:: Kubernetes / K3s / Helm / Redis / MariaDB / Ansible / WordPress / Route 53 / Sendinblue

Ported second generation Chicago Gang History website from Pantheon to a multi-node K3s cluster on Digital Ocean, saving Zach over $400 a month in fees after an unexpected price hike from his hosting provider.

I wrote about the migration in Moving from Pantheon.io to Kubernetes so others could follow my footsteps. During the process I updated and open sourced Zach’s child theme codeberg.org/vhs/valkyrie as well.

Work Involved

• Migration from pantheon.io to Kubernetes
• Migrated from WP Cron to kube-native CronJob
• Moved to Helm and Ansible for deployments
• Used K8s Init Container for hardened WP builds
• Integrated Redis Object Cache with WordPress
• Added transactional email support with SMTP
• Added contact form and restored Newsletter
• Created “Gangs Nearby” related page feature

Achievements

• Relaunched site within 30 days of client request
• Scaled visitors back up to 9000+ visits per month
• Increased 2nd month ad rev 57% vs same last year