--- title: "Binary install without package manager" description: "Install the Calico Open Source binary directly on a non-cluster host without using a package manager." product: "Calico Open Source" version: "3.32 (latest)" section: "Installing and upgrading" canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/bare-metal/installation/binary" --- # Binary install without package manager ## Big picture Install Calico binary on non-cluster hosts without a package manager. ## Value Install Calico directly when a package manager isn't available, or your provisioning system can easily handle copying binaries to hosts. ## Before you begin... 1. Ensure the Calico datastore is up and accessible from the host 2. Ensure the host meets the minimum [system requirements](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/bare-metal/requirements.md) 3. If you want to install Calico with networking (so that you can communicate with cluster workloads), you should choose the [container install method](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/bare-metal/installation/container.md) 4. Install `kubectl` (for Kubernetes datastore) or [Install and configure `calicoctl`](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/calicoctl.md) for etcd3 datastore. ## How to This guide covers installing Felix, the Calico daemon that handles network policy. ### Step 1: Download and extract the binary This step requires Docker, but it can be run from any machine with Docker installed. It doesn't have to be the host you will run it on (i.e your laptop is fine). 1. Use the following command to download the calico/node image. ```bash docker pull calico/node:v3.32.1 ``` 2. Confirm that the image has loaded by typing `docker images`. ```bash REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE calico/node v3.32.1 e07d59b0eb8a 2 minutes ago 42MB ``` 3. Create a temporary calico/node container. ```bash docker create --name container calico/node:v3.32.1 ``` 4. Copy the calico-node binary from the container to the local file system. ```bash docker cp container:/bin/calico-node calico-node ``` 5. Delete the temporary container. ```bash docker rm container ``` 6. Set the extracted binary file to be executable. ```text chmod +x calico-node chown root:root calico-node ``` ### Step 2: Copy the `calico-node` binary Copy the binary from Step 1 to the target machine, using any means (`scp`, `ftp`, USB stick, etc.). ### Step 3: Create environment file Use the following guidelines and sample file to define the environment variables for starting Calico on the host. For more help, see the [Felix configuration reference](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/felix/configuration.md) **Tab: Kubernetes datastore** For a Kubernetes datastore (default) set the following: | Variable | Configuration guidance | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | FELIX\_DATASTORETYPE | Set to `kubernetes` | | KUBECONFIG | Path to kubeconfig file to access the Kubernetes API Server | **Tab: etcd datastore** For an etcdv3 datastore set the following: | Variable | Configuration guidance | | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | FELIX\_DATASTORETYPE | Set to `etcdv3` | | FELIX\_ETCDENDPOINTS | Comma separated list of etcdv3 cluster URLs, e.g. https\://calico-datastore.example.com:2379 | | FELIX\_ETCDCAFILE | Path to CA certificate to validate etcd’s server cert. Required if using TLS and not using a public CA. | | FELIX\_ETCDCERTFILE FELIX\_ETCDKEYFILE | Paths to certificate and keys used for client authentication to the etcd cluster, if enabled. | **Tab: Either datastore** For either datastore set the following: | Variable | Configuration guidance | | --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | CALICO\_NODENAME | Identifies the node. If a value is not specified, the compute server hostname is used to identify the Calico node. | | CALICO\_IP or CALICO\_IP6 | If values are not specified for both, Calico uses the currently-configured values for the next hop IP addresses for this node—these can be configured through the Node resource. If no next hop addresses are configured, Calico automatically determines an IPv4 next hop address by querying the host interfaces (and configures this value in the Node resource). You can set CALICO\_IP to `autodetect` for force auto-detection of IP address every time the node starts. If you set IP addresses through these environment variables, it reconfigures any values currently set through the Node resource. | | CALICO\_AS | If not specified, Calico uses the currently configured value for the AS Number for the node BGP client—this can be configured through the Node resource. If the Node resource value is not set, Calico inherits the AS Number from the global default value. If you set a value through this environment variable, it reconfigures any value currently set through the Node resource. | | NO\_DEFAULT\_POOLS | Set to true to prevent Calico from creating a default pool if one does not exist. Pools are used for workload endpoints and not required for non-cluster hosts. | | CALICO\_NETWORKING\_BACKEND | The networking backend to use. In `bird` mode, Calico will provide BGP networking using the BIRD BGP daemon; VXLAN networking can also be used. In `vxlan` mode, only VXLAN networking is provided; BIRD and BGP are disabled. If you want to run Calico for policy only, set to `none`. | Sample `EnvironmentFile` - save to `/etc/calico/calico.env` ```bash FELIX_DATASTORETYPE=etcdv3 FELIX_ETCDENDPOINTS=https://calico-datastore.example.com:2379 FELIX_ETCDCAFILE="/pki/ca.pem" FELIX_ETCDCERTFILE="/pki/client-cert.pem" FELIX_ETCDKEYFILE="/pki/client-key.pem" ``` ### Step 4: Create a start-up script Felix should be started at boot by your init system and the init system **must** be configured to restart Felix if it stops. Felix relies on that behavior for certain configuration changes. If your distribution uses systemd, then you could use the following unit file: ```bash [Unit] Description=Calico Felix agent After=syslog.target network.target [Service] User=root EnvironmentFile=/etc/calico/calico.env ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p /var/run/calico ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/calico-node -felix KillMode=process Restart=on-failure LimitNOFILE=32000 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target ``` Once you've configured Felix, start it up via your init system. ```bash service calico-felix start ``` ### Step 5: Initialize the datastore You should configure a `node` resource for each host running Felix. In this case, the database is initialized after creating the first `node` resource. For a deployment that does not include the Calico/BGP integration, the specification of a node resource just requires the name of the node; for most deployments this will be the same as the hostname. ```bash calicoctl create -f - < EOF ``` The Felix logs should transition from periodic notifications that Felix is in the state `wait-for-ready` to a stream of initialization messages.