On-Prem Kubernetes Cluster Setup

I need an experienced Kubernetes engineer to guide me through configuring and standing up a fresh on-premises cluster from scratch. The focus is strictly on configuration and management; I’m not looking for application deployment help right now—just a solid, production-ready control plane and worker node layout inside my data center.

Here’s what I’m aiming for: a multi-node cluster installed with kubeadm (or another proven approach you can justify), properly joined workers, a reliable networking layer (Calico or Flannel are both acceptable), and the essential add-ons—RBAC, role-based namespace structure, storage classes tied to my existing iSCSI targets, and basic monitoring hooks so I can bolt on Prometheus and Grafana afterward. Package updates and version pinning must be handled cleanly so the cluster can be upgraded without downtime later.

Deliverables I need from you:
• Step-by-step implementation plan tailored to my hardware and network
• Hands-on assistance (via SSH or screen-share) to install and configure the control plane and two worker nodes
• YAML manifests or scripts used during setup, stored in a Git repo for future reference
• A concise post-installation document outlining how to add new nodes, apply patches, and back up the cluster

Once the cluster is up and smoke-tested—kubectl returning healthy status for all components and a demo workload scheduling across nodes—I’ll consider the job complete. If this sounds like your wheelhouse, let’s move forward.