sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api@v1.7.1/docs/book/src/clusterctl/commands/describe-cluster.md (about)

     1  # clusterctl describe cluster
     2  
     3  The `clusterctl describe cluster` command provides an "at a glance" view of a Cluster API cluster designed
     4  to help the user in quickly understanding if there are problems and where.
     5  
     6  For example `clusterctl describe cluster capi-quickstart` will provide an output similar to:
     7  
     8  ![](../../images/describe-cluster.png)
     9  
    10  The "at a glance" view is based on the idea that clusterctl should avoid overloading the user with information,
    11  but instead surface problems, if any.
    12  
    13  In practice, if you look at the `ControlPlane` node, you might notice that the underlying machines
    14  are grouped together, because all of them have the same state (Ready equal to True), so it is not
    15  necessary to repeat the same information three times.
    16  
    17  If this is not the case, and machines have different states, the visualization is going to use different lines:
    18  
    19  ![](../../images/describe-cluster-how-grouping-works.png)
    20  
    21  You might also notice that the visualization does not represent the infrastructure machine or the
    22  bootstrap object linked to a machine, unless their state differs from the machine's state.
    23  
    24  ## Customizing the visualization
    25  
    26  By default, the visualization generated by `clusterctl describe cluster` hides details for the sake
    27  of simplicity and shortness. However, if required, the user can ask for showing all the detail:
    28  
    29  By using `--grouping=false`, the user can force the visualization to show all the machines
    30  on separated lines, no matter if they have the same state or not:
    31  
    32  ![](../../images/describe-cluster-disable-grouping.png)
    33  
    34  By using the `--echo` flag, the user can force the visualization to show infrastructure machines and
    35  bootstrap objects linked to machines, no matter if they have the same state or not:
    36  
    37  ![](../../images/describe-cluster-echo.png)
    38  
    39  It is also possible to force the visualization to show all the conditions for an object (instead of showing
    40  only the ready condition). e.g. with `--show-conditions KubeadmControlPlane` you get:
    41  
    42  ![](../../images/describe-cluster-show-conditions.png)
    43  
    44  Please note that this option is flexible, and you can pass a comma separated list of `kind` or `kind/name` for
    45  which the command should show all the object's conditions (use 'all' to show conditions for everything).