Cilium was one of ~12 components inside a single `platform` Kustomization with wait:true,
so the CNI's health was indistinguishable from eleven unrelated components in the tier's
Ready condition, and the only emergency valve was freezing the whole platform tier. This
repo already set the precedent in reverse (oauth2-proxy and headlamp were split OUT so
unhealthy leaves would not gate a tier); Cilium is the mirror image — the one component
that legitimately SHOULD gate everything.
New clusters/base/cilium.yaml: path ./platform/cilium, wait:true, prune:true, interval 1h
(a CNI does not need a 10m re-render cadence; kustomize-controller is source-triggered so
a push still reconciles immediately — the interval is only the drift-correction floor),
timeout 10m (a 3-node DaemonSet rollout with wait exceeds the 5m default),
dependsOn:[flux-system], and postBuild.substituteFrom: cluster-vars — the last is
LOAD-BEARING, not decorative: helmrelease.yaml references ${K3S_API_HOST} and
kustomize-controller now runs --feature-gates=StrictPostBuildSubstitutions=true, so
without it this Kustomization would fail immediately.
*** THE HAZARD WAS FAR WORSE THAN "the CNI gets pruned" ***
platform/cilium/namespace.yaml is the ONLY declaration of Namespace/kube-system anywhere
under ./platform, and the live object carries kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/name=platform.
With prune:true, the moment ./platform/cilium leaves platform's path the stale set is not
"the Cilium HelmRelease" — it is `kubectl delete namespace kube-system`, taking coredns,
metrics-server, local-path AND Cilium. A full cluster kill, not a CNI kill.
TWO INDEPENDENT PROTECTIONS, deliberately not trusting either alone:
1. prune:false on `platform` for this transition merge — Flux's documented Procedure 1 for
moving resources between Kustomizations. Chosen over the per-resource
`kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/prune: disabled` annotation because that needs THREE merges
and leaves the new Kustomization owning resources it can never prune.
2. The pruner's own owner-label filter. In v1.4.0, prune() passes Inclusions:
GetOwnerLabels(obj.Name...), so platform only deletes objects whose LIVE labels still
say name=platform. The new cilium Kustomization relabels all three to name=cilium on
apply, and platform.dependsOn:[cilium] is REVISION-GATED, so platform provably cannot
reconcile revision N until cilium has APPLIED revision N. The relabel deterministically
precedes the prune.
Protection 2 alone would probably have sufficed. Not betting kube-system on "probably".
NOTED FOR THE FUTURE, in-file: anyone moving a platform/* component must first check
whether it is the sole declarer of a shared Namespace — that turns a component-scoped
prune into a cluster-scoped one.
Verified: `kubectl kustomize platform` goes 88 -> 85 documents, 3 removed / 0 added /
0 CHANGED, and `kubectl kustomize platform/cilium` reproduces those 3 byte-identical
(sha256-matched). A pure ownership move; no Cilium value touched. L0 substitution gate
103 assertions (was 102), new cilium row, 0 hazards. Server-side dry-run against the live
cluster accepted both CRs. clusters/prod renders clean off the same base.
MERGE 2 (restore prune:true) follows only after verifying: 13/13 Ready; kube-system, the
HelmRelease and the HelmRepository all relabelled to name=cilium; platform's inventory no
longer lists them; and Cilium pod ages/restarts UNCHANGED from
cilium-2f8h8 r=0 2026-09-01T05:55:27Z / cilium-425m8 r=1 2026-08-30T13:25:10Z /
cilium-54cww r=0 2026-09-01T05:55:26Z, HelmRelease v11.
Serves: R-PLAT-01, R-GITOPS-01.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
Add Crafty Controller 4 (registry.gitlab.com/crafty-controller/crafty-4:4.10.8)
as a platform component: a web panel that runs Java + Bedrock Minecraft servers as
subprocesses in one pod + a 20Gi Longhorn PVC (mounted 5x by subPath).
Auth = Option B (per-app oauth2-proxy reverse-proxy sidecar), since Cilium 1.16.5
cannot do ext_authz on the shared Gateway:
- oauth2-proxy v7.8.1 sidecar (:4180) reverse-proxies to Crafty's self-signed HTTPS
UI (127.0.0.1:8443), gated to Keycloak homelab realm group platform-admins.
- Confidential `crafty` client provisioned live via kcadm + captured in the realm
import; client secret + cookie secret via SOPS/age (mirrored in realm-clients).
- Web UI: HTTPRoute crafty.home.keithjackson.dev -> Service :80 -> sidecar :4180.
- Game ports: Cilium L2 LoadBalancer on VIP 192.168.1.55 (next free after .53/.54),
starter set TCP 25565-25567 (Java) + UDP 19132-19134 (Bedrock), NOT auth-gated.
