Talos bootstrap — command reference

This is the detailed, copy-pasteable companion to docs/02-talos-bootstrap.md. Read that file first for the explanations — this one is here so you have every exact command in one place once you understand what they do.

Throughout, use the three control-plane and two worker addresses recorded in docs/network.md, plus the cluster's shared VIP. Give each machine a DHCP reservation (a fixed IP tied to its MAC address) before installation so its address remains stable.

Steps 1–2 below run once, total. Step 3 runs once per node (five times, using the matching role configuration). Steps 4–6 run once, total; Talos API commands target a control-plane node, while Kubernetes uses the VIP.

All commands assume you're running them from the root of this repo.

1. Generate machine configuration

talosctl gen config gitops-starter https://<VIP_IP>:6443 \
  --output-dir _out \
  --config-patch-control-plane @talos/patch-controlplane.yaml \
  --config-patch-control-plane @talos/patch-netbird.yaml \
  --config-patch-worker @talos/patch-worker.yaml \
  --config-patch-worker @talos/patch-longhorn.yaml \
  --config-patch-worker @talos/patch-netbird.yaml

Note the cluster endpoint here is the VIP, not any one node's address — every node needs to agree in advance on where the cluster "lives," and that address has to be the one that keeps working no matter which node is currently answering.

This writes three files into _out/ (already covered by this repo's .gitignore — they contain private keys and must never be committed):

controlplane.yaml — the machine configuration for a control-plane node, with the Raspberry Pi/VIP and non-secret NetBird patches baked in. It is applied identically to all three control-plane nodes.
worker.yaml — the machine configuration for the two Proxmox workers, with their role, Longhorn data-disk, and non-secret NetBird patches baked in. The NetBird setup key is deliberately absent from both generated files; enrollment uses a short-lived key applied separately and revoked afterward.
talosconfig — your client credentials for talking to the Talos API on this cluster (equivalent in spirit to a kubeconfig, but for Talos itself rather than Kubernetes).

gitops-starter is the cluster name — an arbitrary label baked into the generated certificates and config, used to tell clusters apart if you ever manage more than one. Port 6443 is the standard Kubernetes API server port.

2. Point talosctl at this cluster

export TALOSCONFIG=_out/talosconfig
talosctl config endpoint <NODE1_IP> <NODE2_IP> <NODE3_IP>

endpoint is which machine(s) talosctl is willing to talk to — giving it all three means it can still reach the cluster if any one of them is down. You'll pass --nodes per-command below for which machine a given command actually applies to — Talos always keeps those two concepts separate.

3. Apply the configuration — once per node

Boot each machine from its architecture-appropriate custom Talos image (see docs/01-prerequisites.md). Each boots into "maintenance mode" — alive enough to accept configuration, with nothing installed yet. Inspect its disks first:

talosctl get disks --insecure --nodes <NODE_IP>

For each Raspberry Pi control plane, confirm /dev/mmcblk0 is the intended system disk, then apply the control-plane configuration:

talosctl apply-config --insecure \
  --nodes <CONTROL_PLANE_IP> \
  --file _out/controlplane.yaml

For each Proxmox worker, confirm /dev/sda is the Talos system disk and /dev/sdb is the dedicated Longhorn disk selected by talos/patch-longhorn.yaml, then apply the worker configuration:

talosctl apply-config --insecure \
  --nodes <WORKER_IP> \
  --file _out/worker.yaml

--insecure is required for this one command only: the node has no certificates yet, so talosctl cannot authenticate to it normally. This is the one moment during setup where you trust the local network. After applying configuration, the node installs Talos and returns with authenticated API access. Configure all three control planes and both workers before continuing.

4. Bootstrap etcd — once, total

Talos is installed on all three nodes and Kubernetes components are starting, but the cluster has no data store yet. This one-time command initializes it:

talosctl bootstrap --nodes <NODE1_IP>

Run this exactly once, against exactly one of your three nodes — even though all three will end up running etcd as peers, only one needs telling to start the cluster; the other two discover and join the existing one. Running it again against an existing cluster can corrupt it.

5. Get your kubeconfig

talosctl kubeconfig --nodes <CONTROL_PLANE_IP> .

Downloads a kubeconfig through a control-plane node's Talos API into the current directory (also gitignored — it grants full cluster access). The resulting Kubernetes configuration points at the cluster VIP rather than one specific control plane. Merge it with ~/.kube/config or point KUBECONFIG at it directly:

export KUBECONFIG=$PWD/kubeconfig

6. Verify

kubectl get nodes

Expect to see five nodes, Ready, within a couple of minutes (it takes a moment for the default CNI — Talos ships Flannel out of the box — to clear each node's networking checks).

NAME              STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
talos-...         Ready    control-plane   90s   v1.3x.x
talos-...         Ready    control-plane   85s   v1.3x.x
talos-...         Ready    control-plane   80s   v1.3x.x
talos-...         Ready    worker          75s   v1.3x.x
talos-...         Ready    worker          70s   v1.3x.x

If any node is stuck on NotReady, give it another minute before troubleshooting — first boot does a lot of one-time work.

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