Photon OS, VMware’s lightweight Linux distribution, is well-suited for containerized workloads. Combined with K3s, a lightweight Kubernetes distribution by Rancher, it provides a minimal and efficient environment for running Kubernetes clusters on virtualized infrastructure. This guide covers the basic steps to install and run K3s on Photon OS.
Provide a concise guide for installing a Kubernetes cluster consisting of one Control Plane and three Worker Nodes, using K3s on Photon OS.
In Progress – Content will be updated and may change.
We will start by using the default Photon OS version 5 distribution, remove unnecessary components, update the system, and perform basic OS configuration.
The following computer environment was utilized. For details regarding container image versions and other components, please refer to the respective sections in the application documentation available here.
ESXi version: 8.0.0
ESXi build number: 20513097
VMware Photon OS: Version 5.0
Virtual Machine: 1vCPU, 2GB vRAM, 16GB vDisk
Setting hostname, setting root’s password and marking it non-expiring, removing Docker, updating system packages, configuring firewall to allow ICMP and SSH.
hostnamectl hostname k3s-control01 # (or k3s-worker01 or k3s-worker02 ..)
passwd [the new root passwd]
chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 root
tdnf remove docker
tdnf update -y
iptables -A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables-save > /etc/systemd/scripts/ip4sav
The Install Script is convenient way to install it as a service on systemd.
curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
After running this installation:
- The K3s service will be configured to automatically.
- Additional utilities will be installed, including kubectl, crictl, ctr, k3s-killall.sh, and k3s-uninstall.sh
- A kubeconfig file will be written to /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml and the kubectl installed by K3s will automatically use it.
- Check service is running
systemctl status k3s.service
- Check Kubernetes node
kubectl get node