Why? Because… why not? (it’s , lol) FREE Utilize the power of my own PC to build web apps faster . (with zero build time cost) Kubernetes is hard & pushing developers to learn it even harder, well, I learned it so you don't have to. Unlike Vercel, with a cluster, I (and my teammates) can deploy ANY apps. Kubernetes Requirements A computer (obviously!) with Server OS Ubuntu Specification at least: 2 core, 4GB memory Recommendation: 4 core, 8GB memory (because MicroK8S will take around 2,5GB of memory to run, but you will also need some for your applications) DigitalOcean has some droplets with good pricing tiers. to spin up a Kubernetes cluster MicroK8S Lastly, this magical open-source tool: Diginext Architecture In this case, I use my company’s PC (Ubuntu Server OS, 1TB SSD drive, 8 core, 32GB of memory) Install MicroK8S & deploy Diginext Server curl -sfL https://diginext.site/install/microk8s | sh - After it’s finished, you can try to access this URL: , if you can see the log in / sign-up screen, then your cluster is ready! http://server-ip-address *: * For example http://192.168.0.52 Create new account Navigate to: then create a new account. http://server-ip-address Create your first workspace Now you need a , grab one . Diginext key here (no worries, it’s free) Give your workspace a name and paste the key into it, then submit & you’re good to go. Connect Diginext CLI to your workspace To be able to deploy the web app to your MicroK8S cluster from your computer, you will need to install Diginext and connect it to your Diginext workspace. CLI Open the terminal and install with: Diginext CLI (If you don’t have Node.js 18+ installed, get it first) npm i @topgroup/diginext --location=global After it’s finished, you can use commands. dx But first, let’s connect your to the workspace: Diginext CLI dx login http://your-ip-address # the browser will open up, copy & paste the access token here # you will see a success message Deploy a static webapp needs permissions to pull the git repository and start building, so let’s navigate to and connect your Bitbucket or GitHub account. Diginext Server http:// server -ip-address/git also needs a to store the build image, I will use in this example. Navigate to and connect your Docker Hub with username & password. Diginext Server container registry Docker Hub http://your-ip-address/infrastructure/registry/ When it’s done, back to your Terminal and create a new app with command & fill in the form: dx new Project: Hello World App: Static Site Framework: pick “Static Site Framework” Git provider: select the one you have connected to recently. Navigate to the directory: and you will see the source code of the framework, nothing special here, just static files and a cd ./app-directory HTML Dockerfile Deploy to our MicroK8S cluster using this command: It will request the Diginext Server to pull the git repository of the webapp, then build the container image from the , and deploy it the MicroK8S cluster. dx deploy Dockerfile Cluster: pick “Default Cluster” Use generated domain: YES Port: 80 Now check out the link in the Terminal to see the build & deploy process, something like this: When it’s finished, click on the auto-generated link, and you will see your web app now going live, woohoo! 👉 Since I have only set up this server for internal use, if you want to publish it on the internet, you may need to expose some ports on your internet router and configure traffic routing / security guards to your metal server. However, this is beyond the scope of this article. Also published here.
