---
title: "Self-managed Kubernetes in DigitalOcean (DO)"
description: "Run Calico Open Source on a self-managed Kubernetes cluster in DigitalOcean — what to know about MTU, droplet networking, and floating IPs."
product: "Calico Open Source"
version: "3.32 (latest)"
section: "Installing and upgrading"
canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/kubernetes/self-managed-public-cloud/do"
---

# Self-managed Kubernetes in DigitalOcean (DO)

## Big picture

This tutorial creates a self-managed Kubernetes cluster (1 Master, 2 Worker nodes) using Calico networking in DigitalOcean.

## Value

Managing your own Kubernetes cluster (as opposed to using a managed-Kubernetes service like EKS), gives you the most flexibility in configuring Calico and Kubernetes. Calico combines flexible networking capabilities with "run-anywhere" security enforcement to provide a solution with native Linux kernel performance and true cloud-native scalability.

## Concepts

Kubernetes Operations (kOps) is a cluster management tool that handles provisioning cluster VMs and installing Kubernetes. It has built-in support for using Calico as the Kubernetes networking provider.

> **SECONDARY:** kOps support for DigitalOcean is currently in the early stages of development and subject to change. More information can be viewed [at this link.](https://kops.sigs.k8s.io/getting_started/digitalocean/)

## Before you begin...

- Install [kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/)
- Install [kOps](https://kops.sigs.k8s.io/install/)

## How to

There are many ways to install and manage Kubernetes in DO. Using Kubernetes Operations (kOps) is a good default choice for most people, as it gives you access to all of Calico’s [flexible and powerful networking features](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/networking.md). However, there are other options that may work better for your environment.

The geeky details of what you get:

| Policy | IPAM   | CNI    | Overlay | Routing | Datastore  |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------- | ------- | ---------- |
| Calico | Calico | Calico | IPIP    | BGP     | kubernetes |

?

### Generate your DigitalOcean API token

An API token is needed by kOps for the CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations necessary for resources in your DigitalOcean account. Use [this link](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/apis-clis/api/create-personal-access-token/) to generate your API token and then export it as an environment variable.

```bash
export DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN=<API_ACCESS_TOKEN>
```

### Create an object storage

DigitalOcean provides an S3 compatible storage API that kOps uses object storage to save your cluster status. You should create a Space using [this link](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/spaces/how-to/create/) and export it.

```bash
export KOPS_STATE_STORE=do://<your-space-name>
export S3_ENDPOINT=<ENDPOINT>
```

> **SECONDARY:** Using FQDN for `S3_ENDPOINT` causes an error. If your Space FQDN is `my-test-space.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com` just export `my-test-space` as `<your-space-name>` .

### Generate an API key for object storage

Access to object storage requires an API key. Follow this [tutorial](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/spaces/how-to/manage-access/) and generate your keys then export them as environment variables.

```bash
export S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<ACCESS_KEY_ID>
export S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>
```

### Enable kOps alpha feature

Enable alpha feature support using `KOPS_FEATURE_FLAGS` environment variable.

```bash
    export KOPS_FEATURE_FLAGS="AlphaAllowDO"
```

### Create your cluster

kOps supports various options that enables you to customize your cluster the way you like.

1. Add Calico to your cluster using `--networking=calico`.
2. kOps requires an external DNS server to create a cluster, by adding `.k8s.local` suffix to `--name=` option you generate a [gossip](https://kops.sigs.k8s.io/gossip/) DNS to bypass this requirement.

> **SECONDARY:** You can view a complete list of options supported by kOps [in this link.](https://kops.sigs.k8s.io/cli/kops_create_cluster/#options)

```bash
    kops create cluster --cloud=digitalocean --name=calico-demo.k8s.local \
    --networking=calico --master-zones=nyc1 --zones=nyc1 \
    --master-count=1 --api-loadbalancer-type=public \
    --node-size=s-1vcpu-2gb --image=ubuntu-20-04-x64 --yes
```

You can further customize the Calico install with [options listed in the kOps documentation](https://kops.sigs.k8s.io/networking/calico).

## Cleanup

If you wish to remove resources created by this tutorial

```bash
kops delete cluster calico-demo.k8s.local --yes
```

Use the DigitalOcean web UI to remove the API tokens and Space you created.

## Next steps

**Required**

- [Install and configure calicoctl](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/calicoctl/install.md)

**Recommended**

- [Try out Calico network policy](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/network-policy/get-started/calico-policy/calico-network-policy.md)