Skip to content

Commit 094d6b2

Browse files
Aleksandar GrbicAleksandar Grbic
Aleksandar Grbic
authored and
Aleksandar Grbic
committed
Refactor welcome and learning documentation for clarity and structure
1 parent 47562d6 commit 094d6b2

File tree

6 files changed

+198
-94
lines changed

6 files changed

+198
-94
lines changed

‎docusaurus/docs/welcome.md‎

Lines changed: 13 additions & 13 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -2,26 +2,26 @@
22
title: Building a "Mini Data Center" with K3S
33
---
44

5-
<p style={{maxWidth: 500, display: "block", margin: "auto", padding: 20 }}>
6-
<img src="/img/kubernetes.png" />
7-
</p>
5+
import DataCenterOverview from "@site/src/components/DataCenterOverview";
86

9-
**Welcome! I’m glad you’re here. Hail to the SEO overlords!**
7+
<DataCenterOverview />
108

11-
If we haven’t met yet, my name is Alexander. I’ve been in IT for over 20 years and professionally active since 2007. Over the years, I’ve worked as a CISCO engineer, a senior full-stack developer, a startup co-founder, and, for the past few years, a team and tech lead. You can check out my [LinkedIn profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandar-grbic-74670263/) if you want to know more about my background.
9+
Welcome! I'm glad you're here. Hail to the SEO overlords!
1210

13-
I think it’s important to share a bit about myself so you can decide if I’m the right person to guide you.
11+
If we haven't met yet, my name is Alexander. I've been in IT for over 20 years and professionally active since 2007. Over the years, I've worked as a CISCO engineer, a senior full-stack developer, a startup co-founder, and, for the past few years, a team and tech lead. You can check out my [LinkedIn profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandar-grbic-74670263/) if you want to know more about my background.
1412

15-
I hope this K3s guide is helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out on GitHub or join me on one of my live streams.
13+
I think it's important to share a bit about myself so you can decide if I'm the right person to guide you.
1614

17-
Now, let’s get started.
15+
I hope this guide to building a home "mini data center", from hardware and networking to K3s and real workloads is helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out on GitHub or join me on one of my live streams.
1816

19-
With so much information available today, it’s worth asking yourself, _"Why am I learning this?"_
17+
Now, let's get started.
2018

21-
Why choose this skill when there are so many other things you could focus on? How will it help your career? Will it solve any real problems you’re facing, or are you just learning it because it seems popular or trendy? These are the kinds of questions you should think about before committing to something new.
19+
With so much information available today, it's worth asking yourself, _"Why am I building this?"_ or _"Why am I learning these skills?"_
2220

23-
Many of you might know me from [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/programmer_network) or [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@programmer-network). I prefer to keep things practical and honest. I’m not a fan of the influencer mindset where people recommend things just to fit their content strategy, especially when they don’t actually use the tools or techniques they’re promoting.
21+
Why choose this project, setting up your own infrastructure, networking, and orchestration, when there are so many other things you could focus on? How will it help your career? Will it solve any real problems you're facing, or are you just doing it because it seems popular or trendy? These are the kinds of questions you should think about before committing to something new.
2422

25-
So, when someone asks, _"Why should I learn Kubernetes?"_, it’s a valid question. I could give you plenty of reasons, but not all of them might matter to you. Maybe this isn’t the right time for you to learn Kubernetes. Maybe there are other skills that would be more useful for where you are in your career right now.
23+
Many of you might know me from [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/programmer_network) or [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@programmer-network). I prefer to keep things practical and honest. I'm not a fan of the influencer mindset where people recommend things just to fit their content strategy, especially when they don't actually use the tools or techniques they're promoting.
2624

27-
It’s important to understand the difference between things that are interesting to explore and things that are genuinely valuable to learn. Everyone has different needs depending on their goals, so take the time to think about whether Kubernetes is what you need at this moment.
25+
So, when someone asks, _"Why should I build a home lab or learn Kubernetes?"_, it's a valid question. I could give you plenty of reasons, but not all of them might matter to you. Maybe this isn't the right time for you to dive into this. Maybe there are other skills that would be more useful for where you are in your career right now.
26+
27+
It's important to understand the difference between things that are interesting to explore and things that are genuinely valuable to learn. Everyone has different needs depending on their goals, so take the time to think about whether this journey is what you need at this moment.

