Initial Edge Host Configuration with Palette TUI

When you boot an Edge host, the Terminal User Interface (TUI) launches automatically and allows you to configure the host and its network environment. This includes the configuration of an OS user, machine hostname, IP address, Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), and Domain Name System (DNS) server. These settings persist even after you reset the host.

You may already have specified some of these configurations in the user-data file in the EdgeForge process or have supplied them with site-specific user-data, and can either keep them as they are or update them during this step. For more information about EdgeForge and site user data, refer to EdgeForge Workflow and Apply Site User Data.

Upgrade Notes

• The TUI introduced in Palette version 4.8.6 (CanvOS version 4.8.1) does not start automatically on Edge hosts upgraded directly from Palette versions prior to 4.6.32 (CanvOS versions earlier than 4.6.21). To fix this issue, reboot the hosts, or issue the following command on each host:

  • Appliance mode - systemctl restart palette-tui
  • Agent mode - systemctl restart spectro-palette-tui

• When upgrading an Edge host from an Agent version earlier than 4.3, the initial TUI configuration wizard does not start automatically. To launch the setup manually, issue the command /opt/spectrocloud/bin/palette-tui in the terminal.

Limitations

• Depending on the console environment, the TUI may not display the full QR code for Palette registration. This issue has been observed in the VMware vSphere web console, where limited console window size can cause the QR code to appear partially truncated.
• In Agent mode, modifying VLAN settings using the TUI is allowed only if the settings were created via the TUI or Local UI. Pre-existing settings are read-only. If you attempt to update pre-existing network settings via the TUI, a new configuration is created alongside the existing one. To manage pre-existing configurations, use the original configuration method, such as systemd-networkd, Netplan, or NetworkManager.
• The TUI management interface cannot be changed after cluster registration.
• You cannot use the TUI to configure network bonds or bridges; you must use Local UI instead.

Prerequisites

• An Edge host installed with Edge Installer 4.3 or later.

• The Edge host must not have an active cluster deployed on it.

• A keyboard or another input device connected to the Edge host.

Set up Edge Host

1. Power on the Edge host. The GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) screen displays the following options. Do not make any input and allow Palette to choose the boot option automatically.

   warning

   The following table describes each option in the GRUB screen for your information. However, you should never manually change the boot option. Doing so may cause Edge cluster deployment failures.

   Option	Description
   Palette eXtended Kubernetes - Edge	This option boots the active image on your Edge host. If the Edge host is already part of a cluster, the active image is the image that your cluster uses.
   Palette eXtended Kubernetes - Edge (fallback)	This option boots the passive image on your Edge host. If you have updated the cluster with a new cluster profile, the passive image is the image used by the previous version of the cluster.
   Palette eXtended Kubernetes - Edge recovery	This option boots the recovery image. The recovery image is the OS image in the installer ISO. It does not include Kubernetes. The Palette agent is also inactive when this option is used, which means that the Edge host will not attempt to register with Palette.
   Palette eXtended Kubernetes - Edge Reset	This option wipes all data and resets the Edge host to the state after a fresh installation. The difference between this option and the recovery option is that the reset option wipes all application data and the Palette agent will be active after a reset. This will not affect the registration if the Edge host is already registered.
   Palette eXtended Kubernetes - Edge Registration	This option boots the Edge host to the registration phase. For more information, refer to Edge Host Registration.

2. When you start the Edge host, the Palette TUI landing page opens automatically and displays the following system information:

   • Palette TUI version
   • Platform or virtualization environment
   • Central processing unit (CPU) type and count
   • Total system random access memory (RAM)
   • Host name
   • Host unique identifier (UID)
   • IP address
   • Agent version
   • Local UI link
   • Palette endpoint
   • QR code for Palette registration (if you provided the value in the stylus.site.registrationURL parameter of user data)

   When accessing the Edge host with an SSH connection, you can issue the command /opt/spectrocloud/bin/palette-tui to launch the TUI.

   info

   You can also use the command /opt/spectrocloud/bin/palette-tui to access the TUI after completing the initial setup if you need to review or adjust any configuration. However, once you deploy a cluster on the Edge host, the TUI can only be used for validation purposes; editing configurations is not allowed.

