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Cluster settings allow you to monitor connectivity, configure agent behaviour, perform maintenance operations, and manage the cluster lifecycle.

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Accessing Cluster Settings

  1. Navigate to your cluster from the sidebar.
  2. Click Settings in the cluster navigation.
  3. Select General to access connectivity, agent, and maintenance settings.

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Connectivity

Monitor the health of your cluster’s connection to the Ankra platform.

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Agent Status

The Ankra Agent is a lightweight component deployed in your cluster that enables communication with the platform.

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Agent Version

View the currently installed agent version and check if updates are available.
1

Check Version

The Connectivity card shows your current agent version.
2

Upgrade if Available

If a newer version is available, click Upgrade Agent to update manually.
Enable auto-upgrade to automatically keep your agent up-to-date. See Agent Settings below.

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Kubernetes Watch Status

The Watch service monitors Kubernetes resources and syncs state to the platform. The status indicator shows:

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Agent Settings

Configure how the agent behaves on this specific cluster.

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Auto-upgrade Agent

Control whether the agent automatically upgrades when new versions are released.
When auto-upgrade is enabled at the organisation level, individual clusters can opt-out. When disabled at the organisation level, clusters cannot enable it.
To configure auto-upgrade:
  1. Go to cluster Settings → General
  2. Find the Agent Settings card
  3. Toggle Auto-upgrade Agent as desired

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Maintenance

Perform maintenance operations on your cluster.

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Generate Import Token

Create a token for re-importing the cluster or connecting from a different location.
1

Access Maintenance

Go to cluster Settings → General and find the Maintenance card.
2

Generate Token

Click Generate Import Token.
3

Use the Token

Copy the token and use it with the installation command on your cluster.
Import tokens are single-use and expire after a set period. Generate a new one if needed.

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Sync All Resources

Force a full synchronization of all Kubernetes resources from your cluster to the platform.
1

Access Maintenance

Go to cluster Settings → General and find the Maintenance card.
2

Trigger Sync

Click Sync All Resources.
3

Monitor Progress

Watch the Kubernetes Watch Status indicator for sync completion.
When to sync manually:
  • After network issues that may have caused missed updates
  • When resources appear out of sync in the platform
  • After bulk changes to Kubernetes resources outside of Ankra

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Power schedules

The Power schedules card on Settings → General stops and starts the cluster automatically - one-off at a chosen time, or repeated on a cron expression, for example to park a development cluster on weekday evenings and bring it back each morning. It is shown for the same self-managed providers that support manual Stop and Start. See Power Schedules for the full walkthrough.

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Nodes Settings

The Nodes tab is available for clusters provisioned through Ankra (Hetzner, OVH, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, Proxmox, HPE Morpheus) and lets you manage node groups, restart individual nodes, and resize the bastion/gateway. It is not shown for imported clusters.

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Node Groups

Each node group has its own instance type, node count, labels, and taints. From this tab you can:
  • View all node groups with their current configuration
  • Add new node groups with a specific instance type and count
  • Scale individual groups up or down (0–100 nodes)
  • Upgrade instance type (upgrade only downgrades require creating a new group)
  • Edit Kubernetes labels and taints per group
  • Delete a node group and all its servers
Instance type upgrades are irreversible - the underlying disk is enlarged during the upgrade and providers do not support shrinking it back down. To use a smaller instance type, create a new node group and delete the old one.
For API and CLI usage, see the provider-specific documentation:
Node groups are only available for clusters provisioned through Ankra. Imported clusters do not support node group management.

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Restart a Node

Every row in the node table - each control plane node, worker, and the cluster’s bastion/gateway - has a row menu with a Restart action. Restarting schedules a tracked operation that performs a native reboot, falling back to a power cycle if the guest OS doesn’t respond. The node must be in the up state with no restart already in flight, and workloads on it are briefly unavailable while it reboots. The table also shows a live status chip sourced from the cloud provider’s own API (for example OVH’s ACTIVE / SHUTOFF / ERROR state) whenever it differs from Ankra’s tracked state, so a node that crashed or was stopped outside of Ankra is visible before you restart it. Restart is available for Hetzner, OVH, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, and Proxmox clusters. It is not yet available for HPE Morpheus. You can also restart a node - including the bastion/gateway - by asking the Ankra AI assistant in the portal, Slack, or Teams, e.g. “restart the bastion on my-cluster” or “restart worker-2 on my-cluster”. See Restarting a Node for the full CLI/API walkthrough, which is identical across providers.

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Resize the Bastion or Gateway

The bastion/gateway’s row menu has a Resize action that changes its instance type. Ankra powers the node off, resizes it, and powers it back on, which causes a brief SSH and outbound-NAT interruption for the cluster. Bastion/gateway resize is available for Hetzner, OVH, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, Proxmox, and HPE Morpheus clusters. See Resizing the Bastion or Gateway for the full CLI/API walkthrough, which is identical across providers.

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GitOps Settings

Configure Git repository integration for GitOps workflows.

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Connecting a Repository

1

Navigate to GitOps

Go to cluster Settings → GitOps.
2

Select Credential

Choose a GitHub credential from your organisation’s configured credentials.
3

Connect Repository

Enter your repository details and connect.
For detailed GitOps configuration, see GitOps.

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Webhook Status

Monitor webhook delivery status to ensure Git events trigger deployments:

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Metrics Settings

Configure metrics collection for observability features.

