How to uninstall k3s and install it securely without traefik

I will walk you through the k3s installation and configuration steps in this article.

Here is a video tutorial; continue reading for a list of written instructions.

Exercises to complete:

Install k3s
Remove traefik
Install k3s without traefik

Introduction

I decided to install k3s on a Raspberry Pi CM4 IO board with Compute Module 4 to show that it is possible to run a single-node cluster.

Install k3s

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sudo curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh

Check k3s status

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sudo systemctl status k3s

Remove the k3s

Switch to root

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sudo -i
cd /usr/local/bin
./k3s-killall.sh
./k3s-uninstall.sh

Install k3s securely

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sudo curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -s - --write-kubeconfig-mode 644
or
sudo curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_KUBECONFIG_MODE="644" sh -

Find kubeconfig files

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sudo find / -iname "*.kubeconfig"

Check kubeconfig file permissions

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sudo stat -c %a /var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/kubelet.kubeconfig
600

Check k3s status

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sudo systemctl status k3s

Add cgroup entries into the cmdline.txt

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sudo vim /boot/cmdline.txt

Add at the end of the line that starts with console= the below entries:

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cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory

Save the file and exit.

Reboot the server

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sudo reboot

Check node status

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kubectl get nodes

Check pods

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kubectl get pods -A

Get rid of the traefik

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kubectl -n kube-system delete helmcharts.helm.cattle.io traefik

Stop k3s

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sudo systemctl stop k3s

Edit k3s service file

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sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service

Modify ExectStart

Add the below line

–disable=traefik

So it should look like this:

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ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/k3s \
	server \
	--disable=traefik \
	'--write-kubeconfig-mode' \
	'644' \
	...

Reload daemon

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Delete traefik.yaml

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sudo rm /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/manifests/traefik.yaml

Start k3s and check the status

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sudo systemctl start k3s
sudo systemctl status k3s

Check pods

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kubectl get pods -A

Install k3s securely without the traefik

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sudo curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | INSTALL_K3S_EXEC="--disable traefik" sh -s - --write-kubeconfig-mode 644
or
sudo curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | INSTALL_K3S_EXEC="--disable traefik" K3S_KUBECONFIG_MODE="644" sh -

Check pods

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kubectl get pods -A