Kubernetes Magic With Maxroll and Syself
Introduction
Maxroll.gg is a popular platform for gamers and fans of online action role-playing games. They serve thousands of users daily and provide useful resources and tools to enhance the gaming experience, such as guides, databases, and rankings.
The Challenge
Initially, Maxroll used Google Cloud Run as hosting solution, a good choice for a simple and scalable deployment. However, once the platform grew, both in users and complexity, it became clear that they needed to rebuild their infrastructure. The costs were too high and Google Cloud Run didn't offer the flexibility needed for their operations.
After studying the available options, Maxroll chose Hetzner as the cloud provider, which meant they needed to do self-managed Kubernetes - relying on DIY projects and tools. They used Terraform and Ansible to provision and manage the Hetzner infrastructure and RKE2 Kubernetes clusters. This self-managed solution offered them the necessary flexibility and was very cost-effective.
The downside was that the amount of work needed for the maintenance and operation of such an environment was taking a toll on their DevOps team. Maxroll didn't have the time to focus on new features and improvements, since their infrastructure demanded too much attention.
In order to leverage this, they searched for new solutions and services and found, among others, Suse Rancher, Sidero Talos, and Syself Autopilot.
The Solution
Syself Autopilot fulfilled their high demands on a Kubernetes solution in terms of flexibility, power, and ease of use.
On top of that, Maxroll wanted some specific technical features that Syself managed to deliver on very short notice. In this way, Maxroll was able to use the cost-efficient Hetzner ARM cloud machines as well as the super fast local storage of bare metal servers.
With Syself's client-oriented approach, Maxroll was able to spin up their production environment in no time and make it a lot more powerful than their previous one. The automation of Syself Autopilot aligns perfectly with their advanced setup of managing their infrastructure with GitOps.
Results
Maxroll went through an intense session of testing and bench-marking. The outcome: Syself proved to be more flexible than Rancher and offered a more polished experience compared to Sidero.
By adopting Syself, Maxroll significantly reduced the overhead associated with managing their Kubernetes clusters and infrastructure. Simultaneously, Maxroll was able to keep their infrastructure costs as low as with their self-managed solution.
