Platform Lab
StackLayer
Reproducible Kubernetes platform environment for validating infrastructure, GitOps, and observability patterns.
What it is
StackLayer is a locally reproducible platform lab that provisions a multi-node Kubernetes environment and incrementally layers core platform capabilities including networking, ingress, TLS, GitOps, and observability.
It is designed to simulate production-like behavior on a local workstation, enabling safe validation of platform patterns, workflows, and operational models.
Problem
Platform and infrastructure ideas are difficult to validate when they depend on multi-node Kubernetes scheduling behavior, ingress, TLS, networking configurations, GitOps-driven delivery workflows, and observability systems.
These capabilities are often only available in shared or production environments, increasing risk and slowing iteration.
Approach
StackLayer creates a phased, reproducible environment that mirrors real platform architecture.
- provisions infrastructure locally using virtual machines
- bootstraps a multi-node Kubernetes cluster
- incrementally installs platform primitives
- enables GitOps-based application delivery
- adds observability and monitoring layers
This allows platform concepts to be tested end-to-end before production rollout.
Key Capabilities
Multi-Node Kubernetes Environment
Provisions a kubeadm-based cluster with control plane and worker nodes, enabling realistic scheduling and networking behavior.
Platform Primitives Layer
Installs core components including MetalLB, ingress-nginx, cert-manager, TLS, and storage to simulate production platform foundations.
GitOps Integration
Deploys ArgoCD to manage application delivery from Git repositories, enabling validation of GitOps workflows.
Observability Stack
Includes Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and supporting components for monitoring cluster and application behavior.
Phased Build Model
Infrastructure, platform, GitOps, and observability layers can be applied incrementally to support controlled experimentation.
Repeatable Lifecycle
Make-based workflows enable consistent provisioning, teardown, and validation across all phases.
Current State
- Four phases implemented: Infrastructure, Platform Primitives, GitOps, and Observability.
- Three-node Kubernetes cluster provisioned via VMware and Vagrant.
- Production-like cluster setup using kubeadm, containerd, and Flannel CNI.
- ArgoCD deployed with ingress for Git-based application delivery.
- kube-prometheus-stack deployed for monitoring and visualization.
- Documentation includes architecture, setup, and example application deployment workflows.
Why it matters
StackLayer demonstrates how platform engineering concepts can be developed and validated in a controlled, reproducible environment.
It provides a foundation for testing platform architectures before production, validating CI/CD and GitOps workflows, experimenting with observability and operational models, and reducing risk in platform and infrastructure changes.
It reflects a platform-first approach to infrastructure, where environments are designed to enable learning, iteration, and system-level validation.
Technology
- Kubernetes
- kubeadm
- Vagrant
- VMware Workstation
- Ubuntu 22.04
- containerd
- Flannel
- MetalLB
- ingress-nginx
- cert-manager
- ArgoCD
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Helm
- Make
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