Configure calicoctl to connect to an etcd datastore

Big picture

Learn how to configure the calicoctl CLI tool for an etcd cluster.

Value

The calicoctl CLI tool provides helpful administrative commands for interacting with a Calico cluster.

Concepts

calicoctl vs kubectl

In previous releases, calicoctl has been required to manage Calico API resources in the projectcalico.org/v3 API group. The calicoctl CLI tool provides important validation and defaulting on these APIs.

In newer releases, the Calico API server performs that defaulting and validation server-side, exposing the same API semantics without a dependency on calicoctl. For this reason, we recommend installing the Calico API server and using kubectl instead of calicoctl for most operations.

calicoctl is still required for the following subcommands:

• calicoctl node
• calicoctl ipam
• calicoctl convert
• calicoctl version

calicoctl is also required for non-Kubernetes platforms such as OpenStack.

How to

Complete list of etcd configuration options

Configuration file option	Environment variable	Description	Schema
datastoreType	DATASTORE_TYPE	Indicates the datastore to use. If unspecified, defaults to kubernetes. (optional)	kubernetes, etcdv3
etcdEndpoints	ETCD_ENDPOINTS	A comma-separated list of etcd endpoints. Example: http://127.0.0.1:2379,http://127.0.0.2:2379 (required)	string
etcdDiscoverySrv	ETCD_DISCOVERY_SRV	Domain name to discover etcd endpoints via SRV records. Mutually exclusive with etcdEndpoints. Example: example.com (optional)	string
etcdUsername	ETCD_USERNAME	User name for RBAC. Example: user (optional)	string
etcdPassword	ETCD_PASSWORD	Password for the given user name. Example: password (optional)	string
etcdKeyFile	ETCD_KEY_FILE	Path to the file containing the private key matching the calicoctl client certificate. Enables calicoctl to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. Example: /etc/calicoctl/key.pem (optional)	string
etcdCertFile	ETCD_CERT_FILE	Path to the file containing the client certificate issued to calicoctl. Enables calicoctl to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. Example: /etc/calicoctl/cert.pem (optional)	string
etcdCACertFile	ETCD_CA_CERT_FILE	Path to the file containing the root certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the etcd server certificate. Configures calicoctl to trust the CA that signed the root certificate. The file may contain multiple root certificates, causing calicoctl to trust each of the CAs included. Example: /etc/calicoctl/ca.pem (optional)	string
etcdKey		The private key matching the calicoctl client certificate. Enables calicoctl to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. For example, please see below.(optional)	string
etcdCert		The client certificate issued to calicoctl. Enables calicoctl to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. For example, please see below.(optional)	string
etcdCACert		The root certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the etcd server certificate. Configures calicoctl to trust the CA that signed the root certificate. The config file may contain multiple root certificates, causing calicoctl to trust each of the CAs included. For example, please see below.(optional)	string

note

• If you are running with TLS enabled, ensure your endpoint addresses use HTTPS.
• When specifying through environment variables, the DATASTORE_TYPE environment is required for etcdv3.
• All environment variables may also be prefixed with CALICO_, for example CALICO_DATASTORE_TYPE and CALICO_ETCD_ENDPOINTS etc. may also be used. This is useful if the non-prefixed names clash with existing environment variables defined on your system
• The Configuration file options etcdCACert, etcdCert and etcdKey does not have corresponding environment variables.
• Previous versions of calicoctl supported ETCD_SCHEME and ETC_AUTHORITY environment variables as a mechanism for specifying the etcd endpoints. These variables are no longer supported. Use ETCD_ENDPOINTS instead.