   Starting with Palette version 4.10.13, the landing page signposts whether the Edge host has a login user configured for the OS and Local UI:

   • If no login user exists, the landing page displays the yellow warning Setup required: press F2 to create login user for ssh and LocalUI, and the footer reads <F2> Create login. Pressing F2 opens the Create User page directly.

   • If a login user already exists, the landing page displays its standard message and the footer reads <F2> Customize. Pressing F2 opens the customize flow described in the following steps.

   The warning and the footer label automatically revert once a login user is created.

3. Press F2 to customize your settings.

4. If you configured a user in your user-data file in the EdgeForge step, the TUI displays the User Login page. For more information, refer to Prepare User Data.

   If you did not configure a user in your user-data file during EdgeForge or provide site user data, the TUI displays the Create User page. This allows you to create an OS user with the necessary permissions to operate Palette. Enter a username and password to create a new user and press the ENTER key to progress to the next screen.

   info

   The user kairos always exists in the OS. If you configured a username and password in your user data, you can use this account to log in to both the OS and the Local UI.

   If the password is expired, for example, when stylus.site.users[*].passwordExpiry is set to a past date in user data, the TUI prompts for a password change.

   Note that you cannot create this user during initial configuration as this user already exists.

5. The terminal displays a console for you to provide hostname and network configurations to the Edge host.

   

   Check the existing hostname and, optionally, change it to a new one. Use the TAB key or the up and down arrow keys to switch between fields. When you make a change, press ENTER to apply the change.

6. In Network Adapter, choose the interface that the Edge host uses for management traffic. Management traffic includes Local UI access, communication between Edge hosts, and content synchronization.

   From the Management Interface drop-down menu, select None, a network interface, or a VLAN sub-interface. If you select None, the Edge host uses the network interface associated with the default route.

   You can configure the management interface in the Edge Installer user-data file. A selection made in the TUI overrides the value from user-data. After initial setup, a selection made in Local UI overrides the value from the TUI.

   Use the TAB key to switch between the Management Interface drop-down menu and the network adapter table. The selected management interface persists after the Edge host reboots. After you complete the initial setup, the selected interface is displayed as Mgmt interface on the Palette TUI landing page.

   

   info

   The management interface controls Edge host management traffic only. To control Kubernetes cluster traffic, specify host.nicName in the machine pool configuration. This interface is used for node IP selection, the Kubernetes control plane API, etcd, and the cluster virtual IP address (VIP).

7. From the network adapter table, select an adapter to configure its network settings. By default, network adapters request an IP automatically from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. The Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block of an adapter's possible IP address is displayed in the Network Adapter screen without selecting an individual adapter.

   On the configuration page for each adapter, you can change the IP addressing scheme of the adapter and choose static IP instead of DHCP. In Static IP mode, you need to provide a static IP address, subnet mask, as well as the address of the default gateway. Specifying a static IP removes the existing DHCP settings.

   warning

   If you intend to create a cluster using this host and enable network overlay, do not configure static IP through the TUI. If you need to configure static IP, use the user data network block instead.

8. On the configuration page of each network adapter, you can also specify the VLAN ID. A VLAN ID enables you to logically segment network traffic on the same physical network interface, providing network isolation and enhanced traffic management. If you assign a VLAN ID, the Edge host tags all outgoing packets from that adapter with the specified VLAN identifier.

9. Additionally, you can specify the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) for your network adapter. The MTU defines the largest size, in bytes, of a packet that can be sent over a network interface without needing to be fragmented. Press ENTER to apply the change.

10. In DNS Configuration, specify the IP address of the primary and secondary name servers. You can optionally also specify a search domain. Press ENTER to apply the change.

11. In NTP Configuration, specify one or more NTP servers (for example, 0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org).

warning

NTP values configured through the TUI or installer user-data apply only to the local host.

If cluster-wide NTP settings are later configured or updated through cluster settings, those values overwrite the host-specific configuration on all hosts in the cluster.

12. After you are satisfied with the configurations, navigate to Logout and press ENTER to complete the configuration.

Validate

1. Shortly after you finish configuration, the terminal screen will display the hostname and network information of your Edge host.

2. Verify that all displayed information is consistent with your configurations.