Setup Talos Linux

Prerequisites

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Before setting up Talos Linux, make sure you have the following:

• Compatible hardware: An old physical server, desktop, or any spare machine where you can install Talos Linux. (Alternatively, you can use a VM, but bare metal is often preferred for homelabs.)
• Bootable USB drive: An extra USB stick to create a Talos Linux boot medium. This will be used to install or boot into Talos on your target machine.
• Access to your home network: You’ll need access to your router or DHCP server in order to assign a static IP address to the machine running Talos.
• Basic networking knowledge: Comfort with concepts like IP addressing and DHCP reservations will make the setup easier.

Setup Bootable USB Drive

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We’ll use Ventoy to prepare a bootable USB drive. Ventoy is a powerful tool that allows you to copy multiple ISO images to a single USB stick and boot from them without reformatting.

Install Ventoy

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1. Download Ventoy from the official release page.
2. Plug in your USB drive (make sure to back up any important data — the setup will erase it). Once installed, your USB drive will be Ventoy-enabled.

Advantages of Ventoy

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• Multi-boot support: Store and boot multiple ISOs on a single USB stick.
• Easy updates: Just copy or delete ISO files, no need to recreate the boot media.

Install Suitable talos linux

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Talos Linux provides an Image Factory, an online tool that lets you build custom Talos images with specific system extensions included.

Steps

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1. Go to the Talos Linux Image Factory.
2. Select the base Talos Linux version you want to install.
3. Add the following system extensions to ensure compatibility with your setup:

• Intel Based Systems
  • siderolabs/i915
  • siderolabs/intel-ice-firmware
  • siderolabs/intel-ucode
  • siderolabs/mei
• Longhorn Requirements
  • siderolabs/util-linux-tools
  • siderolabs/iscsi-tools

4. Generate and download the image (ISO or disk image, depending on your target hardware).
5. Copy the image to your Ventoy-enabled USB drive.

Booting Into Talos Linux

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When you boot the target machine with the Talos image:

• The system will start up and drop into maintenance mode.
• Maintenance mode is a temporary state that allows interactive access to the node for diagnostics and initial configuration.
• In this mode you can interact with Talos using talosctl in an insecure way (without needing an authenticated talosconfig). This is only meant for setup or troubleshooting.

⚠️ Important: Once the system completes setup, Talos will no longer allow insecure access. From that point on, you must use a valid, authenticated talosconfig file for all API interactions.

Steps:

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1. List available disks on the control plane node

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export CONTROL_PLANE_IP="<Static IP of Node>"
talosctl get disks --insecure --nodes $CONTROL_PLANE_IP

This shows all disks. Identify the disk where Talos will be installed (e.g., nvme0n1).

2. Generate the Talos configuration file

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• After Getting ID of disk, pass it to DISK_NAME

export CLUSTER_NAME="<Cluster Name (anything)>"
export DISK_NAME=nvme0n1
talosctl gen config $CLUSTER_NAME https://$CONTROL_PLANE_IP:6443 \
    --install-disk /dev/$DISK_NAME

• What Each Generated File Does ?
  • talosconfig -> The client configuration file that allows talosctl to securely authenticate and manage Talos nodes
  • controlplane.yaml -> The machine configuration for your control plane node(s). Defines networking, disks, extensions, and cluster roles
  • worker.yaml -> The machine configuration for worker nodes that will join the cluster and run workloads.

3. Update controlplane.yaml for a Single-Node Cluster

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When running a single-node Talos cluster, you need to update the generated controlplane.yaml to reflect that this node will host both control plane and workload components.

Open the generated controlplane.yaml file.

• Enable allowSchedulingOnControlPlanes for allowing scheduling pods on control plane.

  cluster:
    allowSchedulingOnControlPlanes: true
  

• Remove node.kubernetes.io/exclude-from-external-load-balancers label for allowing external loadbalancer to send traffic to controlplane node.

  ## Remove is this from controlplane.yaml
  machine:
    nodeLabels:
      node.kubernetes.io/exclude-from-external-load-balancers:
  

• Update image and enable wipe flag for installation disk is completely wiped before Talos installs.
  • update image with installer image shown in Image Factory, Initial Installation

  machine:
    install:
      image: <Initial Installation - Installer Image>
      wipe: true
  

4. Apply the configuration to the control plane node.

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talosctl apply-config --insecure --nodes $CONTROL_PLANE_IP --file controlplane.yaml

5. Set the endpoint to the control plane node.

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talosctl --talosconfig=./talosconfig config endpoints $CONTROL_PLANE_IP

6. Bootstrap the etcd and control plane nodes.

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talosctl bootstrap --nodes $CONTROL_PLANE_IP --talosconfig=./talosconfig

7. Fetch Kubeconfig to local machine.

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talosctl kubeconfig --nodes $CONTROL_PLANE_IP --talosconfig=./talosconfig