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.

K3s on BigHaus

From docker-compose to Kubernetes with k3s