---
title: "Create multiple IP pools"
description: "Create additional Calico Open Source IPPool resources at install time or on a running cluster to serve disjoint ranges, IPv6, or per-topology pod address assignment."
product: "Calico Open Source"
version: "3.32 (latest)"
section: "Networking"
canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/networking/ipam/ippools"
---

# Create multiple IP pools

## Understanding multiple IP pools

By default when you install Calico, a single IPv4 pool is created. This IP pool is used for allocating IP addresses to pods and, if needed, tunnels within your cluster.

Sometimes you may want to configure additional IP pools. For example:

- If the IP address space available for pods in your cluster is disjointed.
- You want to [assign IP addresses based on cluster topology](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/networking/ipam/assign-ip-addresses-topology.md).

## Create multiple IP pools when installing Calico

<!-- tabs -->

**Tab: Operator**

You can edit the Installation resource within `custom-resources.yaml` to include multiple unique IP pools. The following example creates two IP pools assigned to different sets of nodes.

```yaml
apiVersion: operator.tigera.io/v1
kind: Installation
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  calicoNetwork:
    ipPools:
    - name: pool-zone-1
      cidr: 192.168.0.0/24
      encapsulation: VXLAN
      nodeSelector: "zone == 'zone-1'"
    - name: pool-zone-2
      cidr: 192.168.1.0/24
      encapsulation: VXLAN
      nodeSelector: "zone == 'zone-2'"
```

After installing Calico, you can confirm the IP pools were created by using the following command:

```bash
kubectl get ippools
```

## Prevent the operator from managing IP pools

In some cases, you may want to disable IP pool management within the operator and instead use calicoctl or kubectl to create and delete IP pools. To do this, you can edit the **Installation** resource with `custom-resources.yaml` to specify an empty list of IP pools.

```yaml
apiVersion: operator.tigera.io/v1
kind: Installation
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  calicoNetwork:
    ipPools: []
```

With this configuration, the operator will wait for you to create IP pools before installing Calico components.

**Tab: Manifest**

When using manifests to install Calico, you can use calicoctl to manage multiple IP pools. For complete control, you can disable creation of the default IP pool before doing so.

1. Disable the default IP pool by adding the following environment variable to the calico-node DaemonSet in `calico.yaml`.

   ```yaml
   env:
   - name: NO_DEFAULT_POOLS
      value: "true"
   ```

````text

1. Then, install `calico.yaml`.

1. Create the desired IP pools. For example, the following commands create two IP pools assigned to different sets of nodes.

 ```bash
 calicoctl create -f -<<EOF
 apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
 kind: IPPool
 metadata:
   name: pool-zone-1
 spec:
   cidr: 192.168.0.0/24
   vxlanMode: Always
   natOutgoing: true
   nodeSelector: zone == "zone-1"
 EOF
````

```bash
calicoctl create -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
kind: IPPool
metadata:
  name: pool-zone-2
spec:
  cidr: 192.168.1.0/24
  vxlanMode: Always
  natOutgoing: true
  nodeSelector: zone == "zone-2"
EOF
```

<!-- /tabs -->