Take a look at https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way.

That’d be a great first step if the purpose is to learn Kubernetes. If, however, you want to set up a cluster for real use then you will need much more than bare bones Kubernetes (something that solves networking, monitoring, logging, security, backups and more) so consider using a distribution or a managed cloud service instead.

Setting up your own k8s from scratch is kind of like writing your own string class in C++: it’s a good exercise (if it’s valuable for your learning path) but you probably don’t want to use it for actual work.

Maintaining a cluster set up like that is a ton of work. And if you don’t perform an upgrade perfectly, you’ll have downtime. Tools like kops help a lot but you’ll still spend far more time than the $70/month it costs for a managed cluster.

I find that K3s is great for getting started. It has traefik included and its less of a learning curve to actually be productive, vs diving in with K8s and having to figure out way more pieces.