Prerequisites

Hardware requirements

Initial controller

The initial controller is the machine used to bootstrap the cluster, we only need it once, you can use your laptop or desktop

Any machine that can run Docker with the host networking driver (which means only Docker on Linux hosts, you can use a Linux virtual machine with bridged networking if you're on macOS or Windows)

Servers

Any modern x86_64 computer(s) should work, you can use old PCs, laptops or servers.

This is the requirements for each node

Component	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	2 cores	4 cores
RAM	8 GB	16 GB
Hard drive	128 GB	512 GB (depending on your storage usage, the base installation will not use more than 128GB)
Node count	1	3 or more for high availability

Additional capabilities:

Ability to boot from the network (PXE boot)
Wake-on-LAN capability, used to wake the machines up automatically without physically touching the power button

Network setup

All servers must be connected to the same wired network with the initial controller (Wifi is untested, please let me know if it works)
You have the access to change DNS config (on your router or at your domain registrar)

BIOS setup

You need to do it once per machine if the default config is not sufficent, usually for consumer hardware this can not be automated (it requires something like IPMI to automate).

Below is my BIOS setup, your motherboard may have a different name for the options, so you'll need to adapt it with your hardware.

{
    "Devices": {
        "Network Setup": {
            "PXE IPv4": true,
            "PXE IPv6": false
        }
    },
    "Advanced": {
        "CPU Setup": {
            "VT-d": true
        }
    },
    "Power": {
        "Automatic Power On": {
            "WoL": "Automatic"
        }
    },
    "Security": {
        "Secure Boot": false
    },
    "Startup": {
        "CSM": false
    }
}

Gather the information

MAC address for each machine
OS disk name (for example /dev/sda)
Network interface name (for example eth0)
Choose a static IP address for each machine (just the desired address, we don't set anything up yet)

2.3 KiB Raw Blame History