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Creating a Talos Linux Cluster on Akamai Connected Cloud via the CLI

This guide will demonstrate how to create a highly available Kubernetes cluster with one worker using the Akamai Connected Cloud provider. Akamai Connected Cloud has a very well-documented REST API, and an open-source CLI tool to interact with the API which will be used in this guide. Make sure to follow installation and authentication instructions for the linode-cli tool. jq and talosctl also needs to be installed

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Upload image

Download the Akamai image akamai-amd64.raw.gz from Image Factory . Upload the image 
export REGION=us-ord

linode-cli image-upload --region ${REGION} --label talos akamai-amd64.raw.gz

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Create a Load Balancer

export REGION=us-ord

linode-cli nodebalancers create --region ${REGION} --no-defaults --label talos
export NODEBALANCER_ID=$(linode-cli nodebalancers list --label talos --format id --text --no-headers)
linode-cli nodebalancers config-create --port 443 --protocol tcp --check connection ${NODEBALANCER_ID}

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Create the Machine Configuration Files

Using the IP address (or DNS name, if you have created one) of the load balancer, generate the base configuration files for the Talos machines. Also note that the load balancer forwards port 443 to port 6443 on the associated nodes, so we should use 443 as the port in the config definition: 
export NODEBALANCER_IP=$(linode-cli nodebalancers list --label talos --format ipv4 --text --no-headers)

talosctl gen config talos-kubernetes-akamai https://${NODEBALANCER_IP} --with-examples=false

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Create the Linodes

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Create the Control Plane Nodes

Although root passwords are not used by Talos, Linode requires that a root password be associated with a linode during creation.
Run the following commands to create three control plane nodes: 
export IMAGE_ID=$(linode-cli images list --label talos --format id --text --no-headers)
export NODEBALANCER_ID=$(linode-cli nodebalancers list --label talos --format id --text --no-headers)
export NODEBALANCER_CONFIG_ID=$(linode-cli nodebalancers configs-list ${NODEBALANCER_ID} --format id --text --no-headers)
export REGION=us-ord
export LINODE_TYPE=g6-standard-4
export ROOT_PW=$(pwgen 16)

for id in $(seq 3); do
  linode_label="talos-control-plane-${id}"

  # create linode

  linode-cli linodes create  \
    --no-defaults \
    --root_pass ${ROOT_PW} \
    --type ${LINODE_TYPE} \
    --region ${REGION} \
    --image ${IMAGE_ID} \
    --label ${linode_label} \
    --private_ip true \
    --tags talos-control-plane \
    --group "talos-control-plane" \
    --metadata.user_data "$(base64 -i ./controlplane.yaml)"

  # change kernel to "direct disk"
  linode_id=$(linode-cli linodes list --label ${linode_label} --format id --text --no-headers)
  confiig_id=$(linode-cli linodes configs-list ${linode_id} --format id --text --no-headers)
  linode-cli linodes config-update ${linode_id} ${confiig_id} --kernel "linode/direct-disk"

  # add machine to nodebalancer
  private_ip=$(linode-cli linodes list --label ${linode_label} --format ipv4 --json | jq -r ".[0].ipv4[1]")
  linode-cli nodebalancers node-create ${NODEBALANCER_ID}  ${NODEBALANCER_CONFIG_ID}  --label ${linode_label} --address ${private_ip}:6443
done

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Create the Worker Nodes

Although root passwords are not used by Talos, Linode requires that a root password be associated with a linode during creation.
Run the following to create a worker node: 
export IMAGE_ID=$(linode-cli images list --label talos --format id --text --no-headers)
export REGION=us-ord
export LINODE_TYPE=g6-standard-4
export LINODE_LABEL="talos-worker-1"
export ROOT_PW=$(pwgen 16)

linode-cli linodes create  \
    --no-defaults \
    --root_pass ${ROOT_PW} \
    --type ${LINODE_TYPE} \
    --region ${REGION} \
    --image ${IMAGE_ID} \
    --label ${LINODE_LABEL} \
    --private_ip true \
    --tags talos-worker \
    --group "talos-worker" \
    --metadata.user_data "$(base64 -i ./worker.yaml)"

linode_id=$(linode-cli linodes list --label ${LINODE_LABEL} --format id --text --no-headers)
config_id=$(linode-cli linodes configs-list ${linode_id} --format id --text --no-headers)
linode-cli linodes config-update ${linode_id} ${config_id} --kernel "linode/direct-disk"

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Bootstrap Etcd

Set the endpoints and nodes: 
export LINODE_LABEL=talos-control-plane-1
export LINODE_IP=$(linode-cli linodes list --label ${LINODE_LABEL} --format ipv4 --json | jq -r ".[0].ipv4[0]")
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig config endpoint ${LINODE_IP}
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig config node ${LINODE_IP}
Bootstrap etcd: 
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig bootstrap

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Retrieve the kubeconfig

At this point, we can retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running: 
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig kubeconfig .
We can also watch the cluster bootstrap via: 
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig health
Alternatively, we can also watch the node overview, logs and real-time metrics dashboard via: 
talosctl --talosconfig talosconfig dashboard