Skip to main content

​
Synopsis

talosctl is the CLI for out-of-band management of Kubernetes nodes created by Talos Linux. 
talosctl [command] [flags]

​
Description

The talosctl command provides a comprehensive interface for managing Talos Linux clusters. It enables you to:
  • Manage cluster lifecycle (create, destroy, scale)
  • Perform node operations (reboot, upgrade, reset)
  • Configure machines and generate configurations
  • Troubleshoot and monitor cluster health
  • Interact with Kubernetes and etcd

​
Global Flags

​
Connection Flags

​
--talosconfig
string
The path to the Talos configuration fileDefault: $TALOSCONFIG environment variable, or ~/.talos/config, or /var/run/secrets/talos.dev/configExample:
talosctl --talosconfig ./my-config version
​
--nodes
string[]
Target the specified nodes for the operationCan be specified multiple times or as comma-separated values. Short flag: -nExample:
talosctl -n 10.5.0.2,10.5.0.3 version
talosctl --nodes 10.5.0.2 --nodes 10.5.0.3 version
​
--endpoints
string[]
Override default endpoints in Talos configurationCan be specified multiple times or as comma-separated values. Short flag: -eExample:
talosctl -e 10.5.0.1:50000 version
​
--context
string
Context to be used in commandSpecifies which context from the talosconfig file to use.Example:
talosctl --context production version
​
--cluster
string
Cluster to connect to if a proxy endpoint is usedShort flag: -cExample:
talosctl -c my-cluster version

​
SideroV1 Authentication

​
--siderov1-keys-dir
string
Path to the SideroV1 auth PGP keys directoryDefault: $SIDEROV1_KEYS_DIR or ~/.talos/siderov1-keysOnly valid for contexts that use SideroV1 authentication.

​
Command Groups

​
Talos Cluster Management

Commands for managing running Talos clusters:
  • apply-config - Apply a new configuration to a node
  • bootstrap - Bootstrap the etcd cluster
  • config - Manage the client configuration file (talosconfig)
  • dashboard - Cluster dashboard with real-time metrics
  • disks - Get the list of disks from the machine
  • dmesg - Retrieve kernel logs
  • edit - Edit a resource from the default editor
  • etcd - Manage etcd
  • events - Stream runtime events
  • get - Get a specific resource or list of resources
  • health - Check cluster health
  • inspect - Inspect internals of Talos
  • kubeconfig - Download the admin kubeconfig from the node
  • list - List directory contents
  • logs - Retrieve logs for a service
  • memory - Show memory usage
  • patch - Update field(s) of a resource using a JSON patch
  • processes - List running processes
  • read - Read a file on the machine
  • reboot - Reboot a node
  • reset - Reset a node
  • restart - Restart a process
  • rollback - Rollback a node to the previous installation
  • service - Manage services
  • shutdown - Shutdown a node
  • stats - Get container stats
  • support - Generate support bundle
  • upgrade - Upgrade Talos on the target node
  • upgrade-k8s - Upgrade Kubernetes control plane
  • version - Print version information

​
Local Cluster Commands

Commands for managing local development clusters:
  • cluster create - Create a local Talos cluster
  • cluster destroy - Destroy a local cluster
  • cluster show - Show cluster details

​
Offline Configuration Management

Commands for generating and managing machine configurations offline:
  • gen config - Generate a set of configuration files
  • gen secrets - Generate secrets bundle
  • gen crt - Generate X.509 certificates
  • gen key - Generate Ed25519 private key
  • gen keypair - Generate X.509 key pair
  • machineconfig gen - Generate machine configuration
  • machineconfig patch - Patch machine configuration
  • validate - Validate config

​
Examples

​
Display Version Information

# Show client and server versions
talosctl version

# Show only client version
talosctl version --client

# Show short version
talosctl version --short
Output: 
Client:
	Tag:         v1.8.0
	SHA:         abc123def
	Built:       2024-01-15T10:30:00Z
	Go version:  go1.21.5
	OS/Arch:     linux/amd64
Server:
	NODE:        worker-1
	Tag:         v1.8.0
	SHA:         abc123def
	Built:       2024-01-15T10:30:00Z
	Go version:  go1.21.5
	OS/Arch:     linux/amd64

​
Using Global Flags

# Target specific nodes
talosctl -n 10.5.0.2,10.5.0.3 get members

# Use specific context
talosctl --context production get nodes

# Override endpoints
talosctl -e 10.5.0.1:50000 version

# Combine multiple flags
talosctl --context staging -n 10.5.0.5 -e 10.5.0.1:50000 health

​
Configuration File Management

# Use custom talosconfig location
talosctl --talosconfig ./configs/prod-config version

# Set via environment variable
export TALOSCONFIG=./configs/prod-config
talosctl version

​
Multiple Nodes Operations

# Run command on multiple nodes (parallel execution)
talosctl -n 10.5.0.2,10.5.0.3,10.5.0.4 version

# Check services across all control plane nodes
talosctl -n 10.5.0.2,10.5.0.3,10.5.0.4 service kubelet

​
Environment Variables

​
TALOSCONFIG
string
Default path to the talosconfig fileExample:
export TALOSCONFIG=~/.talos/production-config
​
SIDEROV1_KEYS_DIR
string
Default path to SideroV1 keys directoryExample:
export SIDEROV1_KEYS_DIR=~/.talos/siderov1-keys

​
Exit Codes

  • 0 - Success
  • 1 - General error
  • Non-zero - Command-specific error

​
See Also

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us