Kubernetes Cluster Playground

About This Playground

Want to practice kubeadm, compare container runtimes, experiment with different networking plugins, or prepare for the CKA, CKAD, or CKS exam?

iximiuz Labs' Kubernetes playground gives you a ready-to-use, multi-node cluster running on four Linux servers: a dedicated development machine, one control-plane node, and two worker nodes. Before starting it, you can choose the container runtime—containerd or CRI-O—and the networking setup—Flannel, Cilium, or no pre-installed CNI at all.

This is not a simulated cluster or a lightweight Kubernetes distribution with most decisions already made for you. The nodes are lightweight but fully fledged VMs running on iximiuz Labs' bare-metal infrastructure, and the cluster itself is provisioned with kubeadm. Every machine has its own kernel, root filesystem, and network interface, giving you the same kind of access you'd have when administering Kubernetes on cloud VMs or bare-metal servers.

Use this playground for learning Kubernetes administration, testing manifests and Helm charts, practicing upgrades and node maintenance, troubleshooting control-plane and worker components, and exploring the boundary between Kubernetes and its container runtime or networking layer. Switch between containerd and CRI-O, compare Flannel and Cilium, or start without a CNI plugin and install one yourself.

The dedicated development machine comes in handy for operating the cluster without logging directly into its nodes. From there, you can use kubectl, copy files, run diagnostic tools, and interact with the cluster much like you would from an administrator's workstation.

For everything else, start the cluster and get your hands dirty. Drain a node, break the CNI, inspect the runtime, renew a certificate, or misconfigure a workload—then troubleshoot your way back to a healthy cluster. That's how Kubernetes administration becomes a skill rather than a collection of memorized commands.

Happy hacking!