- fsGroup:0 / runAsGroup:0 / runAsUser:1000 for the image's crafty:root identity on
the root:root Longhorn PVC (the seerr fsGroup lesson).
- Own non-gating Flux tier clusters/base/crafty.yaml (dependsOn platform-config,
wait:false) + sops-decryption patch in clusters/dev — a leaf UI must never gate
the platform.
- Explicit default-deny NetworkPolicy + CiliumNetworkPolicies (platform namespace,
not app-namespace, so Kyverno does not auto-generate the baseline).
make -C ci gate green; kustomize build of platform/crafty, clusters/base,
clusters/dev clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Deploy Homepage (gethomepage) as the apex landing dashboard aggregating
links to cluster services, in its OWN non-gating post-platform Flux
Kustomization (clusters/base/homepage.yaml, dependsOn platform-config,
wait:false) — mirrors headlamp/oauth2-proxy so a leaf UI can never gate
the platform chain.
- platform/homepage/: plain manifests (ns, config ConfigMap, Deployment,
Service, default-deny+Cilium ingress NP, apex HTTPRoute). Non-root pod,
HOMEPAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS, bundled mdi-* icons (DNS-only egress).
- gateway.yaml: add https-apex + http-apex-redirect listeners for the bare
apex (the *.home wildcard listener does NOT match it). Apex is already a
SAN on the wildcard cert — no new Certificate.
- Forward-auth annotated (auth-mode=forward-auth) but NOT enforced: the
Gateway ext-authz mechanism is an unbuilt Phase-6 WS-NET TODO (same status
as all other forward-auth apps). Flagged as PM follow-up.
Gate: lint/l0/render-golden(10/10)/l1 green; conformance skipped (no cluster).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Headlamp's HelmRelease sat in the wait:true `platform` Flux tier. Its pod
crashlooped (`flag provided but not defined: -session-ttl` — chart 0.40.1
renders a container arg the appVersion v0.40.1 backend lacks; upstream
kubernetes-sigs/headlamp#4883), and because it gated `platform`, the whole
chain stalled: platform Ready=Unknown -> platform-config, oauth2-proxy,
apps-wave-0/1/2 and apps-vms all Ready=False "dependency not ready".
Part A (unblock + durable lesson): a leaf UI must never gate the chain. Move
all Headlamp resources into a new non-gating Flux Kustomization
clusters/base/headlamp.yaml (dependsOn platform-config, wait:false, SOPS
decryption patched per-env in clusters/dev) — mirroring oauth2-proxy exactly.
The new Kustomization owns the whole platform/headlamp component; its HTTPRoute
moves from platform-config into platform/headlamp/kustomization.yaml. Removed
headlamp from platform/kustomization.yaml and its httproute from
platform-config/kustomization.yaml. Now a crashlooping Headlamp can never stall
platform/platform-config/apps.
Part B (make it start): pin the chart to 0.41.0 (`>=0.41.0 <0.42.0`). The
backend added `f.Int("session-ttl", …)` in v0.41.0 and chart 0.41.0 pins that
same image (appVersion == chart version), so chart+image realign; every arg the
chart renders for our values is supported. OIDC config + per-user RBAC
(clusterRoleBinding.create:false) unchanged.
Gate: `make -C ci gate` PASS.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
oauth2-proxy is a leaf forward-auth service that depends on Keycloak +
trusted wildcard TLS + split-horizon DNS. It lived in the gating `platform`
Flux Kustomization (wait:true), so on a cold start it Failed until those
dependencies existed, keeping the whole `platform` tier not-Ready. That in
turn blocked `platform-config` — which brings up the very Keycloak instance,
wildcard Certificate and L2 VIP oauth2-proxy needs (and previously carried
oauth2-proxy's own httproute/servicemonitor) — from ever reconciling. A
self-gating cold-start deadlock, twice-proven (DECISIONS-LOG sessions 7 & 9).
Break the cycle by moving the whole oauth2-proxy component out of the
`platform` tier into its own non-gating post-platform Flux Kustomization:
- clusters/base/oauth2-proxy.yaml: new Kustomization -> ./platform/oauth2-proxy,
dependsOn platform-config, wait:false, substituteFrom cluster-vars.
- clusters/base/kustomization.yaml: reference the new Kustomization.
- platform/kustomization.yaml: drop the oauth2-proxy component (no longer in
the gating tier).
- platform/oauth2-proxy/kustomization.yaml: pull in httproute + servicemonitor
so the full component travels together.
- platform-config/kustomization.yaml: drop the in-place oauth2-proxy
httproute/servicemonitor refs (moved with the controller).
- clusters/dev/kustomization.yaml: add the SOPS decryption patch for the new
oauth2-proxy Kustomization (it now owns the encrypted credentials Secret that
the `platform` Kustomization used to decrypt).
