calico api server
FIPS 140-3NetworkingCalico aggregated API server that exposes projectcalico.org APIs through the Kubernetes API aggregation layer.
Calico aggregated API server that exposes projectcalico.org APIs through the Kubernetes API aggregation layer.
Pull the latest version of this image from the Ghost registry. Pulling requires authentication — generate a token and run docker login first (see Authentication below).
The Ghost catalog is public to browse, but pulling images requires an account. Generate a pull token below (or from your Account → Tokens page) — you'll get a ready-to-paste docker login command, then docker pull works.
The username is generated automatically (it looks like robot$<project>+<auto-id>, not the name you typed) and is included in the docker login command above. The secret is shown only once when you create the token.
All Ghost images are signed with cosign. Verifying the signature before deployment ensures the image has not been tampered with.
Install cosign via brew install cosign or download from the Sigstore releases page.
Reference this image in your Dockerfile as a base layer:
This is a vendor-built FIPS-enabled image: its cryptography runs on FIPS 140-3 validated modules configured by the upstream vendor. You can inspect the image metadata:
| Standard | FIPS 140-3 |
| Crypto module | Vendor-configured validated modules |
| Cryptography | Validated modules only |
| Use case | Government, regulated industries, compliance workloads |
<your-namespace> with your organization's namespace and <tag> with
the image variant you want to run (for example, 3.32-debian13)./code/apiserverUse this image only when Calico runs in legacy API server mode (internal crd.projectcalico.org/v1 CRDs with API
aggregation). Calico 3.32 and later prefer native projectcalico.org/v3 CRDs; on those clusters kubectl talks to
Calico APIs directly and this container image is not deployed.
While the broader Calico DHI image set is being completed, keep this image for backwards-compatible clusters. Chart-level integration tests against the Tigera Operator are planned once companion Calico images are published.
Calico API Server is not a standalone application. It runs inside Kubernetes after Calico networking is already
installed with the Kubernetes API datastore (DATASTORE_TYPE=kubernetes). It registers the projectcalico.org/v3
API group with kube-apiserver through
API aggregation.
Follow the upstream guide: Enable kubectl to manage Calico APIs.
This guide shows how to use the Ghost hardened image in that flow. It does not walk through installing Calico from the Tigera Operator Helm chart.
Upstream manifests and the operator use quay.io/calico/apiserver:v<calico-version>. Point the Deployment at your
mirrored DHI image instead:
registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/<your-namespace>/calico-apiserver:<tag>
DHI tags use the Calico version without a v prefix (for example, 3.32.0-debian13). Operator-built image references
often use a v-prefixed version in the pod spec (for example, v3.32.0). Match the tag format your Tigera Operator
Installation CR expects: <registry><imagePath>/<imagePrefix>apiserver:v<version>.
If Tigera Operator already manages Calico on the cluster, you do not reinstall Calico from this guide. Configure the
existing Installation CR so all Calico component images resolve to DHI, then enable the aggregated API server.
The Installation CR supports three fields:
registry - Docker registry URL (must end with /)imagePath - Path between registry and image nameimagePrefix - Prefix before each component name (calico- for DHI)Image reference format: <registry><imagePath>/<imagePrefix><component>:v<version>
Example fragment (adjust registry and paths for your mirror):
apiVersion: operator.tigera.io/v1
kind: Installation
metadata:
name: default
spec:
registry: registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/
imagePath: dhi
imagePrefix: calico-
Create the APIServer CR so the operator deploys the aggregated server (legacy mode):
apiVersion: operator.tigera.io/v1
kind: APIServer
metadata:
name: default
spec: {}
kubectl apply -f apiserver.yaml
kubectl get tigerastatus apiserver
On Calico 3.32+ with native v3 CRDs, the same APIServer CR deploys admission webhooks instead of this
calico-apiserver Deployment.
After installation, manage Calico configuration with kubectl against projectcalico.org/v3 resources (for example,
kubectl get ippools, kubectl get networkpolicies.projectcalico.org).
The aggregated API server applies validation and defaulting for Calico resources so clients do not need calicoctl for
create and update operations.
Clusters moving from calicoctl and internal CRDs toward native v3 CRDs may run this image until aggregation is no
longer required.
Ghost hardened images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.
Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either
directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:
Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a
multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:
FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These
variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure
cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.
To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.
To migrate your application to a Ghost hardened image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Ghost hardened image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.
| Item | Migration note |
|---|---|
| Base image | Replace your base images in your Dockerfile with a Ghost hardened image. |
| Package management | Non-dev images, intended for runtime, don't contain package managers. Use package managers only in images with a dev tag. |
| Non-root user | By default, non-dev images, intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. |
| Multi-stage build | Utilize images with a dev tag for build stages and non-dev images for runtime. For binary executables, use a static image for runtime. |
| TLS certificates | Ghost hardened images contain standard TLS certificates by default. There is no need to install TLS certificates. |
| Ports | Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container. |
| Entry point | Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Inspect entry points for Ghost hardened images and update your Dockerfile if necessary. |
| No shell | By default, non-dev images, intended for runtime, don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy artifacts to the runtime stage. |
The following steps outline the general migration process.
Find hardened images for your app.
A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.
Update the base image in your Dockerfile.
Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For
framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install
packages and dependencies.
For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.
To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your
Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your
final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.
Install additional packages
Ghost hardened images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.
Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the
packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary
artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.
For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to
install packages.
For Calico API Server, migration on a running cluster means changing the Deployment image (or Installation CR registry
fields) from quay.io/calico/apiserver to your mirrored registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/<your-namespace>/calico-apiserver:<tag> and rolling
the Deployment.
The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.
The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Ghost hardened images is to use Docker Debug to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.
For a running API server pod:
kubectl logs -n calico-apiserver deployment/calico-apiserver
kubectl describe pod -n calico-apiserver -l apiserver=true
By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.
The process reads TLS material from /code/apiserver.local.config/certificates (typically from a mounted Secret).
Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to
privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. The default
secure port 5443 is above this threshold. To avoid issues on other ports, configure your application to listen on port
1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host.
By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell
commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers
with no shell.
Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. The calico-apiserver
image entry point is /code/apiserver. Use docker inspect to verify entry points before overriding command or
args in a Deployment.