A Control Plane From Nothing

Welcome to the Control Plane From Nothing project — because sometimes, you just need to build a cloud from scratch and feel powerful doing it.

This repository provides an Ansible playbook for configuring and deploying a modern control plane environment. Perfect for platform engineers who like YAML with their caffeine and want hands-on experience with Cluster API (CAPI), Sveltos, and Crossplane.

Requirements

You only need one machine to rule them all (for now):

• CPU: 8 vCPUs
• RAM: 16 GB
• Disk: 40 GB
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 — others might work, but you’re on your own there

SSH with passwordless sudo is also needed.

Quickstart

Control the control plane. YAML responsibly. Hack the planet.

Inventory and Configuration

This playbook requires a standard Ansible hosts or inventory file to target the control plane node.

Example:

[controlplane]
10.0.0.1 ansible_user=ubuntu

Note: Currently only single-node Kubernetes deployments are supported. Multi-node support is coming soon to a playbook near you!

Configuration

Configuration for the Kubernetes and platform components is provided via values.yaml.

Key	Type	Description
kubectl_version	string	Version of kubectl to install
rke2.token	string	RKE2 token for node enrollment
rke2.cni	string	CNI plugin to use (e.g., cilium)
rke2.cluster_cidr	string	CIDR for pod networking
rke2.service_cidr	string	CIDR for Kubernetes services
rke2.domain	string	Cluster DNS domain
rke2.version	string	RKE2 version to install
rke2.channel	string	RKE2 release channel
addons.certmanager	boolean	Enable Cert Manager
addons.crossplane	boolean	Enable Crossplane
addons.cluster_api	boolean	Enable Cluster API
addons.external_secrets_operator	boolean	Enable External Secrets Operator
addons.certmanager_version	string	Version of Cert Manager
addons.crossplane_version	string	Version of Crossplane
addons.cluster_api_version	string	Version of Cluster API
cluster_api.core.cluster_api.version	string	Cluster API Core provider version
cluster_api.bootstrap.rke2.version	string	RKE2 bootstrap provider version
cluster_api.controlPlane.rke2.version	string	RKE2 control plane provider version
providers.openstack	boolean	Enable OpenStack provider
providers.aws	boolean	Enable AWS provider
providers.gcp	boolean	Enable GCP provider
openstack.auth_url	string	OpenStack authentication URL
openstack.application_credential_id	string	OpenStack application credential ID
openstack.application_credential_secret	string	OpenStack application credential secret
openstack.region	string	OpenStack region
openstack.interface	string	OpenStack interface (e.g., public)

Example values.yaml:

kubectl_version: v1.33.0
rke2:
  token: "token"
  cni: "cilium"
  cluster_cidr: "10.42.0.0/16"
  service_cidr: "10.43.0.0/16"
  domain: "control-plane.local"
  version: "v1.31.7+rke2r1"
  channel: "stable"
addons:
  certmanager: true
  crossplane: true
  cluster_api: true
  external_secrets_operator: false
  certmanager_version: v1.17.2
  crossplane_version: 1.10.0
  cluster_api_version: 0.19.0
cluster_api:
  core:
    cluster_api:
      version: "v1.9.3"
  bootstrap:
    rke2:
      version: "v0.14.0"
  controlPlane:
    rke2:
      version: "v0.14.0"
providers:
  openstack: true
  aws: false
  gcp: false
openstack:
  auth_url: ""
  application_credential_id: ""
  application_credential_secret: "--"
  region: ""
  interface: ""

Getting Started

1. Clone this repository.

2. Create or edit your inventory file.

3. Create or customize your values.yaml file.

4. Run the playbook:

ansible-playbook -i inventory installer.yaml -e @values.yaml

What It Does

• RKE2 Kubernetes cluster with chosen CNI
• Cluster API with selected providers
• Add-ons like Cert Manager, Crossplane, and optionally External Secrets Operator
• Sveltos for policy-based add-on management

How to Contribute?

Open issues, fork it, PR it — you know the drill.

Author

Armagan Karatosun

License

Apache License Version 2.0