.34"

  kube-prometheus-stack:
    enabled: true
    version: "68.0.0"

  loki:
    enabled: true
    version: "6.55.0"

  grafana-alloy:
    enabled: true
    version: "0.10.0"

  istio:
    enabled: true
    version: "1.24.0"

  gatekeeper:
    enabled: true
    version: "3.22.0"

  gatekeeper-policies:
    enabled: true

  pi-hole:
    enabled: true
    destinationNamespace: pihole

  sealed-secrets:
    enabled: true
    version: "2.18.4"

  # promtail:
  #   enabled: true
  #   version: "6.17.1"

  # prometheus-operator-crds:
  #   enabled: true
  #   version: "27.0.0"

  # grafana:
  #   enabled: true
  #   version: "8.5.0"

Key Configuration Options

Field	Description
clusterEnv	Environment identifier (dev)
clusterPath	Path to environment config directory
repoURL	Git repository URL
targetRevision	Git branch or tag to deploy
argocd.version	ArgoCD Helm chart version
apps.<name>.enabled	Enable/disable specific app
apps.<name>.version	App-specific Helm chart version
apps.<name>.destinationNamespace	Target namespace for the app

Environment Configuration

This is a home lab setup with two environments:

Dev Environment (Production-Ready)

Feature	Configuration
Purpose	Primary environment for all workloads
Domain	ssdk8s.xyz
TLS	Let's Encrypt production
Monitoring	Full Prometheus + Grafana stack
Logging	Loki + Grafana Alloy
Ad-blocking	Pi-hole for network-wide ad blocking
Service Mesh	Istio for traffic management
Policy Engine	OPA Gatekeeper for admission control
Secret Management	Sealed Secrets for GitOps workflows

QA Environment (Minimal)

Feature	Configuration
Purpose	Testing environment with minimal components
Components	ArgoCD, cert-manager, MetalLB, NGINX Ingress
Domain	Not configured yet
TLS	Let's Encrypt (cert-manager ready)
Monitoring	Not enabled
Logging	Not enabled

The QA environment currently includes:

• ArgoCD Repos
• namespace-manager
• cert-manager (v1.17.2)
• MetalLB (v0.14.8)
• NGINX Ingress (v4.11.3)
• cluster-configs

Deploying to Environments

Deploy to Dev

make deploy ENV=dev

Deploy Specific Version

make deploy ENV=dev VERSION=v1.0.0

Environment-Specific Values

App-specific values can override defaults:

config/
└── dev/
    └── applications/
        ├── namespace-manager-values.yaml
        └── my-app-values.yaml

Example: Different Image Tags

config/dev/applications/my-app-values.yaml:

image:
  repository: myorg/my-app
  tag: latest
replicaCount: 1

config/qa/applications/my-app-values.yaml:

image:
  repository: myorg/my-app
  tag: v1.2.0
replicaCount: 2

Best Practices

1. Version pinning - Pin chart versions for reproducibility
2. GitOps workflow - Always use Git tags for deployments
3. Secret management - Keep secrets out of Git, use Kubernetes secrets or external secret managers
4. Resource limits - Set appropriate resource requests and limits for home hardware
5. Regular backups - Backup etcd and critical application data