Now `platform` reaches Ready without oauth2-proxy; platform-config brings up
Keycloak/TLS/DNS; then oauth2-proxy reconciles against dependencies that
already exist. wait:false guarantees its health can never gate anything above
it. No config of oauth2-proxy itself changed — only its reconciliation tier.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
First KubeVirt VM app + first real CDI http import. UniFi OS Server (UOS) is
Ubiquiti's current self-host product (the .deb is deprecated); it bundles UniFi
OS + Network app + its own datastore, so no MongoDB companion.
- apps/vms/unifi: CDI DataVolume (Ubuntu 24.04 cloud image -> longhorn-vm
RWX/Block, live-migratable) + VirtualMachine (evictionStrategy: LiveMigrate)
with cloud-init that installs podman/slirp4netns/jq and runs the UOS installer
NON-INTERACTIVELY. The installer URL is resolved at boot from Ubiquiti's public
firmware API (fw-update.ui.com/api/firmware-latest) — always-latest, no pinned
URL to maintain (currently UOS v5.1.37).
- L4 exposure: two LoadBalancer Services (TCP+UDP) sharing a pinned, L2-announced
Cilium VIP 192.168.1.54 (device inform/adoption + STUN can't ride the L7
Gateway); external-dns publishes unifi.home.keithjackson.dev. UI on :11443.
- default-deny + additive CNPs (controller ingress, egress, and CDI-importer
egress for the image pull).
- clusters/base/apps-vms.yaml: NON-GATING Flux Kustomization (wait:false,
dependsOn platform-config) — VMs are a separate lifecycle from the app waves,
so a slow VM import/install can't stall the app tier.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Replaces the single `apps` Flux Kustomization with dependency-ordered waves
(apps-wave-0..2) so a crashlooping workload isolates to its wave + downstream
instead of stalling the entire app tier. Parallel within a wave, ordered across.
- catalog/render.py: compute waves by longest dependency-path depth over the
ServiceDefinition `dependencies:` edges (a `<svc>-db` is a leaf, so its
consumer lands strictly higher — the "DB below consumer" rule falls out of
longest-path, no special case). `--emit-waves` generates the per-wave
kustomizations + Flux CRs; `--wave-layout` places renders into the right dir.
wave 0: pihole gitea jackett plex qbittorrent nextcloud-db semaphore-db
wave 1: sonarr radarr nextcloud semaphore gitea-actions
wave 2: seerr
- apps/*.yaml -> apps/wave-{0,1,2}/ (byte-identical moves; SOPS files intact).
- clusters/base: apps.yaml removed; apps-wave-{0,1,2}.yaml added (dependsOn
chain: platform-config -> wave-0 -> wave-1 -> wave-2, prune+wait each).
- clusters/dev: one SOPS decryption patch per wave (load-bearing).
- DESIGN-waves.md: wave table, topology, cutover runbook.
Cutover: preceded by disabling prune on `apps` (1bfb0db) so removing that
object here does not GC its resources; the wave Kustomizations SSA-adopt the
byte-identical manifests in place (no restart, no PVC churn).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Un-suspend deadlocked: the single platform Kustomization applies HelmReleases
(which register CRDs) AND custom resources of those CRDs (ClusterIssuer,
Certificate, Kyverno ClusterPolicies) in ONE pass. Flux's server-side apply
fails atomically ('no matches for kind ClusterIssuer') → nothing installs, so
the CRD-registering HelmReleases never run either. Classic ordering deadlock.
Fix (flux2 controllers/configs pattern, applies to dev+prod equally — no
R-ENV-02 divergence): add a platform-config Flux Kustomization (dependsOn
platform, wait) carrying the CRs; platform keeps only the controllers.
- New clusters/base/platform-config.yaml (path ./platform-config, substituteFrom
cluster-vars, no decryption — no SOPS content); wired into base + apps now
dependsOn platform-config (transitively waits for platform).
- platform-config/ references the CR files IN PLACE via ../platform/... (Flux
builds LoadRestrictionsNone; Kyverno policies must stay under platform/kyverno/
for the CI L0 gate). CR resources dropped from the platform
component kustomizations (cert-manager, gateway, kyverno).
- Authored the missing Cilium L2 resources (were only a TODO): CiliumLoadBalancerIPPool
(dev NAT 10.73.0.240-.250) + CiliumL2AnnouncementPolicy (ens*), so Gateway
LoadBalancer listeners get a VIP. Prod range must be parameterized later.
Verified: platform build has zero CRs; platform-config build has 2 ClusterIssuers,
6 ClusterPolicies, Certificate, Gateway, both Cilium L2 CRs; dev/prod build; gate PASS.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <[email protected]>
jakman85andClaude Opus 5