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Signed-off-by: Tim Gerla <tim@gerla.net> docs: fix unbalanced header Signed-off-by: Tim Gerla <tim@gerla.net>
46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: FAQs
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---
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**What is Talos?**
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Talos is a made up of a few pieces.
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The first piece is an API-driven, purpose-built OS, based on Linux.
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Its entire purpose is to host a Kubernetes cluster, so it is not a general purpose OS.
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The OS consists of the Linux kernel, a simplified init system, and a series of components that run in containers on the system, managing things like connections between the nodes, routes and networking, and serving APIs.
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It doesn't have SSH or a package manager.
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Instead, all of the management of Talos happens over an API.
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{{< figure src="/images/talos-arch.svg" title="Talos Architecture Overview" >}}
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The second piece of Talos is "osctl": the command-line interface to manage your Talos-based Kubernetes cluster.
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It lets you do all of the basic system administration on your cluster.
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You can view process lists, download log files, and so forth.
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It's designed specifically to help you debug problems on the cluster during development and testing.
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**How is Talos different than CoreOS/RancherOS/Linuxkit?**
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Talos shares a lot of attributes with these systems, but there are some important differences.
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Talos integrates tightly with Kubernetes, and is not meant to be a general-purpose operating system.
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The most important difference is that Talos is fully controlled by an API via a gRPC interface, instead of an ordinary shell.
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We don't ship SSH, and there is no console access.
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Removing components such as these has allowed us to dramatically reduce the footprint of Talos, and in turn, improve a number of other areas like security, predictability, reliability, and consistency across platforms.
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It's a big change from how operating systems have been managed in the past, but we believe that API-driven OSes are the future.
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**Why no shell or SSH?**
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Since Talos is fully API-driven, all maintenance and debugging operations should be possible via the OS API.
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We would like for Talos users to start thinking about what a "machine" is in the context of a Kubernetes cluster.
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That is, that a Kubernetes _cluster_ can be thought of as one massive machine, and the _nodes_ are merely additional, undifferentiated resources.
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We don't want humans to focus on the _nodes_, but rather on the _machine_ that is the Kubernetes cluster.
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Should an issue arise at the node level, `osctl` should provide the necessary tooling to assist in the identification, debugging, and remedation of the issue.
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However, the API is based on the Principle of Least Privilege, and exposes only a limited set of methods.
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We envision Talos being a great place for the application of [control theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory) in order to provide a self-healing platform.
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**Why the name "Talos"?**
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Talos was an automaton created by the Greek God of the forge to protect the island of Crete.
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He would patrol the coast and enforce laws throughout the land.
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We felt it was a fitting name for a security focused operating system designed to run Kubernetes.
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