Simple MiniPC OpenShift 4.10 Single Node Cluster
Earlier this week, I spoke with a customer who had seen some of my previous guides on home lab builds of OKD and OCP. He mentioned another guide from fellow Redhatter cgruver. He explained how the idea of using an Intel NUC, some travel routers, and a Raspberry Pi was more attractive for a home lab than using a full-size rack-mount server. His perspective challenged me to create a simplified version of an OpenShift single node cluster for lab or home lab use. Challenge accepted Cristian!
Cluster Architecture:
Comprehensive list of hardware and DNS requirements:
- MiniPC — (Assisted Installer minimum SNO requirements: 8 vCPU cores, 15GB RAM, and 120GB Disk)
- USB Flash Drive — 2GB or larger
- Personal Domain Name — (Example: I purchased mydc.dev from NameCheap)
That’s it. Really.
The Mini PC
A search for the cheapest MiniPC that met the above requirements ensued shortly after my conversation with the customer. I settled on the Beelink SEi8 8279U with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe drive. I purchased a new sealed one from eBay for $400.30, including shipping (MSRP $539). Only the 8279U CPU and the 16GB of RAM version met the minimum…
