Running OpenHamClock on Kubernetes (RKE2 and ArgoCD)

In this tutorial, I will walk through my Kubernetes version of running OpenHamClock in my homelab. In this setup, everything is defined in YAML, committed to Git, and synced to the cluster by ArgoCD. Access is handled by NGINX Ingress with TLS from cert-manager, which is how I publish it at hamclock.w3rdw.radio.

If you want to follow my exact layout, use my RKE2 GitHub project. This guide uses the openhamclock/ directory.

Workflow (high level):

1. Update OpenHamClock YAML in openhamclock/.
2. Commit and push to Git.
3. ArgoCD detects changes and syncs automatically.
4. Ingress terminates TLS and serves the app.

Prerequisites

Software/cluster:

• RKE2 cluster (or any Kubernetes cluster)
• ingress-nginx installed
• cert-manager installed (for TLS certificates)
• ArgoCD installed and pointed at your Git repo
• A DNS record for your chosen hostname

Step 1: Review the Kubernetes Stack Layout

The OpenHamClock stack lives here:

• openhamclock/

Files in this stack:

• openhamclock/00-namespace.yaml Creates the openhamclock namespace.
• openhamclock/10-pvc.yaml Creates the openhamclock-config PVC.
• openhamclock/20-deployment.yaml Runs the ggilman/openhamclock container and mounts /config.
• openhamclock/30-service.yaml Exposes the app internally on port 3000.
• openhamclock/40-ingress.yaml Publishes the app externally with TLS.
• openhamclock/kustomization.yaml Ties everything together and controls image tag overrides.

Step 2: Set Runtime Settings

Most customization happens in deployment/PVC/Kustomize:

Set timezone in:

• openhamclock/20-deployment.yaml

env:
  - name: TZ
    value: "UTC"

Set persistent storage size in:

• openhamclock/10-pvc.yaml

resources:
  requests:
    storage: 5Gi

Set image tag in:

• openhamclock/kustomization.yaml

images:
  - name: ggilman/openhamclock
    newTag: "1.2"

Step 3: Configure Ingress (TLS + DNS)

Ingress is defined in:

• openhamclock/40-ingress.yaml

Current host and TLS secret:

tls:
  - hosts:
      - hamclock.w3rdw.radio
    secretName: hamclock-w3rdw-radio-tls
rules:
  - host: hamclock.w3rdw.radio

This manifest uses:

• ingressClassName: nginx
• cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-dns
• nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/force-ssl-redirect: "true"

Make sure your DNS record points to your ingress controller and your letsencrypt-dns cluster issuer is working.

Step 4: Deploy via ArgoCD

ArgoCD app definition:

• argo-cd/applications/openhamclock-app.yaml

It tracks path: openhamclock and auto-syncs:

destination:
  namespace: openhamclock
syncPolicy:
  automated:
    prune: true
    selfHeal: true

Commit your changes to Git and ArgoCD should deploy/update automatically.

Step 5: Access OpenHamClock

Once synced, OpenHamClock should be available at:

• https://hamclock.w3rdw.radio

Conclusion

That’s it! Congratulations! You now have OpenHamClock running as a fully declarative Kubernetes app with persistent storage, TLS ingress, and GitOps deployment via ArgoCD.

This replaces ad-hoc container management with a repeatable workflow where all changes are tracked in Git and continuously reconciled in-cluster.

As always, if you have any questions or want to contribute to the above information, feel free to start a Discussion on GitHub, submit a GitHub PR to recommend changes/fixes in the article, or reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Finally, feel free to join my Matrix channel for W3RDW and chat with me there.

Thanks for reading!

73 from Robert, W3RDW