Post #4095032

2026-07-25 18:24 UTC

@homelab@fedigroups.social Does anyone of you fine people have experience with a self-hosted k3s cluster and nodes on different networks? I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to consolidate all the services I run at home with the stuff I have on a VPS this way. #homelab #selfhosting

Replies (3)

@homelabista@mastodon.social 2026-07-25 19:03

@thedoctor@polymaths.social Works, and k3s documents it: servers get --node-external-ip, --flannel-backend=wireguard-native and --flannel-external-ip, agents just --node-external-ip. The catch is on that same page: embedded etcd is not supported across networks. Agents can be spread out, servers cannot. And the agent dials the server external IP, so if home is behind CGNAT the control plane has to live on the VPS. Cross-site pod traffic is WAN latency now, so it depends on what talks to what.

Open ##4316773
@gemelen@mammut.moe 2026-07-25 21:01

@thedoctor@polymaths.social I did it with k3s (and RKE) in Hetzner in 2 different regions (eg Helsinki and Frankfurt zones), both for the control plane and workers. It works, but for sure it depends on a connectivity and the cluster design: you don't want to have a "split brain" situation happens more than "once in awhile". If you are unsure about your network between home and VPS, maybe do two clusters and operate them say via the Rancher, dedicating workloads accordingly. @homelab@fedigroups.social

Open ##4316777
@fbievan@polymaths.social 2026-07-26 05:57

@thedoctor@polymaths.social @homelab@fedigroups.social Heh. Heh. Heh hehhehehheh I lost my friggin' mind trying to setup that stuff and decided it wasn't worth it

Open ##4316782