Talos Commands¶

Common talosctl commands for debugging the Talos Linux cluster. Cluster lifecycle (config generation, apply, upgrade, reset) is handled by topf via the justfile recipes — talosctl complements it for read-only inspection and low-level operations.

Default Endpoint

Most commands default to the endpoint configured in ~/.talos/config. Set the default node/endpoint with:

talosctl config endpoint 10.20.10.1
talosctl config node 10.20.10.1

Health Checks¶

Cluster Health¶

Check the overall health of the cluster, including etcd, kubelet, and API server status.

talosctl health

Target a specific node:

talosctl health --nodes 10.20.10.1

Node Dashboard¶

Open an interactive dashboard showing real-time CPU, memory, and service status for a node.

talosctl dashboard

talosctl dashboard --nodes 10.20.10.4

Member List¶

List all cluster members as seen by Talos.

talosctl get members

JSON output (useful for scripting):

talosctl get members -o json | jq '.spec'

Service Management¶

List Services¶

Show the status of all Talos services on a node.

talosctl services --nodes 10.20.10.1

Service Logs¶

View logs for a specific Talos service (e.g., etcd, kubelet, apid, containerd).

# etcd logs
talosctl logs etcd --nodes 10.20.10.1

# kubelet logs
talosctl logs kubelet --nodes 10.20.10.1

# Follow logs in real time
talosctl logs etcd --nodes 10.20.10.1 -f

Service Status¶

Get detailed status for a specific service.

talosctl service etcd --nodes 10.20.10.1

etcd Operations¶

Membership¶

List etcd cluster members and their status.

talosctl etcd members --nodes 10.20.10.1

Etcd Status¶

Check etcd health and leadership.

talosctl etcd status --nodes 10.20.10.1

Remove a Member¶

Remove a failed etcd member (use with caution).

talosctl etcd remove-member <member-id> --nodes 10.20.10.1

Etcd Snapshot¶

Take a snapshot of the etcd database.

talosctl etcd snapshot etcd-backup.snapshot --nodes 10.20.10.1

etcd Quorum

With a 3-node control plane, losing more than 1 etcd member will break quorum. Always verify etcd membership before performing maintenance.

Kubeconfig¶

Refresh Kubeconfig¶

Generate or refresh the kubeconfig file for kubectl access.

talosctl kubeconfig --nodes 10.20.10.0

Write to a specific path:

talosctl kubeconfig ~/.kube/config --nodes 10.20.10.0

VIP Address

Use the VIP address (10.20.10.0) for kubeconfig generation to ensure HA access to the API server.

Configuration Inspection¶

View Running Config¶

Inspect the current machine configuration running on a node.

talosctl get machineconfig --nodes 10.20.10.1 -o yaml

Compare Configs¶

Diff the running config against the declared state (all nodes, redacted):

just diff   # topf apply --dry-run

Or against a single rendered file (just render writes them to output/):

talosctl apply-config --nodes 10.20.10.1 --file ./output/worker-01.yaml --dry-run

Version Information¶

Check the Talos version on a node.

talosctl version --nodes 10.20.10.1

Resource Inspection¶

Kernel Logs (dmesg)¶

View kernel messages from a node.

talosctl dmesg --nodes 10.20.10.4

Follow kernel messages:

talosctl dmesg --nodes 10.20.10.4 -f

Process List¶

List running processes on a node.

talosctl processes --nodes 10.20.10.1

Disk Usage¶

Check disk usage on a node.

talosctl usage /var --nodes 10.20.10.1

Container Images¶

List all container images on a node.

talosctl image list --nodes 10.20.10.1

Network Interfaces¶

Show network interfaces and addresses.

talosctl get addresses --nodes 10.20.10.1

Routes¶

Show routing table.

talosctl get routes --nodes 10.20.10.1

Node Operations¶

Reboot¶

Reboot a node (with wait for it to come back).

talosctl reboot --nodes 10.20.10.4 --wait

Shutdown¶

Shut down a node.

talosctl shutdown --nodes 10.20.10.4

Reset¶

Reset a node, wiping its state.

talosctl reset \
    --system-labels-to-wipe=EPHEMERAL \
    --system-labels-to-wipe=META \
    --reboot \
    --graceful=false \
    --nodes 10.20.10.4

Upgrade¶

Upgrade Talos on a node to a new version.

talosctl upgrade \
    --image factory.talos.dev/installer/<schematic-id>:v1.12.4 \
    --nodes 10.20.10.1 \
    --preserve \
    --wait

Troubleshooting Commands¶

Check Pod CIDR and Service CIDR¶

talosctl get clusterconfig --nodes 10.20.10.1 -o yaml | grep -A5 clusterNetwork

Check Certificate Validity¶

talosctl get certificate --nodes 10.20.10.1

Read Machine Config Patches¶

talosctl get machineconfig --nodes 10.20.10.1 -o yaml

Check Time Sync¶

talosctl get timestatus --nodes 10.20.10.1

Useful Aliases¶

Consider adding these aliases to your shell configuration:

alias tc='talosctl'
alias tcd='talosctl dashboard'
alias tch='talosctl health'
alias tcl='talosctl logs'
alias tcs='talosctl services'
alias tcm='talosctl get members'