2. Build the cluster profile

A cluster profile is a reusable recipe. It says nothing about which machine — only what the cluster should contain. You build it once and can deploy it repeatedly.

Create the profile

1. Left-hand menu → Profiles.
2. Click Add Cluster Profile (top right).

3. Fill in the basics:

   Field	Value
   Name	dane-agent-basic
   Description	First agent-mode cluster — OS + PXK-E + Cilium
   Type	Infrastructure

   Why Infrastructure

   Palette offers three profile types, and they differ by which layers they are allowed to hold:

   Type	Holds	Use it when
   Infrastructure	OS, Kubernetes, network, storage	You are defining what the cluster is — this is you
   Add-on	Applications only	You are adding software onto an existing cluster
   Full	Both of the above in one profile	You want the whole stack welded into a single object

   Infrastructure is the right choice here. It holds exactly the three layers you need, and a cluster can be built from it on its own. Keeping the infrastructure separate from add-ons also means you can later attach an add-on profile — monitoring, ingress, whatever — without rebuilding this one.

4. Next.

5. Cloud type: choose Edge Native. Then Next.

   Edge Native, not Edge

   Several options look similar. Edge Native is the one that works with a registered edge host. Picking wrong here means your node will not be selectable in step 4, and the cloud type cannot be changed later — you would have to start the profile again.

screenshot — Add Cluster Profile, Type=Infrastructure, Cloud=Edge Native

Layer 1 — Operating System

Palette now asks you to fill each layer in turn, starting with the OS.

1. Search for and select BYOS Edge OS.
2. Version: 2.1.0.

3. Open the presets panel and choose Agent Mode. Getting to it is not obvious:

   • click the layer name on the left,
   • click Values (the < > code icon) in the pack settings on the right,
   • click presets in the top-right corner of that panel.

   Presets are the least discoverable part of Palette. If you do not see a presets list, you are still on the README tab — switch to Values.

   This preset is the whole point

   Agent Mode tells Palette the machine already has an OS and must not be re-imaged. Miss this and the deployment will try to lay down a fresh operating system, which will fail. If you only double-check one thing on this page, check this.

4. Next layer.

screenshot — BYOS Edge OS 2.1.0 with the Agent Mode preset selected

Layer 2 — Kubernetes

1. Select Palette eXtended Kubernetes – Edge. You will also see it written as PXK-E, and its internal name is edge-k8s. All three refer to the same thing.
2. Version: 1.36.2.
3. Leave the settings alone for now. You will edit two lines here in the next step.
4. Next layer.

Layer 3 — Network

1. Select Cilium, internal name cni-cilium-oss.
2. Version: 1.20.0.

3. Open the presets panel the same way as before — Values (< >), then presets in the top-right — and select For 1-node cluster.

   Why this preset matters

   Cilium's defaults assume several machines and will ask for two copies of some components. On a single node the second copy has nowhere to run and sits stuck as Pending forever — the cluster never reports healthy. This preset drops it to one copy.

4. Next layer, then Review.

Click Finish to save the profile. You will edit the three values in the next step — the profile has to exist before you can add variables to it.

What good looks like

Three layers listed, in this order:

Layer	Pack	Version
Operating System	BYOS Edge OS	2.1.0
Kubernetes	Palette eXtended Kubernetes – Edge	1.36.2
Network	Cilium	1.20.0

Next: turn the CIDRs into variables →