Configuring calicoctl to connect to the Kubernetes API datastore

Complete list of Kubernetes API connection configuration

Configuration file option Environment variable Description Schema
datastoreType DATASTORE_TYPE Indicates the datastore to use. [Default: etcdv3] kubernetes, etcdv3
kubeconfig KUBECONFIG When using the Kubernetes datastore, the location of a kubeconfig file to use, e.g. /path/to/kube/config. string
k8sAPIEndpoint K8S_API_ENDPOINT Location of the Kubernetes API. Not required if using kubeconfig. [Default: https://kubernetes-api:443] string
k8sCertFile K8S_CERT_FILE Location of a client certificate for accessing the Kubernetes API, e.g., /path/to/cert. string
k8sKeyFile K8S_KEY_FILE Location of a client key for accessing the Kubernetes API, e.g., /path/to/key. string
k8sCAFile K8S_CA_FILE Location of a CA for accessing the Kubernetes API, e.g., /path/to/ca. string
k8sToken K8S_TOKEN Token to be used for accessing the Kubernetes API. string

Note: All environment variables may also be prefixed with "CALICO_", for example "CALICO_DATASTORE_TYPE" and "CALICO_KUBECONFIG" etc. may be used. This is useful if the non-prefixed names clash with existing environment variables defined on your system.

Examples

Kubernetes command line

DATASTORE_TYPE=kubernetes KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config calicoctl get nodes

Example configuration file

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
kind: CalicoAPIConfig
metadata:
spec:
  datastoreType: "kubernetes"
  kubeconfig: "/path/to/.kube/config"

Example using environment variables

$ export DATASTORE_TYPE=kubernetes
$ export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config
$ calicoctl get workloadendpoints

And using CALICO_ prefixed names:

$ export CALICO_DATASTORE_TYPE=kubernetes
$ export CALICO_KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config
$ calicoctl get workloadendpoints

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.