--- name: satellite-setup-control-plane title: Setting up the Satellite location control plane description: The location control plane runs resources that are managed by Satellite to help manage the hosts, clusters, and other resources that you attach to the location. last-updated: 2026-08-27 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Setting up the Satellite location control plane {: #setup-control-plane} The location control plane runs resources that are managed by Satellite to help manage the hosts, clusters, and other resources that you attach to the location. {: shortdesc} When you set up the Satellite location control plane, keep in mind the following host considerations. - Attach compute hosts in multiples of 3, such as 6, 9, or 12. - Determine the the correct [size of your location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-location-sizing&format=markdown). - Ensure your control plane meets the [suggested high-availability configuration](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-sat-ha-dr&format=markdown) for network redundancy, distribution across physical locations, and so on. - Make sure that your hosts meet the [latency requirements](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-service-architecture&format=markdown#architecture-latency). ## Setting up the control plane from the console {: #control-plane-ui} Use the Satellite console to set up a control plane for your location. {: shortdesc} Before you begin - [Attach the required number of hosts](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-attach-hosts&format=markdown) to your location for your Satellite control plane. For more information about sizing requirements, see [sizing your Satellite location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-location-sizing&format=markdown). For cloud provider-specific configurations, see [Cloud infrastructure providers](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-infrastructure-plan&format=markdown). - Verify that your location is in an **Action required** state. To attach hosts as worker nodes to the control plane, 1. From the Satellite [**Locations** dashboard](https://cloud.ibm.com/satellite/locations), select the location where you want to finish the setup of your control plane. 2. From the **Hosts** tab, select the hosts to assign as worker nodes to your control plane. All hosts must be in an **Unassigned** status. 3. From the actions menu of each host, click **Assign host**. 4. Select **Control plane** as your cluster. 5. Assign hosts in groups of 3 evenly to the control plane cluster. For high availability, make sure that your hosts correspond to physically separate zones in your infrastructure provider. For example, if your infrastructure provider has `us-east-1a`, `us-east-1b`, and `us-east-1c`, enter these names for your Satellite zones. Then, assign 2 hosts from `us-east-1a` in your infrastructure provider to `us-east-1a` in your Satellite control plane, and so on. When you assign the hosts to the control plane, IBM bootstraps your machine. This process can take a few minutes to complete. During the bootstrapping process, the **Health** of your machine changes from `Ready` to `Provisioning`. 6. From the **Hosts** tab, verify that your hosts are successfully assigned to the Satellite location control plane. The assignment is successful when an IP address is added to your host and the **Health** status changes to **Normal**. 7. Verify that your location status changed to **Normal**. A location message about the location not having enough hosts may appear until the bootstrapping process completes. After your hosts are successfully assigned to the control plane, it takes another 20-30 minutes until IBM monitoring is properly set up for your location. In addition, a DNS record is created for your location and the IP addresses of your hosts are automatically registered and added to your DNS record to allow load balancing and health checking for your location. This process can take up to 30 minutes to complete. During this process, your location status continues to show an **action required** state, and you might see intermittent errors, such as `Satellite is attempting to recover` or `Verify that the Satellite location has a DNS record for load balancing requests to the location control plane`. {: note} 8. Verify that the IP addresses of all your hosts were registered and added to the DNS record of your location. Check that the cert status is **created** and that the records are populated with the subdomains. ```sh ibmcloud sat location dns ls --location LOCATION_ID_OR_NAME ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh Retrieving location subdomains... OK Hostname Records Health Monitor SSL Cert Status SSL Cert Secret Name Secret Namespace ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c000.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud 169.62.196.20,169.62.196.23,169.62.196.30 None created ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c000 default ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c001.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud 169.62.196.30 None created ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c001 default ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c002.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud 169.62.196.20 None created ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c002 default ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c003.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud 169.62.196.23 None created ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c003 default ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-ce00.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-c000.us-east.satellite.appdomain.cloud None created ne1d37313068166254bcb-edfc0a8ba65085c5081eced6816c5b9c-ce00 default ``` {: screen} 9. To continue to use the location for production workloads, repeat these steps to attach more hosts to the location control plane in multiples of 3, such as 6, 9, or 12 hosts. For more information, see [Adding capacity to your Satellite location control plane](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-location-sizing&format=markdown#control-plane-attach-capacity). ## Setting up the control plane from the CLI {: #control-plane-cli} Use the Satellite command line to set up a control plane for your location. {: shortdesc} Before you begin - [Attach at least 6 hosts (or 3 hosts for demonstration purposes only) to your location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-attach-hosts&format=markdown) to use as worker nodes for your Satellite control plane. For cloud provider-specific configurations, see [Cloud infrastructure providers](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-infrastructure-plan&format=markdown). - Verify that your location is in an **Action required** state. To create the control plane, 1. Identify the hosts that you want to use as worker nodes for your Satellite control plane. All hosts must be in an `unassigned` state. ```sh ibmcloud sat host ls --location LOCATION_NAME_OR_ID ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh Name ID State Status Cluster Worker ID Worker IP machine-name-1 aaaaa1a11aaaaaa111aa unassigned - - - - machine-name-2 bbbbbbb22bb2bbb222b2 unassigned - - - - machine-name-3 ccccc3c33ccccc3333cc unassigned - - - - ``` {: screen} 2. Optional: If you want to assign hosts to your control plane by using a host label, retrieve the details of your host. Available labels that you can use are listed in the **Labels** section of your CLI output. ```sh ibmcloud sat host get --location LOCATION_NAME_OR_ID --host HOST_ID ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh Retrieving host details... Name: mymachine1 ID: brjrgp920bg4u254brr0 State: unassigned Status: - Labels cpu 4 memory 32774980 use satloc Assignment Cluster: - Worker Pool: - Zone: - Worker ID: - Worker IP: - Date: - OK ``` {: screen} 3. Assign your host machine to the Satellite location control plane. When you assign the host to the control plane, IBM bootstraps your machine. This process takes a few minutes to complete. You can choose to assign a host by using the host ID, or you can also define the label that the host must have to be assigned to the location. Example for assigning a host by using the host ID. ```sh ibmcloud sat host assign --location LOCATION_NAME_OR_ID --cluster LOCATION_ID --host HOST_ID --zone ZONE ``` {: pre} Example for assigning a host by using the `use:satloc` label. ```sh ibmcloud sat host assign --location LOCATION_NAME_OR_ID --cluster LOCATION_ID --host-label "use:satloc" --zone ZONE ``` {: pre} `--location ` : Enter the name or ID of your Satellite location. To retrieve the location name or ID, run `ibmcloud sat location ls`. `--cluster ` : Enter the ID of the Satellite location where you want to assign the hosts to run the Satellite location control plane. To view your location ID, run `ibmcloud sat location ls`. `--host ` : Enter the host ID to assign to the Satellite location control plane. To view the host ID, run `ibmcloud sat host ls --location `. You can use the `--host-label` option to identify the host that you want to assign to your control plane. `--host-label