Install K3s

Set up the kubernetes cluster

1. Intro

In this documentation, you’ll learn how to install K3s and set up your Kubernetes cluster using the Single Server Architecture explained in the K3s Architecture page.

This guide closely follows NetworkChuck’s excellent video on setting up a Raspberry Pi cluster—feel free to check it out!

2. Pre-requisites

This guide assumes that:

• You have followed the Raspberry Pi setup guide.
• You have all your compute nodes connected to the same network.

3. Setup the Server Node

1. Connect to your Server Node via SSH

   Open the terminal and connect to your Pi using:

   ssh <username>@<hostname>
   

2. Install K3s

   After connecting, install k3s on your node

   curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
   

3. Get Server Token

   With k3s installed, now we need to get the Server Token, so we can use it to register the Agent nodes.

   cat /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/node-token
   

   Save this token—we’ll need it for the next steps.

3. Setup the Agent Nodes

Repeat this process for each agent node to connect them all to your server.

1. Connect to your Server Node via SSH

   Open the terminal and connect to your Pi using:

   ssh <username>@<hostname>
   

2. Install K3s

   Before installation, you’ll need two things:

   • The server node IP address
   • The server node token from the previous steps.

   Use these values to complete and run the following command

   curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_URL=https://<server_node_ip>:6443 K3S_TOKEN=<server_node_token> sh -
   

You are done setting up you K3s cluster!