Working With Etcdctl

etcdctl is a command line client for etcd.

In all our Kubernetes Hands-on labs, the ETCD key-value database is deployed as a static pod on the master. The version used is v3.

To make use of etcdctl for tasks such as back up and restore, make sure that you set the ETCDCTL_API to 3.

You can do this by exporting the variable ETCDCTL_API prior to using the etcdctl client. This can be done as follows:

export ETCDCTL_API=3

On the Master Node:

To see all the options for a specific sub-command, make use of the -h or –help flag.

For example, if you want to take a snapshot of etcd, use:

etcdctl snapshot save -h and keep a note of the mandatory global options.

Since our ETCD database is TLS-Enabled, the following options are mandatory:

–cacert verify certificates of TLS-enabled secure servers using this CA bundle

–cert identify secure client using this TLS certificate file

–endpoints=[127.0.0.1:2379] This is the default as ETCD is running on master node and exposed on localhost 2379.

–key identify secure client using this TLS key file

Similarly use the help option for snapshot restore to see all available options for restoring the backup.

etcdctl snapshot restore -h

For a detailed explanation on how to make use of the etcdctl command line tool and work with the -h flags, check out the solution video for the Backup and Restore Lab.