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Debugging Calico components

Debugging Calico components

Virtual Private Cloud Classic infrastructure

You experience issues with Calico components such as pods that don't deploy or intermittent networking issues.

Increase the logging level of Calico components to gather more information about the issue.

Increasing the log level for the calico-typha components

Complete the following steps to increase the log level for the calico-typha component.

  1. Run the following command to edit the calico-typha deployment.

    oc edit deploy calico-typha -n calico-system

  2. Change the TYPHA_LOGSEVERITYSCREEN environment variable from info to debug.

          containers:
    - env:
      - name: TYPHA_LOGSEVERITYSCREEN
        value: debug

  3. Save and close the file to apply the changes and restart the calico-typha deployment.

Increasing the log level for the calico-cni components

Complete the following steps to increase the log level for the calico-cni component.

  1. Run the following command to edit the calico-config ConfigMap.

    oc edit cm -n calico-system cni-config

  2. Change the cni_network_config > plugins > log_level environment variable to debug.

      cni_network_config: |-
  {
    "name": "k8s-pod-network",
    "cniVersion": "0.3.1",
    "plugins": [
      {
        "type": "calico",
        "log_level": "debug",

  3. Save and close the file. The change won't take effect until the calico-node pods are restarted.

  4. Restart the calico-node pods to apply the changes.

    oc rollout restart daemonset/calico-node -n calico-system

    Example output

    daemonset.apps/calico-node restarted

Increasing the log level for the calico-node components

Complete the following steps to increase the log level for the calico-node component.

  1. Run the following command:

    oc edit ds calico-node -n calico-system

  2. Under the FELIX_USAGEREPORTINGENABLED name and value pair (or after any of the FELIX_* environment variable name value pairs), add the following entry.

    - name: FELIX_LOGSEVERITYSCREEN
  value: Debug

  3. Save the change. After saving your changes, all the pods in the calico-node daemonset complete a rolling update that applies the changes. The calico-cni also applies any changes to logging levels in the kube-system/calico-config ConfigMap.

Increasing the log level for the calico-kube-controllers components

Complete the following steps to increase the log level for the calico-kube-controllers component.

  1. Edit the daemonset by running the following command.

    oc edit ds calico-node -n calico-system

  2. Under the DATASTORE_TYPE name and value pair, add the following entry.

    - name: LOG_LEVEL
  value: debug

  3. Save the change. The calico-kube-controllers pod restarts and applies the changes.

Gathering Calico logs

  1. List the pods and nodes in your cluster and make a node of the pod name, pod IP address, and worker node that has the issue.

  2. Get the logs for the calico-node pod on the worker node where the problem occurred.

    oc logs calico-typha-aaa11111a-aaaaa -n calico-system

  3. Get logs for the calico-kube-controllers pod.

    oc logs calico-kube-controllers-11aaa11aa1-a1a1a -n calico-system

  4. Follow the instructions for Debugging by using oc exec to get /var/log/syslog, containerd.log, kubelet.log, and kern.log from the worker node.