Derrick's Home Lab Automation Repository

This repository contains scripts and configurations for automating the setup and management of a home lab environment. It includes tools for building virtual machines, configuring a Kubernetes environment with K3s, installing and configuring AWX (Ansible Tower), and provisioning AWX job templates to manage Kubernetes clusters.

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Directory Structure
3. Prerequisites
4. Usage
5. Configuration

---

Overview

This repository provides various automation tools for setting up and managing a home lab environment. The key areas of automation include:

• Packer Scripts: Automates the creation of virtual machines (GMs) for your home lab.
• Miscellaneous Bash Scripts: Helps with environment kickstart tasks such as disk extension and setting up initial services.
• Ansible Playbooks: Used for building a Kubernetes environment using K3s, installing AWX in the K3s cluster, and configuring AWX.
• AWX Job Templates: Provision job templates to automate tasks such as Kubernetes cluster creation.

Directory Structure

The repository is organized into the following directories and files:

packer/

Contains Packer HCL files for automated GM creation.

• http/: Contains Rocky Kickstart Scripts for setting up the operating system on the VMs.
• scripts/: Contains bootstrapping scripts that are executed after the kickstart scripts complete, setting up the necessary services and configurations.

powershell/

Contains miscellaneous PowerShell scripts that help in automating common tasks in the lab setup.

• bootsrap.ps1: A script used to bootsrap Packer by downloading Rocky Linux 9 ISO and HashiCorp Packer.

---

Prerequisites

Before using these scripts, make sure you have the following installed and configured:

• VirtualBox: Ansible Tower that is deployed in the K3s cluster to automate jobs.
• GitHub Repo: Required to AWX templates.
• GitHub PAT (Personal Access Token): Required to authenticate with GitHub for any SCM operations (if using GitHub for playbook or project retrieval).

---

Usage

Build a Rocky Linux GM (VirtualBox Appliance)

Step 1 - Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/dfoos/local-lab.git

Step 2 - Run bootsrap.ps1

1. Navigate to the powershell/ directory.
2. Run the PowerShell bootstrap script:

./bootstrap.ps1

Step 3 - Build Packer image

1. Navigate to the newly create local/ directory.
2. Run the Packer init and then the build command:

./packer.exe init ../packer/rocky-linux-9.4.pkr.hcl
./packer build -var vm_name=rocky-linux-9-4-gm ../packer/rocky-linux-9.4.pkr.hcl