Cluster API Control Plane Provider Talos

The TalosControlPlane resource uses the generateType field to determine how the Talos machine configuration is handled:

1. controlplane: The provider automatically generates the Talos configuration. This is the recommended approach for most users as it allows the provider to expose the resulting talosconfig in the resource's .status.talosConfig field.
2. none: The user provides a complete Talos machine configuration via the data field. The provider blindly copies this data to .status.controlPlaneData for upstream CAPI controllers to use. In this mode, the provider cannot generate a talosconfig for you.

This generateType logic applies to both control plane and worker ("join") nodes.

You can install the provider using the clusterctl CLI. This command initializes the Talos control plane provider, the Talos bootstrap provider, and a chosen infrastructure provider.

clusterctl init -c talos -b talos -i <infra-provider-of-choice>

You can build the provider using make. This generates a component YAML file that can be applied directly to your management cluster via kubectl.

1. Run make release from the root directory to create _out/control-plane-components.yaml.
2. Apply the generated file to your management cluster:

kubectl apply -f _out/control-plane-components.yaml

The provider supports the TalosControlPlane API type. For a standard configuration where the provider generates the Talos configuration for you, set generateType to controlplane within the controlPlaneConfig section.

Note: You must provide an infrastructureTemplate in the spec.

After creation, you can retrieve the generated talosconfig using: kubectl get talosconfig -o yaml <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.talosConfig}'

apiVersion: controlplane.cluster.x-k8s.io/v1alpha3
kind: TalosControlPlane
metadata:
  name: talos-cp
spec:
  version: v1.18.1
  replicas: 1
  infrastructureTemplate:
    kind: MetalMachineTemplate
    apiVersion: infrastructure.cluster.x-k8s.io/v1alpha3
    name: talos-cp
  controlPlaneConfig:
    controlplane:
      generateType: controlplane

If you need to provide a complete, pre-generated Talos machine configuration, set generateType to none and provide the configuration content in the data field.

Warning: Using generateType: none prevents the provider from generating a talosconfig for you. You must manually manage the talosconfig used during the initial generation (e.g., via talosctl config generate).

apiVersion: control-plane.cluster.x-k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: TalosControlPlane
metadata:
  name: talos-0
  labels:
    cluster.x-k8s.io/cluster-name: talos
spec:
  controlPlaneConfig:
    init:
        generateType: none
        data: |
            version: v1alpha1
            machine:
            type: controlplane
            token: xxxxxx
            ...
            ...
  ...
  ...

The following flags are available for the controller manager:

# Example usage (conceptual)
./controller-manager --enable-leader-election --webhook-port 9443

To integrate the provider's flags into a custom CLI or tool, call InitFlags passing a *pflag.FlagSet. This function also includes logging configuration flags via logsv1.AddFlags.

import (
	"github.com/spf13/pflag"
	"github.com/siderolabs/cluster-api-control-plane-provider-talos"
)

func main() {
	fs := pflag.NewFlagSet("my-provider", pflag.ContinueOnError)
	controlplanev1alpha3.InitFlags(fs)
	fs.Parse([]string{"--enable-leader-election"})
}