xenorchestra

Xen Orchestra Terraform examples

• Tested Talos version: 1.11.5
• Test Xen Orchestra Provider version: 0.37.0

Simple example

This example provides a Terraform alternative to using the Xen Orchestra UI for VM creation. It automates the VM provisioning step but requires pre-generated Talos configurations. Read the doc about Talos in Xen Orchestra to create the template VM.

This replaces steps 2 and 3 of the "Create the Talos cluster" section in the guide.

Key features:

• Creates VMs from a Talos template using Terraform
• Uses cloud-init to inject pre-generated Talos configurations (controlplane.yaml and worker.yaml)
• Default configuration: 1 control plane (no HA) and 1 worker node
• Requires manual cluster bootstrapping after VM creation

Prerequisites

• Pre-generated Talos configurations (controlplane.yaml and worker.yaml)
• A Talos VM template created in Xen Orchestra
• Xen Orchestra API token
• Terraform installed

Limitations

• No automatic bootstrapping - you must manually run talosctl bootstrap after VM creation
• Single control plane node by default (no high availability)
• Requires generating Talos configurations externally before applying the plan

Example using the Talos provider

This example uses the Talos Terraform provider to fully automate the creation and configuration of a Talos cluster on Xen Orchestra. Read the doc about Talos in Xen Orchestra to create the template VM.

This is a complete end-to-end automation that replaces all steps of the "Create the Talos cluster" section of the guide.

Key features:

• Uses the Talos Terraform provider to generate machine configurations dynamically
• Configures Virtual IP (VIP) for control plane high availability
• Automatically bootstraps the Talos cluster
• Generates and outputs both talosconfig and kubeconfig
• Supports multiple control plane and worker nodes
• No manual Talos configuration required
• Two installation modes: pre-installed template or ISO-based installation

Prerequisites

• For template-based deployment: A Talos VM template with Talos pre-installed (see documentation)
• For ISO-based installation: A Talos ISO uploaded to Xen Orchestra and a minimal VM template (Generic Linux UEFI)
• Xen Orchestra API token
• Terraform installed
• A network with DHCP configured in your Xen Orchestra environment

Usage

1. Copy the example configuration:

cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

2. Edit terraform.tfvars with your Xen Orchestra and cluster details:

xoa_token = "<your_xen_orchestra_api_token>"
xoa_url   = "https://your-xoa-server.example.com"

tpl_talos_id = "<talos_template_id>"
pool_name    = "<pool_name_label>"
sr_name      = "<shared_storage_name_label>"
network_name = "<network_name_label>"
expected_ip_cidr = "10.1.0.0/16"

cluster_name = "demo-talos"
cluster_vip  = "10.1.0.10"  # Virtual IP for the cluster endpoint

talos_version = "v1.11.5"  # Talos version to install (used with ISO-based installation)

# Optional: customize node sizing
num_control_plane = 3
num_workers       = 2

3. Initialize and apply:

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

4. Retrieve cluster credentials:

terraform output -raw talosconfig > ~/.talos/config
terraform output -raw kubeconfig > ~/.kube/config
export TALOSCONFIG=~/.talos/config
export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config

5. Verify the cluster:

# Check cluster health
talosctl health

# Check nodes
kubectl get nodes -o wide

Configuration Details

Installation Modes

This example supports two installation modes:

1. Template-based deployment

Uses a pre-installed Talos VM template. This is the default mode when iso_name is not specified.

# In terraform.tfvars - no iso_name variable needed
tpl_talos_id = "<talos_template_id>"

2. ISO-based installation

Mounts a Talos ISO and installs Talos to disk during provisioning. Useful for:

• Installing specific Talos versions
• Custom installation images
• Environments without pre-built templates

# In terraform.tfvars
tpl_talos_id = "<minimal_vm_template_id>"  # Any UEFI template (recommended: `Generic Linux UEFI`)
iso_name      = "talos-nocloud-amd64.iso"  # ISO name in Xen Orchestra
talos_version = "v1.11.5"                   # Talos version to install

When iso_name is provided:

• The ISO is mounted on all VMs via CDROM
• Installation configuration is added to Talos machine configs
• VMs will install Talos to /dev/xvda on first boot
• Installer image uses the specified talos_version with factory image factory.talos.dev/nocloud-installer/53b20d86399013eadfd44ee49804c1fef069bfdee3b43f3f3f5a2f57c03338ac

Cluster Endpoint

The cluster_endpoint variable defaults to https://<cluster_vip>:6443 if not explicitly set. You can override it if needed:

cluster_endpoint = "https://talos.example.com:6443"

The example configures a VIP on the control plane nodes' first network interface (enX0) using DHCP, ensuring high availability of the Kubernetes API endpoint.