add kamaji blog post

blog/2026/04-kamaji/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+title: Kamaji support for the mini-lab
+shortDescription:
+watermark: 'Blog'
+date: 2026-03-16T10:00:00+02:00
+description: A showcase of kamaji on top of metal-stack using the mini-lab
+authors: [mac641, ma-hartma]
+type: 'blog'
+tags:
+  - architecture
+  - kamaji
+  - mini-lab
+---
+
+We are happy to announce that `mini-lab`/`capi-lab` supports _Kamaji_ now. 🥳
+
+After getting to know the _Kamaji_ devs at [FOSDEM](https://metal-stack.io/blog/2026/02-fosdem-recap), the idea has been
+grown to explore _Kamaji_ on top of metal-stack. Of course, a first approach had to be made within our mini-lab. In this
+blog post we are going to give you some insights about the _Kamaji_ in the `mini-lab`/`capi-lab`.
+
+## What is _Kamaji_?
+
+<!-- ai -->
+
+_Kamaji_ is a Control Plane Manager for Kubernetes, designed to simplify how you run and manage Kubernetes clusters.
+Instead of deploying control planes on dedicated machines, _Kamaji_ runs them as pods within a single management
+cluster, cutting down on operational overhead and costs. It supports multi-tenancy, high availability, and integrates
+seamlessly with Cluster API, making it ideal for private clouds, public clouds, bare metal, and edge computing.
+
+<!-- /ai -->
+
+For further info, feel free to check out their [website](https://kamaji.clastix.io) and
+[GitHub](https://github.com/clastix/kamaji).
+
+## Architecture
+
+Since _Kamaji_ supports Cluster-API, we noticed that our
+[`cluster-api-provider-metal-stack`](https://github.com/metal-stack/cluster-api-provider-metal-stack) and especially the
+`capi-lab`, was the best starting point. Below you can find a simple architectural diagram to give you an overview how
+_Kamaji_ is used in the `mini-lab`/`capi-lab`:
+
+![](./overview-kamaji.drawio.svg)
+
+Compared to the mini-lab, the _Kamaji_ flavor in the `capi-lab` leaves every component as is but outsources the control
+plane capabilities of metal-stack to the _Kamaji_ Management Cluster. Here you are able to spawn tenants at will with
+just one `make` command.
+
+Of course, you can also manually create and join machines in the `mini-lab` and deploy _Kamaji_. We did not take that
+route since it did not allow us to automate the setup all that well.
+
+## Getting started
+
+Head over to the [`cluster-api-provider-metal-stack`](https://github.com/metal-stack/cluster-api-provider-metal-stack)
+and follow the setup instructions in `DEVELOPMENT.md` to try it out yourself.