Getting Started
If you're curious about Kubernetes and how it works, and want some inspiration on how to get started, see this quick-start guide we have written for new users. It has an overview of managed Kubernetes as a service, covers a few project ideas, some of the underlying technology, and other aspects at a glance.
If you want to get started with Civo Kubernetes, have a look at KubeQuest in your account - a set of challenges that get you from deploying your first cluster to deploying your own app.
Billing + Credit
Can I limit my account so that I will not go over my credit?
You can set up a billing alert threshold to notify you if you are approaching a particular value. We can also adjust your account quota (of deployable instances, volumes, etc) on request to prevent the likelihood of you exceeding your budget.
Do you bill for the control plane?
The control plane for any clusters you create is managed by us. This means that it is covered in the charge displayed for your cluster.
$250 credit - how do I get it and how does it work?
Users who sign up to Civo and add a credit card to their account can get an introductory credit of $250 in their account. This is valid for a month from the date it was applied.
In order to claim your $250 free credit, you must add a valid credit/debit card to your account within 21 days of signing up to Civo.
This credit can be used for any services on Civo, from running Kubernetes clusters to individual virtual machine instances. Any billable use will first be debited from available credit before charges are made on your credit card.
If the credit expires before a bill is due, this means the payment for the previous month's usage will be taken from your card.
Credit expiry and validity periods
Introductory credit validity is until the end of the month following it being applied to your account. For example, credit awarded on 15 May will be valid until 30 June, and credit awarded on the 27th of September will be valid until the end of October.
Credit will be applied towards usage in the month it is valid. For example, credit marked as expiring on 31 May will be used before billing your card for May's usage when invoices are raised on 1 June.
Civo CLI Command-Line Tool
Can I administer my Kubernetes clusters from the command line?
We have written a comprehensive CLI tool to manage virtual machine instances, Kubernetes clusters and anything else to do with your Civo account. You can find out how to set it up here.
Check out this video for a run through of launching a cluster both of the Civo CLI and from the dashboard.
Can I run the CLI in Docker?
If you do not want to have the tool set up locally, you can run it as a Docker Alias and map your API key to the alias with these instructions.
Clusters
Can I connect to my cluster nodes with SSH?
To provide consistency and predictability of service for Civo managed Kubernetes, SSH connections to the cluster nodes are not supported. While there are documented ways for you to execute into nodes given the credentials you already have, any changes you make this way risk breaking your cluster or preventing access to it, and are not supported. If you want to fully customize your cluster, you can create one using our infrastructure-as-a-service instances as nodes.
Another reason there is no SSH access is that we want to keep our options open about moving the architecture of the managed Kubernetes service to a virtualised platform such as k3v or similar in the future, and thus want to make sure users will experience a consistent service.
Why can't I see my cluster nodes on the instances page?
Related to the question above, because the nodes themselves are not accessible via SSH or managed outside the cluster, they will not appear as separate instances. If you need to restart a particular node, you can click on the "recycle" button on the cluster interface page.
Can I start a cluster without any pre-installed applications?
Civo Kubernetes runs the K3s distribution of Kubernetes. By default, K3s starts with Traefik as an Ingress Controller on all new clusters. This is to allow connections to your cluster without extra configuration on your part. You can prevent Traefik from being installed when you start a cluster by deselecting it in the web UI (under 'Architecture') or by adding --remove-applications=Traefik-v2-nodeport to your Civo CLI cluster creation command.
Remember that starting up a cluster with no Ingress Controller means you will manually have to configure one to allow access to applications.
Do all nodes on Kubernetes clusters have public IP addresses?
Your cluster has one public IP address. It receives traffic to your cluster, and routes it to your worker nodes in the form of a load balancer. This is part of the control plane functionality managed by Civo.
Can I change the underlying operating system running Kubernetes?
We aim for the underlying operating system to be as lightweight as possible to allow for maximum resources to be allocated to Kubernetes and your applications. To this end, we may change the underlying OS, but as this is a managed service this will be the same for all users.
Can I pool different-sized nodes into the same cluster?
You can create node pools of different nodes. This means that you can have nodes of different sizes (e.g. 2x medium, 2x large) in the same cluster, and they get labelled for your convenience. On your cluster, you will see node pools illustrated like this:
How do I delete a volume that was attached to a cluster I deleted?
If a Kubernetes volume you created was not deleted prior to your cluster being deleted, you can use the command-line client to delete them by running civo volumes delete <VOLUME-NAME> --region <REGION-NAME>.
Community and Support
How can I get technical support?
If you have a technical issue with the Civo platform or a particular cluster or virtual machine, please raise a ticket using the "Contact us" feature powered by Intercom. This can be found at the lower right-hand side of every page.
General community support
If you have any queries about how to use Civo services, join our Slack to discuss it with Civo staff and community members. For more information, see "Where can I find the Civo community" below.
Where can I find the Civo community?
We have a Civo community Slack workspace which all our users are invited to join. All Civo staff have a Civo logo next to their names. You will also see users marked with an Ambassador badge. Ambassadors are trusted and knowledgeable community members who will be glad to help out if you have questions about the service.
Content
Can I contribute content (blog posts, learn guides)?
We would love to see you document your experience, whether it is on your own site, on Medium/DEV.to or as a guide on the Civo site. If you write up a piece, submit a pull request at the Civo Community Content to make sure we know about it.
Find out other ways to contribute here.
Feature Requests and Bug Reports
I have found a bug, how can I report it?
The best place to report bugs on Civo tools such as Civo CLI or other public repositories is on the relevant GitHub repository. If you do not have a GitHub account, or have found a bug elsewhere that's not part of our open-source repositories, you can contact us using the "contact us" button found at the bottom of every page.
How do I suggest a feature to Civo?
New feature suggestions are gladly accepted through your dashboard, under Suggestions.
Marketplace
Can I remove an installed marketplace application?
At the moment, the only way to remove a marketplace application is to remove it by running kubectl delete -f on the resource and manifest files. Please note that while the marketplace application will get removed from your cluster, this will not be reflected on the web UI for the moment.
We are working on a new version of the Application Marketplace which would allow for installation and uninstallation at will.
Technology
What is k3s and how does it relate to Kubernetes (k8s)? Why did you decide to go with k3s?
Our CTO Andy wrote a great post about precisely this topic, and why we decided to go with Rancher's k3s as the Kubernetes distribution of choice. k3s is fully compatible with upstream Kubernetes (K8S).
What can I use k3s for? What use cases is Civo Kubernetes good for?
Take a look at this blog post that explores use cases and the advantages k3s gives you. We are also keen to hear from you about your use cases! See "Can I contribute content" above.