‎docusaurus/docs/what-we-will-learn.md‎

Lines changed: 61 additions & 49 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -8,58 +8,70 @@ I started learning Kubernetes because I wanted to enable myself to provision inf
88

99
With that in mind, this will be the outcome of this course: By the end, we'll have the ability to provision a full-stack application infrastructure in under five minutes. And to top it off, it'll cost us next to nothing, as the only expenses will be the initial investment in the bare-metal server, plus about 5 euros per month for electricity.
1010

11-
1211
```mermaid
13-
---
14-
config:
15-
look: handDrawn
16-
layout: elk
17-
---
12+
%%{init: { 'theme': 'dark' } }%%
1813
flowchart TB
19-
subgraph Worker1["Worker Node 3"]
20-
api_pod1["API Pod"]
21-
pg_pod1["CloudNative PG Pod"]
22-
longhorn1["Longhorn (Storage)"]
14+
subgraph ControlPlane["K3s HA Control Plane"]
15+
RPI1["Raspberry Pi 1 (Control)"]
16+
RPI2["Raspberry Pi 2 (Control)"]
17+
RPI3["Raspberry Pi 3 (Control)"]
18+
end
19+
subgraph RPI4["Raspberry Pi 4 (Worker)"]
20+
api_pod1["API Pod"]
21+
pg_pod1["CloudNative PG Pod"]
22+
longhorn1["Longhorn (Storage)"]
2323
end
24-
subgraph Worker2["Worker Node 1"]
25-
api_pod2["API Pod"]
26-
pg_pod2["CloudNative PG Pod"]
27-
longhorn2["Longhorn (Storage)"]
24+
subgraph HP["HP EliteDesk (Worker)"]
25+
api_pod2["API Pod"]
26+
pg_pod2["CloudNative PG Pod"]
27+
longhorn2["Longhorn (Storage)"]
2828
end
29-
subgraph Worker3["Worker Node 2"]
30-
api_pod3["API Pod"]
31-
pg_pod3["CloudNative PG Pod"]
32-
longhorn3["Longhorn (Storage)"]
29+
subgraph Lenovo["Lenovo ThinkCentre (Worker)"]
30+
api_pod3["API Pod"]
31+
pg_pod3["CloudNative PG Pod"]
32+
longhorn3["Longhorn (Storage)"]
3333
end
34-
external["Internet"] --> metallb["MetalLB (Load Balancer)"]
35-
metallb --> traefik["Traefik (Ingress Controller)"]
36-
traefik --> api_pod1 & api_pod2 & api_pod3
37-
api_pod1 -.-> pg_pod1
38-
api_pod2 -.-> pg_pod2
39-
api_pod3 -.-> pg_pod3
40-
pg_pod1 -.-> longhorn1
41-
pg_pod2 -.-> longhorn2
42-
pg_pod3 -.-> longhorn3
43-
master["Master Node (K3S Control Plane)"] -. manages .- Worker1 & Worker3 & Worker2
44-
api_pod1:::nodeStyle
45-
pg_pod1:::nodeStyle
46-
longhorn1:::nodeStyle
47-
api_pod2:::nodeStyle
48-
pg_pod2:::nodeStyle
49-
longhorn2:::nodeStyle
50-
api_pod3:::nodeStyle
51-
pg_pod3:::nodeStyle
52-
longhorn3:::nodeStyle
53-
master:::nodeStyle
54-
traefik:::nodeStyle
55-
metallb:::nodeStyle
56-
external:::nodeStyle
57-
style master stroke:#FF6D00,color:#FF6D00
58-
style Worker1 stroke:#FFD600,color:#FFD600,fill:transparent
59-
style Worker2 stroke:#2962FF,color:#2962FF,fill:transparent
60-
style Worker3 stroke:#00C853,color:#00C853,fill:transparent
61-
style external stroke-width:4px,stroke-dasharray: 0
62-
linkStyle 11 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
63-
linkStyle 12 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
64-
linkStyle 13 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
34+
35+
external["Internet"] --> metallb["MetalLB (Load Balancer)"]
36+
metallb --> traefik["Traefik (Ingress Controller)"]
37+
38+
traefik --> api_pod1 & api_pod2 & api_pod3
39+
40+
api_pod1 -.-> pg_pod1
41+
api_pod2 -.-> pg_pod2
42+
api_pod3 -.-> pg_pod3
43+
44+
pg_pod1 -.-> longhorn1
45+
pg_pod2 -.-> longhorn2
46+
pg_pod3 -.-> longhorn3
47+
48+
ControlPlane -. "manages" .-> RPI4
49+
ControlPlane -. "manages" .-> HP
50+
ControlPlane -. "manages" .-> Lenovo
51+
52+
%% --- Styling to Match Screenshot ---
53+
54+
%% Define reusable styles for nodes
55+
classDef default fill:#121212,stroke:#ccc,color:#fff
56+
classDef ingressNode fill:#121212,stroke:#9c27b0
57+
classDef controlNode fill:#121212,stroke:#e65100
58+
classDef workerGreenPod fill:#121212,stroke:#2e7d32
59+
classDef workerYellowPod fill:#121212,stroke:#f9a825
60+
classDef workerBluePod fill:#121212,stroke:#1565c0
61+
62+
%% Apply styles to nodes
63+
class metallb,traefik ingressNode;
64+
class RPI1,RPI2,RPI3 controlNode;
65+
class api_pod1,pg_pod1,longhorn1 workerGreenPod;
66+
class api_pod2,pg_pod2,longhorn2 workerYellowPod;
67+
class api_pod3,pg_pod3,longhorn3 workerBluePod;
68+
69+
%% Style the subgraph containers
70+
style ControlPlane stroke:#e65100,stroke-width:2px,fill:transparent
71+
style RPI4 stroke:#2e7d32,stroke-width:2px,fill:transparent
72+
style HP stroke:#f9a825,stroke-width:2px,fill:transparent
73+
style Lenovo stroke:#1565c0,stroke-width:2px,fill:transparent
74+
75+
%% Style the dotted "manages" links
76+
linkStyle 11,12,13 stroke:#e65100,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray: 5 5
6577
```

