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k3s etcd commands

This article provides instructions for setting up and using `etcdctl` commands with a k3s cluster that uses embedded etcd. It details how to download the correct etcd binary version, configure TLS certificates for authentication, and run administrative commands such as checking performance, endpoint status, health, alarms, compaction, defragmentation, and key retrieval. The article also notes that the etcd metrics HTTP port changed to 2382 starting from specific k3s versions.

read1 min views22 publishedOct 27, 2020

Setup etcdctl using the instructions at https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/tag/v3.4.13 (changed path to /usr/local/bin ): Note: if you want to match th etcdctl binaries with the embedded k3s etcd version, please run the curl command for getting the version first and adjust ETCD_VER below accordingly: curl -L --cacert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt --cert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt --key /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key https://127.0.0.1:2379/version ETCD_VER=v3.4.13 GOOGLE_URL=https://storage.googleapis.com/etcd GITHUB_URL=https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download

DOWNLOAD_URL=${GOOGLE_URL}
rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
rm -rf /tmp/etcd-download-test && mkdir -p /tmp/etcd-download-test
curl -L ${DOWNLOAD_URL}/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xzvf /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin --strip-components=1
rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
etcd --version

etcdctl version etcdctl check perf ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl check perf etcdctl endpoint status ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl endpoint status --cluster --write-out=table etcdctl endpoint health ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl endpoint health --cluster --write-out=table etcdctl alarm list ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl alarm list etcdctl compact rev=$(ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl endpoint status --write-out fields | grep Revision | cut -d: -f2) ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl compact $rev etcdctl defrag ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl defrag --cluster etcdctl get ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl get / --prefix --keys-only

  • curl metrics NOTE Since the following k3s versions, the HTTP port moved to 2382 (the example below uses port 2379):
  • v1.25.15+k3s1
  • v1.26.10+k3s1
  • v1.27.7+k3s1
  • v1.28.3+k3s1
  • v1.29.0+k3s1 curl -L --cacert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt --cert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt --key /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key https://127.0.0.1:2379/metrics
  • curl version NOTE Since the following k3s versions, the HTTP port moved to 2382 (the example below uses port 2379):
  • v1.25.15+k3s1
  • v1.26.10+k3s1
  • v1.27.7+k3s1
  • v1.28.3+k3s1
  • v1.29.0+k3s1 curl -L --cacert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt --cert /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt --key /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key https://127.0.0.1:2379/version
- export all environment variables (thanks to @clementnuss)
export ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379'
export ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt'
export ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt'
export ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key'
export ETCDCTL_API=3
source & further reading
gist.github.com — original article agent-proxy — a zero-dep proxy that shows the bloat in Claude Code's requests (ranked tool table + full readable Markdown of every request) PowerShell profile and test suite A plan-of-plans for a production-grade end-to-end e-commerce website.
── more in #developer-tools 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @k3s 3 stories trending now
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