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Install K3s on Raspberry Pi
Platform Engineering

Install K3s on Raspberry Pi (Step-by-Step 2026)

Step-by-step guide to install K3s on Raspberry Pi OS. Copy-paste commands, verify installation, and configure for production.

LB
Luca Berton
· 1 min read

Here is how to install K3s on a Raspberry Pi in 2026. Tested and verified.

Prerequisites

  • Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (2 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB recommended)
  • Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) or Ubuntu Server ARM64
  • MicroSD card (32 GB+, A2 rated preferred)

Enable cgroups

Edit /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt (or /boot/cmdline.txt on older Raspberry Pi OS) and append:

cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory

Reboot: sudo reboot

Install K3s

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -

Verify

sudo k3s kubectl get nodes
sudo k3s kubectl get pods -A

Add Worker Nodes (Other Pis)

On the server Pi:

sudo cat /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/node-token

On each worker Pi:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_URL=https://SERVER_IP:6443 K3S_TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN sh -

Optimize for Raspberry Pi

# Install without Traefik to save memory
curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | INSTALL_K3S_EXEC="--disable traefik --disable servicelb" sh -

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