BigHaus

From docker-compose to Kubernetes with k3s

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If you can write a docker-compose.yml, you already understand most of Kubernetes. The concepts translate almost one-to-one — they’re just spelled differently. k3s is a lightweight distribution that runs the same Kubernetes you’d find in production, without needing a beefy server or a complicated setup. It works great on a laptop and equally well on a small VPS.

By the end of this article you’ll have nginx running with a Deployment, a Service, and an Ingress. Those three resources are the foundation of pretty much every app you’ll deploy on Kubernetes.

Kubernetes for the rest of us

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A practical guide to setting up and running a production-grade Kubernetes cluster — written for developers, not ops teams.

BigHaus

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BigHaus is my personal brand for IT work — and the platform behind it is built to match. Rather than delegating to managed hosting, I run a self-hosted K3s cluster in production, giving full ownership and control over the stack and its costs.

Approach

The goal was a GitOps platform: every service declared in version control, every change applied automatically. Getting K3s, a Dockerized Hugo site, Mailu for mail, Cert-Manager with Let’s Encrypt, and ArgoCD to operate as a coherent whole was the core challenge — not any single service, but the discipline of making them all declarative and self-healing. ArgoCD watches the repository and reconciles cluster state on every push, so deployments require no manual intervention.

Duurzame Bouwkeet

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Duurzame Bouwkeet builds off-grid and CO₂-neutral construction site offices for major Dutch enterprises. Their clients needed to control climate, lighting, and connected devices from a compact wall-mounted touchscreen — no keyboard, no technical knowledge assumed, running entirely on-device.

Approach

I was brought in as a freelance developer to build the frontend from scratch. Bundle size mattered here: the app runs directly on the touchscreen hardware, so I chose Svelte for its minimal runtime footprint and gentle learning curve — keeping the app fast on constrained hardware while ensuring any future developer could maintain it without friction. Real-time energy supply data and device state had to update instantly, which made WebSockets the only real option over the Node.js backend. Rather than polling, device changes are triggered via events — immediate feedback in a context where delayed response would feel broken.

Dutch Customs Integration

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Newminds built a customs integration for clients in the Dutch agricultural trade sector — specifically businesses dealing in potatoes and onions, where seasonal export volumes are high and documentation requirements are strict. Before the integration existed, shipping staff manually re-entered data from their ERP into a third-party customs handling platform to generate documents like EUR1 certificates and CVOs. The process was slow, error-prone, and bottlenecked heavily during peak export season.

AGRIO

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

AGRIO is a vertical ERP extension built on top of Microsoft Business Central, purpose-built for the agricultural trade sector. The platform automates the full chain from field to factory — sampling, sorting, transport planning, quality control, and production — for traders and trade houses across Europe dealing in field crops like potatoes and onions. I joined the AGRIO team at Newminds in September 2018, working on the product for three years as both a software engineer and product specialist.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m Daniël — software engineer behind BigHaus, building the web since 2016.

Stack

My Day to day is a mix of Vue/Nuxt, TypeScript, Java and Kubernetes. Comfortable across the whole pipeline — from CSS grid quirks to cluster management.

Now

Working as a Software Engineer @TRIMM where I get to build awesome websites, apps and tools for a range of clients.

BigHaus?

It’s a play on words: “Big” and “Haus” (German for “house”) means essentially a big house. If you translate it in Dutch, you’ll get “Groot Huis”, which is a pun on my name, being Daniël Groothuis.