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Prometheus Data Source

Connect an external Prometheus instance to enable metrics visualization in Ankra.
1

Navigate to Metrics

Go to cluster Settings → Metrics.
2

Configure Data Source

Enter your Prometheus endpoint URL.
3

Test Connection

Verify the connection is successful.
For detailed Prometheus setup, see Prometheus Integration.

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Encryption Settings

Configure SOPS decryption for encrypted stacks on this cluster.

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Enable SOPS Decryption

Allow this cluster to decrypt SOPS-encrypted values during deployment.
1

Navigate to Encryption

Go to cluster Settings → Encryption.
2

Enable Decryption

Toggle on Enable SOPS Decryption.
3

Wait for Configuration

Ankra configures ArgoCD with the decryption key.
SOPS decryption requires ArgoCD. The toggle is disabled if ArgoCD is not installed.
For complete SOPS documentation, see SOPS Encryption.

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Kubernetes Settings

Monitor Kubernetes resource synchronization status in detail.

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Accessing Kubernetes Settings

  1. Navigate to your cluster → Settings → Kubernetes
  2. View the resource sync status table

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Resource Sync Status Table

The sync status table shows synchronization details for each Kubernetes resource type:

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Sync Status Values

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Table Features

  • Auto-refresh: The table updates automatically every 10 seconds
  • Filtering: Filter by resource type or status
  • Sorting: Click column headers to sort
  • Error Details: Expand error rows to see specific error messages

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Offline Cluster Warning

When a cluster is offline, a warning banner appears indicating that Kubernetes settings are unavailable until the cluster reconnects.

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Refreshing Sync Status

Click Refresh to manually trigger a status update. This fetches the latest synchronization state from the cluster.

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Variables Settings

Cluster variables apply to all stacks deployed to this cluster. For complete variable documentation, see Variables.

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Audit

The Audit tab in cluster Settings lists every manual action performed on this cluster - who did it, what it was, and when. It is the per-cluster view of the organisation Audit Log. Recorded actions include:
  • Lifecycle - create, import, start, stop, upgrade, and terminate
  • Scaling - worker scaling, node group create / scale / edit / delete, autoscaling changes, control plane count and instance type, bastion resize
  • Nodes - manual node restarts
  • Stacks - deploy, update, redeploy, retry, and delete, including addon configuration and settings changes
  • Helm - agent-side release upgrades and rollbacks
Each entry shows the acting member’s email, the action, the resource it touched, the timestamp, and expandable structured details (for example the previous and requested worker counts of a scale). When a stack or cluster edit results in a commit to the cluster’s GitOps repository, the entry links straight to that commit, so the platform action and the exact repository change it produced sit side by side. View in organisation audit log opens the organisation Audit Log with this cluster already selected as its filter, where the same entries sit alongside the organisation-level events - sign-ins, invitations, role changes - that this tab does not show. Going the other way, each row of the organisation log names its cluster and links back here. Export CSV and Export JSON download this cluster’s entries, honouring the search on screen. The download is the organisation export narrowed to this cluster, so both views report the same entries. Viewing the tab requires the audit read permission, held by owners and admins by default and grantable to custom roles. Entries are append-only and cannot be edited or deleted.

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Danger Zone

Actions in the Danger Zone are destructive. Some operations cannot be undone.

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Disconnect Cluster

Remove the cluster from Ankra without affecting running workloads. What happens:
  • The cluster is removed from the Ankra platform
  • Running workloads continue to run
  • ArgoCD and other installed components remain
  • GitOps synchronization stops
1

Access Danger Zone

Go to cluster Settings → General and scroll to Danger Zone.
2

Disconnect

Click Disconnect Cluster.
3

Confirm

Confirm the disconnection.
You can reconnect a disconnected cluster by importing it again with a new token.

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Stop cluster

Release the compute for a self-managed cloud cluster while keeping the cluster registered in Ankra. The cluster moves to a stopped state. What happens:
  • All virtual machines are terminated at the provider
  • Provider-specific networking may also be removed; Scaleway preserves the network resources needed for restart
  • The cluster record, credentials, stacks, and configuration history are preserved in Ankra
  • Data stored only on the terminated virtual machines is not preserved
Starting again: Use Start cluster to re-provision the saved topology. You can restore the entire cluster or start only the control plane first. Ankra creates fresh virtual machines, installs Kubernetes, and reconciles the configured stacks and addons. The cluster gets fresh infrastructure with new servers and IPs. Previously running workloads are not preserved unless their data lives outside the terminated virtual machines, but stacks and addons configured in Ankra are redeployed automatically. Stop and Start can also run automatically on a timetable - see Power Schedules.
Stop and Start are available for self-managed Hetzner, OVHcloud, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, Scaleway, Proxmox VE, and HPE Morpheus clusters.

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Terminate Cluster

Permanently remove the cluster and all its cloud resources from Ankra. The cluster cannot be recovered.
This action cannot be undone. All cloud infrastructure will be destroyed and the cluster record will be permanently removed.
Considerations before terminating:
  • Ensure no active operations are running
  • Clean up cloud-provider-managed resources (Load Balancers, Volumes) that Ankra does not track
  • Back up stack configurations if needed
  • Inform team members who use this cluster

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Best Practices

Enable auto-upgrade: Keep your agents up-to-date for the latest features and security patches.
Monitor connectivity: Regularly check agent status, especially after network changes.
Use cluster variables: Define environment-specific values at the cluster level to keep stacks reusable.
Configure metrics early: Set up Prometheus integration to enable observability features from the start.

Cluster Agent

Learn about the Ankra Agent.

Variables

Configure cluster variables.

SOPS Encryption

Set up encryption for this cluster.

Organisation Settings

Configure organisation-level settings.