Next Steps

You now have a working Arctic cluster with encrypted tunnels between your hosts. Here are some next steps to explore.

What You Have Learned

Through these tutorials, you have:

• Prepared your Linux hosts with the required packages
• Installed the Arctic agent and CLI
• Created a cluster configuration file
• Applied the configuration to form a cluster
• Understood how Arctic manages network configuration automatically

Explore Further

Here are recommended paths depending on your goals.

For Day-to-Day Operations

The How-To Guides provide task-focused instructions for common operations:

For CLI and API Reference

The Reference section provides complete documentation for all commands and endpoints:

For Understanding How Things Work

The Concepts section explains the architecture and design decisions:

Common Next Tasks

Here are tasks you might want to accomplish next:

Add More Peers

Expand your cluster by adding hosts to your cluster.yaml:

peers:
  - name: node-a
    address: 192.168.1.10:8080
  - name: node-b
    address: 192.168.1.20:8080
  - name: node-c             # New peer
    address: 192.168.1.30:8080

Then apply the changes:

arctic compose apply ./cluster.yaml

Configure Routes

Use policy-based routing to route specific subnets through tunnels:

services:
  - name: tunnel-a-to-b
    source_peer: node-a
    target_peer: node-b
    transport_type: tcp
    routes:
      - dest_cidr: 172.31.8.0/24
        priority: 100

Explore the Full Documentation

Launch the local documentation server:

arctic docs

Create Scoped Credentials

Create credentials with limited permissions for automation:

arctic credentials create \
  urn:tillered:arctic:services.read \
  urn:tillered:arctic:services.write

Set Up Shell Completions

Enable tab completion for faster CLI usage:

# For bash (add to ~/.bashrc)
source <(arctic completion bash)

# For zsh (add to ~/.zshrc)
source <(arctic completion zsh)

# Populate the completion cache for peer/service ID suggestions
arctic cache refresh

Production Considerations

Before deploying to production, consider:

1. Use HTTPS - Configure a reverse proxy with TLS certificates
2. Rotate credentials - Set up regular credential rotation
3. Monitor health - Implement alerting on arctic health status
4. Backup data - Regularly backup /opt/tillered/arctic.db
5. License management - Plan for license renewal before expiration

Alternative: Imperative Commands

While the compose approach is recommended, Arctic also supports imperative CLI commands for individual resource management. See the CLI Reference for commands like:

• arctic peers add - Add a peer manually
• arctic services create - Create a service individually
• arctic routes add - Add routing rules one at a time

Get Help

If you encounter issues:

• Check the Troubleshooting guides
• Review the Error Codes reference
• Enable debug logging: arctic --debug <command>
• View agent logs: journalctl -u arctic-agent -f