# 💻 Mac — check your chip
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Chip # Check available disk
df -h ~
# 💻 Mac — check your chip
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Chip # Check available disk
df -h ~
# 💻 Mac — check your chip
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Chip # Check available disk
df -h ~
# 💻 Mac
-weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install orbstack
open -a OrbStack # required once for first-time GUI setup # Remove Multipass
-weight: 500;">brew uninstall multipass
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/multipass
# 💻 Mac
-weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install orbstack
open -a OrbStack # required once for first-time GUI setup # Remove Multipass
-weight: 500;">brew uninstall multipass
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/multipass
# 💻 Mac
-weight: 500;">brew -weight: 500;">install orbstack
open -a OrbStack # required once for first-time GUI setup # Remove Multipass
-weight: 500;">brew uninstall multipass
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd
-weight: 600;">sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/multipass - Multipass VMs boot in 30–60 seconds and pre-allocate memory whether you use it or not
- LoadBalancer services need MetalLB or port-forward hacks just to be reachable
- Switching between a dev cluster and a production-mirror cluster meant juggling kubeconfigs and hoping nothing crashed overnight
- On Apple Silicon, half the tooling had ARM64 quirks that needed a separate debugging session before I could even -weight: 500;">start the actual work - Crossplane compositions and provider development
- HashiCorp Vault AppRole workflows
- Helm chart testing
- Istio Gateway and VirtualService experimentation — though I break this constantly, which is fine - K8s 1.34 — matching our upcoming EKS -weight: 500;">upgrade target at Arkila Systems
- Vault PKI as the cluster Certificate Authority
- Istio with revision-based upgrades, identical to our EKS approach
- Crossplane with AWS provider
- Multi-node topology (control plane + 2 workers) mirroring production - Apple Silicon Mac (M1, M2, M3, or M4)
- Homebrew installed
- At least 16 GB RAM — 8 GB will technically work but you'll feel it when all four VMs are running
- About 20 GB free disk space - Part 1 (this article): Why OrbStack, architecture overview, M1 vs M4
- Part 2: Cluster 1 — Native K8s daily driver with Istio, Vault, Crossplane
- Part 3: Cluster 2 — VM creation, networking, and Vault PKI bootstrap
- Part 4: kubeadm 1.34 — M1 vs M4 CNI deep dive (Calico vs Cilium)
- Part 5: Istio revision-based upgrades and MetalLB on the VM cluster
- Part 6: Vault K8s auth and Crossplane — mirroring your EKS stack
- Part 7: Day 2 operations, CKS lab scenarios, and making it all stick
