After poking and getting a Kubernetes cluster working a few times, I deceided to fitz with getting version numbers up to date. The working rig is 1.18.x, and the current version is something circa 1.23 or so. I first try 1.20, as that was where I was hoping to get to early on in the project. It seems to boot, but something is not perfect; I think that a backup has the cluster confused. So, I do the right thing and try version 1.22. This immediately does not go well, and while I can run bits of the client Kubernetes complains it can't talk to Docker, despite Docker being up. I'm guessing that maybe 4 versions is a bridge too far, and that some of the supporting pieces will need to be upgraded too. I think I'm going to learn a bunch about spinning up k8s in the next little bit.

So, I try again, but without any further research (ouch!) and use 1.21. Amazingly, this is (some-what) still supported. I press my luck and actually spin up some containers. I figure out the right syntax to spin them up on the command and with a YAML file. While fiddling with all of this, I figure out how to run kubectl both remotely over ssh and locally once on the box, and get a bit of insight into spinning up k8s and how nodes join the cluster.

I do break down and do some research, and find the changelogs that I'll end up having to pour through to figure out whst tweaking I'll need to do. I already know there is some AWS api changes with Terraform I have to tackle. I'll have to look at updating Helm, and maybe the TF version, and there is another piece. Oh, and to be fully up to date, I'll have to figure out the Docker shim stuff to get to 1.24.

What else is there to do? I have to figure out storage -- currently its using gp2, and I'd like to see if we could use gp3, or even spinning disks like sc (or st or standard?), to reduce costs. I'd also like to figure out a way to persist and/or back up storage, so that if a pod dies we don't lose persistent info. Additionally, I'd like to see if I can slim out the base OS a bit -- it seems like there are things we might not need, like serial gettys among others.