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Calico Open Source 3.31 (latest) documentation

Install Calico on a single-host Kubernetes cluster

Big picture​

This gets you a single-host Kubernetes cluster with Calico in approximately 15 minutes.

Value​

Use this guide to quickly and easily try Calico features. To deploy a cluster suitable for production, refer to Calico on Kubernetes.

Before you begin​

Required

  • A Linux host that meets the following requirements:

    • x86-64, arm64, ppc64le, or s390x processor
    • 2CPU
    • 2GB RAM
    • 10GB free disk space
    • RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.x+, CentOS 7.x+, Ubuntu 18.04+, or Debian 9.x+

  • Calico can manage cali and tunl interfaces on the host

    If NetworkManager is present on the host, see Configure NetworkManager.

Concepts​

Operator based installation​

This quickstart guide uses the Tigera Operator to install Calico. The operator provides lifecycle management for Calico exposed via the Kubernetes API defined as a custom resource definition.

note

It is also possible to install Calico without an operator using Kubernetes manifests directly. For platforms and guides that do not use the Tigera Operator, you may notice some differences in the steps and Kubernetes resources compared to those presented in this guide.

How to​

The geeky details of what you get:

PolicyIPAMCNIOverlayRoutingDatastore

Create a single-host Kubernetes cluster​

  1. Follow the Kubernetes instructions to install kubeadm

    note

    After installing kubeadm, do not power down or restart the host. Instead, continue directly to the next step.

  2. As a regular user with sudo privileges, open a terminal on the host that you installed kubeadm on.

  3. Initialize the control plane using the following command.

    sudo kubeadm init --pod-network-cidr=192.168.0.0/16
    note

    If 192.168.0.0/16 is already in use within your network you must select a different pod network CIDR, replacing 192.168.0.0/16 in the above command.

  4. Execute the following commands to configure kubectl (also returned by kubeadm init).

    mkdir -p $HOME/.kube
    sudo cp -i /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/.kube/config
    sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/.kube/config

Install Calico​

  1. Install the Tigera Operator and custom resource definitions.

    kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.31.0/manifests/operator-crds.yaml
    kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.31.0/manifests/tigera-operator.yaml
    note

    Due to the large size of the CRD bundle, kubectl apply might exceed request limits. Instead, use kubectl create or kubectl replace.

  2. Install Calico by creating the necessary custom resource. For more information on configuration options available in this manifest, see the installation reference.

    kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projectcalico/calico/v3.31.0/manifests/custom-resources-bpf.yaml

    This will complete the Calico Open Source installation with the eBPF data plane as the default.

    note

    Before creating this manifest, read its contents and make sure its settings are correct for your environment. For example, you may need to change the default IP pool CIDR to match your pod network CIDR.

  3. Confirm that all of the pods are running with the following command.

    watch kubectl get pods -n calico-system

    Wait until each pod has the STATUS of Running.

    note

    The Tigera Operator installs resources in the calico-system namespace. Other install methods may use the kube-system namespace instead.

  4. Remove the taints on the control plane so that you can schedule pods on it.

    kubectl taint nodes --all node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane-

    It should return the following.

    node/<your-hostname> untainted

  5. Monitor the deployment by running the following command:

    watch kubectl get tigerastatus

    After a few minutes, all the Calico components display True in the AVAILABLE column.

    Expected output
    NAME                            AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
    apiserver                       True        False         False      4m9s
    calico                          True        False         False      3m29s
    goldmane                        True        False         False      3m39s
    ippools                         True        False         False      6m4s
    kubeproxy-monitor               True        False         False      6m15s
    whisker                         True        False         False      3m19s

    Congratulations! You now have a single-host Kubernetes cluster with Calico.

Next steps​

Required

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