If you read my previous post about becoming a Kubestronaut, you know I spent a lot of time grinding on a Raspberry Pi K3s cluster. Well, it was time for an upgrade.

Experimenting and pushing the limits of technology at home is something we strongly encourage where I work. If you are curious about the value of doing this, check out this great read on the TrueFullStaq blog about experimenting with homelabs.

Here is a look at my new setup!

The Hardware: Small but Mighty Link to heading

I wanted a setup that was powerful enough to run multiple virtual machines and containers, but power-efficient and quiet. I landed on a 3-node cluster using BMax b4s mini computers.

To keep everything organized, I have them stacked in a custom 3D-printed rack, and the entire cluster is networked together using a MikroTik switch.

My 3-node BMax b4s mini PC cluster in a custom 3D printed rack

The new 3-node mini PC cluster sitting proudly on top of my desktop.

The Hypervisor: Proxmox VE Link to heading

I installed Proxmox on the bare metal across all three nodes. They are clustered together (home-cluster) with shared ZFS storage, which gives me great redundancy, snapshots, and the ability to easily migrate workloads between the nodes (pve01, pve02, and pve03).

Proxmox VE interface showing the home-cluster, HAOS, Docker, and k3s VMs

The Proxmox dashboard showing my workloads, including Home Assistant and my K3s environment.

As you can see in the dashboard, pve02 is currently hosting my docker and k3s-homelab environments (the Kubernetes grind never stops!), but pve01 is where the real daily magic happens.

Automating Everything with HAOS Link to heading

The crown jewel of this cluster is my Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS) VM. I have basically automated my entire home through it.

Here is what Home Assistant is currently managing:

  • Energy & Car: Monitoring my solar panels and managing the charger for the car.
  • Smart Appliances: My Bosch washing machine and tumble dryer are hooked up, letting me know exactly when laundry is done.
  • The Kitchen: I have my Quooker hooked up to a HomeWizard plug to monitor and manage its energy usage.
  • Lighting: Absolutely all the lights—inside the home, out in the garden, and under the carport—are running on Philips Hue and orchestrated by HAOS.

Building this out has been an incredibly fun project. It is the perfect playground for testing new DevOps concepts, breaking things safely, and making everyday life around the house just a little bit smarter!