‎docusaurus/docs/why-is-it-hard.md‎

Lines changed: 10 additions & 10 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -1,17 +1,17 @@
11
---
2-
title: The reason why it's hard
2+
title: The Challenges of Building a Mini Data Center
33
---
44

5-
One of the hardest things about learning something like Kubernetes isn't the subject itself. Many developers often find themselves learning things without a clear reason or a goal. And while that is bad, it's not the worst thing.
5+
One of the hardest things about building a mini data center isn't any single technology or component. Many people often find themselves learning individual pieces - like networking, hardware setup, or Kubernetes - without seeing how everything fits together. And while that fragmented approach is challenging, it's not the biggest obstacle.
66

7-
The worst thing is learning something and then forgetting that it exists. In the context of our "mini home data-center", if you end up going through this guide and then just abandoning your setup, you will find yourself forgetting most of these things really, really fast. The advantage that I believe this entire guide enforces is that we are actually building an infrastructure that we intend to use. It's our mini data-center that we are happy to maintain, all the way from the L2 networking layer to an API and a frontend.
7+
The biggest challenge is building something comprehensive and then letting it gather dust. In the context of our mini data center, if you end up going through this guide and then just abandoning your setup, you will find yourself forgetting crucial skills really fast - from MikroTik networking configurations to storage management and container orchestration. The advantage that I believe this entire guide enforces is that we are actually building an infrastructure that we intend to use daily. It's our mini data center that we are excited to maintain, covering everything from physical hardware and L2 networking to distributed storage, container orchestration, and running our applications.
88

9-
Clearly, you can also look at this as a massive disadvantage, and to answer that question, we really need to get back to [why](./why.md) and understand what we are getting out of this journey.
9+
Clearly, you can also look at this complexity as a massive disadvantage, and to answer that concern, we really need to get back to [why](./why.md) and understand what we are getting out of this journey.
1010

11-
So, to make this learning experience easy for oneself, we need to ensure that:
11+
So, to make this learning experience manageable, we need to ensure that:
1212

13-
- We are building this as our infrastructure that we will use
14-
- We understand that building a bare-metal infrastructure requires some maintenance, and that is what we are looking forward to
15-
- We are absolutely certain that at one point, something will fail, either hardware or software, and we are looking forward to that lesson, a moment of experience
16-
- We look at this setup as a massive advantage for learning and growing, and for keeping our skills sharp
17-
- We understand that diversifying our skills, especially in the age of AI, helps us stay relevant and pivot in the job market
13+
- We are building this as our primary infrastructure that we will actively use
14+
- We understand that a mini data center requires regular maintenance across all layers - from hardware and networking to software - and we're enthusiastic about that
15+
- We accept that components will fail at some point - whether it's a Raspberry Pi, a network switch, or a software deployment - and we see these as valuable learning opportunities
16+
- We view this complete setup as an investment in our technical growth, keeping our full-stack infrastructure skills sharp
17+
- We recognize that having hands-on experience with every layer of modern infrastructure, especially in the age of AI, helps us stay relevant and adaptable in the job market

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)