Example configuration file

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
kind: CalicoAPIConfig
metadata:
spec:
  etcdEndpoints: https://etcd1:2379,https://etcd2:2379,https://etcd3:2379
  etcdKeyFile: /etc/calico/key.pem
  etcdCertFile: /etc/calico/cert.pem
  etcdCACertFile: /etc/calico/ca.pem

Example configuration file with inline CA certificate, client certificate and key

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
kind: CalicoAPIConfig
metadata:
spec:
  datastoreType: etcdv3
  etcdEndpoints: 'https://127.0.0.1:2379'
  etcdCACert: |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    MIICKzCCAZSgAwIBAgIBAzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADA3MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzER
    MA8GA1UEChMITmV0c2NhcGUxFTATBgNVBAsTDFN1cHJpeWEncyBDQTAeFw05NzEw
    MTgwMTM2MjVaFw05OTEwMTgwMTM2MjVaMEgxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMREwDwYDVQQK
    EwhOZXRzY2FwZTENMAsGA1UECxMEUHViczEXMBUGA==
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  etcdCert: |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    gI6iLXgMsp2EOlD56I6FA1jrCtNb01XQvX3eyFuA6g5T1jWGYBDtvQb0WRVkdUy9
    L/uK+sHQwtloCSuakcQAsWV9bajCQtHX8XGu25Yz56kpJ/OJjcishxT6pc/sthum
    A5PX739JsNUi/p5aG+H/6eNx+ukJP7QaM646YCfS5i8S9DJUvim+/BSlKi2ZiOCd
    0MYH4Xb7lmAOTNmTvSYpKo9J2fZ9erw0MYSBTyjh6F7PRbHBiivgUnJfGQ==
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  etcdKey: |
    -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
    k0dWj16h9P6TvfcNl2iwT4VIwx0uy2faWBED1DrCJcuQCy5nPrts2ZIaAWPi1t3t
    VbDKQvs+KXBEeqh0qYcYkejUXqIF0uKUFLjiQmZssjpL5RHqqWuYKbO87n+Jod1L
    TjGRHdbP0zF2U0LdjM17rc2hpJ3qrmgJ7pOLzbXMcOr+NP1ojRCArXhQ4iLs7D8T
    eHw9QH4luJYtnmk7x03izLMQdLWcKnUbqh/xOVPyazgJHXwRxwNXpMsBVGY=
    -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Example using environment variables

ETCD_ENDPOINTS=http://myhost1:2379 calicoctl get bgppeers

Example using etcd DNS discovery

ETCD_DISCOVERY_SRV=example.com calicoctl get nodes

Example using IPv6

Create a single node etcd cluster listening on IPv6 localhost [::1].

etcd --listen-client-urls=http://[::1]:2379 --advertise-client-urls=http://[::1]:2379

Use the etcd IPv6 cluster:

ETCD_ENDPOINTS=http://[::1]:2379 calicoctl get bgppeers

Example using mixed IPv4/IPv6

Create a single node etcd cluster listening on IPv4 and IPv6 localhost [::1].

etcd --listen-client-urls=http://[::1]:2379,http://127.0.0.1:2379 --advertise-client-urls=http://[::1]:2379

Use the IPv6 endpoint:

ETCD_ENDPOINTS=http://[::1]:2379 calicoctl get bgppeers

Use the IPv4 endpoint:

ETCD_ENDPOINTS=http://127.0.0.1:2379 calicoctl get bgppeers

calico/node

It is important to note that not only will calicoctl will use the specified keys directly on the host to access etcd, it will also pass on these environment variables and volume mount the keys into the started calico-node container.

Therefore, configuring calico/node for etcd is easily accomplished by running calicoctl node run with the parameters set correctly.

Checking the configuration

Here is a simple command to check that the installation and configuration is correct.

calicoctl get nodes

A correct setup will yield a list of the nodes that have registered. If an empty list is returned you are either pointed at the wrong datastore or no nodes have registered. If an error is returned then attempt to correct the issue then try again.

Next steps

Now you are ready to read and configure most aspects of Calico. You can find the full list of commands in the Command Reference.

The full list of resources that can be managed, including a description of each, can be found in the Resource Definitions.