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Learn how to automate the provisioning of a Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) cluster using Terraform. By defining your infrastructure as code, you gain repeatable, version-controlled deployments.

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Prerequisites

  • Terraform v1.0+ installed
  • A valid Linode API token
  • kubectl installed and configured
Store your Linode API token securely. We recommend using environment variables (TF_VAR_token) or a protected .tfvars file instead of hard-coding credentials.

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1. Terraform Configuration

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1.1 Required Provider

Specify the Linode provider and lock its version: 
terraform {
  required_providers {
    linode = {
      source  = "linode/linode"
      version = "1.27.1"
    }
  }
  required_version = ">= 1.0"
}

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1.2 Provider & Variables

Configure the provider to use your API token: 
provider "linode" {
  token = var.token
}

variable "token" {
  description = "Linode API token"
  type        = string
  sensitive   = true
}

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1.3 LKE Cluster Resource

Create an LKE cluster named my-cluster in us-central, using Kubernetes v1.23 and a three-node pool: 
resource "linode_lke_cluster" "my_cluster" {
  label       = "my-cluster"
  k8s_version = "1.23"
  region      = "us-central"
  tags        = ["prod"]

  pool {
    type  = "g6-standard-2"
    count = 3

    # To enable auto-scaling, uncomment the block below:
    # autoscaler {
    #   min = 3
    #   max = 10
    # }
  }
}
If you enable the autoscaler, ensure your account has sufficient quota for scaling nodes.

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1.4 Output Kubernetes Configuration

Expose the generated kubeconfig for use with kubectl: 
output "kubeconfig" {
  value     = linode_lke_cluster.my_cluster.kubeconfig
  sensitive = true
}

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2. Deploying the Cluster

Initialize, plan, and apply your configuration:
CommandDescription
terraform initDownload provider plugins
terraform planPreview changes
terraform apply -auto-approveProvision resources automatically
cd Linode
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply -auto-approve
Expected output: 
Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Changes to Outputs:
  + kubeconfig = (sensitive value)

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3. Monitoring Provisioning

You can track cluster creation progress in the Linode Cloud Manager. Provisioning typically takes 5–15 minutes.
The image shows a Kubernetes cluster management interface with details about a cluster named "my-cluster," including its version, location, resources, and node pool status. It also displays options for managing nodes and accessing the Kubernetes API endpoint.
Once the status reads Running, your LKE cluster is ready for workloads.

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4. Explore the Code on GitHub

View the full Terraform configuration in the Linode folder of the Kubernetes-Quickstart-Environments repo.
The image shows a GitHub repository page titled "Kubernetes-Quickstart-Environments," featuring folders and files related to Kubernetes setup, with a README section and language usage statistics.
Clone the repo to discover additional examples and automate your Kubernetes infrastructure on Linode: 
git clone https://github.com/linode/kubernetes-quickstart-environments.git
cd kubernetes-quickstart-environments/Linode

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References

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