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 * K3s - Lightweight Kubernetes
 * Quick-Start Guide
 * Installation
 * Cluster Datastore
 * Upgrades
 * Security
 * CLI Tools
 * Architecture
 * Cluster Access
 * Volumes and Storage
 * Networking
 * Helm
 * Advanced Options / Configuration
 * Reference
 * Release Notes
 * Related Projects
 * Known Issues
 * FAQ

 * 
 * K3s - Lightweight Kubernetes

Lightweight Kubernetes. Easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary of
less than 100 MB.

Great for:

 * Edge
 * IoT
 * CI
 * Development
 * ARM
 * Embedding K8s
 * Situations where a PhD in K8s clusterology is infeasible


WHAT IS K3S?

K3s is a fully compliant Kubernetes distribution with the following
enhancements:

 * Packaged as a single binary.
 * Lightweight storage backend based on sqlite3 as the default storage
   mechanism. etcd3, MySQL, Postgres are also available.
 * Wrapped in simple launcher that handles a lot of the complexity of TLS and
   options.
 * Secure by default with reasonable defaults for lightweight environments.
 * Simple but powerful "batteries-included" features have been added, such as:
   * local storage provider
   * service load balancer
   * Helm controller
   * Traefik ingress controller.
 * Operation of all Kubernetes control plane components is encapsulated in a
   single binary and process. This allows K3s to automate and manage complex
   cluster operations like distributing certificates.
 * External dependencies have been minimized (just a modern kernel and cgroup
   mounts needed). K3s packages the required dependencies, including:
   * containerd
   * Flannel (CNI)
   * CoreDNS
   * Traefik (Ingress)
   * Klipper-lb (Service LB)
   * Embedded network policy controller
   * Embedded local-path-provisioner
   * Host utilities (iptables, socat, etc)


WHAT'S WITH THE NAME?

We wanted an installation of Kubernetes that was half the size in terms of
memory footprint. Kubernetes is a 10-letter word stylized as K8s. So something
half as big as Kubernetes would be a 5-letter word stylized as K3s. There is no
long form of K3s and no official pronunciation.

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Last updated on Dec 29, 2023
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