Lesson 2: Tools and Equipment Needed

In this lesson, you will discover the hardware and software requirements for building your Kubernetes cluster, and learn about the specific tools and equipment you’ll need to follow along with the guide.

This is the 2nd lesson of the guide Building a production-ready Kubernetes cluster from scratch. Make sure you have completed the previous lesson before continuing here. The full list of lessons in the guide can be found in the overview.

Before we start building our Kubernetes cluster, it’s important to gather all the necessary tools and equipment. In this lesson, we’ll go over everything you need to follow along with this guide, from hardware components to essential software tools.

Hardware Requirements

To set up your Kubernetes cluster, you will need several hardware components:

• You will need at least three Raspberry Pi 5 devices, ideally with 8GB of RAM for better performance.
• Each Raspberry Pi requires a 64GB (or higher) microSD card, with high-endurance cards recommended for reliability.
• For persistent storage, you will need 500GB NVMe SSDs along with compatible NVMe HATs for each Raspberry Pi. Make sure the lengths of the SSDs are supported by the HATs.
• Each device also requires a 5V/5A USB-C power supply to ensure stable operation.
• To connect all Raspberry Pi devices, you will need a gigabit wired router like the TP-LINK ER605 (or any other networking router) to create a local network for your cluster.
• You should have CAT5e or higher Ethernet cables available to connect the Raspberry Pi devices to the router.

Exact Hardware List

The following is the exact list of hardware components used in this guide:

Raspberry Pi 5:

• Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM)
• 64-bit quad-core Cortex-A76 processor
• 8GB LPDDR4X SDRAM
• Gigiabit Ethernet port
• 5V/5A USB-C power supply recommended, 5V/3A minimum requirement

Power Supply:

• Official Raspberry Pi USB-C Power Supply 27W
• Provides 5.1V, 5.0A DC output

MicroSD Card:

• 64GB High-Speed MicroSD Card
• Model: HSTF
• Manufacturer: Shenzhen Haishitongda Technology Co., Ltd.

Raspberry PI NVMe HAT:

• Pimoroni - PIM699
• Supports M.2 NVMe SSDs
• Supports 2280, 2260, 2242, and 2230 form factors

NVMe SSD:

• Kingston SNV3S/500G
• 500GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2

Router:

• TP-LINK ER605
• Gigabit Wired Router
• 4x Gigabit LAN Ports / 1x Gigabit WAN Port

Ethernet Cable:

• CAT6 Ethernet Cable
• Length: 0.15m

Software Requirements

You will also need several software tools to complete this guide:

• An SSH client, such as OpenSSH (pre-installed on most Unix-like systems) or PuTTY (for Windows), is required to remotely access the Raspberry Pi devices.

Additional Requirements

There are a few more things that will be helpful as you follow along:

• You should have a basic understanding of Linux command line usage and networking concepts, such as IP addresses, subnets, and SSH.
• A computer running a Unix-like system, such as Linux, macOS, or Windows Subsystem for Linux, with an Ethernet port is required for the initial setup.
• An internet connection is needed for downloading software, updates, and Kubernetes components.

Getting Ready

Make sure to gather all the hardware components and install the necessary software tools before proceeding to the next lesson. Having everything prepared will make the setup process smoother and allow you to focus on building your Kubernetes cluster step-by-step.

Lesson Conclusion

Congratulations! You have completed this lesson and you can now continue with the next one.