---
title: Installing Calico for policy (advanced)
canonical_url: 'https://docs.projectcalico.org/v3.7/getting-started/kubernetes/installation/other'
---

You can also use {{site.prodname}} just for policy enforcement and achieve networking
with another solution, such as static routes or a Kubernetes cloud provider integration.

To install {{site.prodname}} in this mode using the Kubernetes API datastore,
complete the following steps.

1. Ensure that you have a Kubernetes cluster that meets the
   {{site.prodname}} [system requirements](../requirements). If you don't,
   follow the steps in [Using kubeadm to create a cluster](http://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/kubeadm/).

1. Ensure that the Kubernetes controller manager has the following flags
   set: <br>
   `--cluster-cidr=<your-pod-cidr>` and `--allocate-node-cidrs=true`.

   > **Tip**: On kubeadm, you can pass `--pod-network-cidr=<your-pod-cidr>`
   > to kubeadm to set both Kubernetes controller flags.
   {: .alert .alert-success}

1. Download the {{site.prodname}} policy-only manifest for the Kubernetes API datastore.

   ```bash
   curl {{site.url}}/{{page.version}}/manifests/calico-policy-only.yaml -O
   ```

{% include {{page.version}}/pod-cidr-sed.md yaml="calico" %}

1. If your cluster contains more than 50 nodes:

   By default the replica count in the `Deployment` named `calico-typha` is set to 1. 
   You may want to consider changing this for large clusters or production environments.
   
   ```
   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     name: calico-typha
     ...
   spec:
     ...
     replicas: <number of replicas>
   ```
   {: .no-select-button}
   
   We recommend at least one replica for every 200 nodes up to a maximum of 20. In production, 
   we recommend a minimum of three replicas to reduce the impact of rolling upgrades and 
   failures.  The number of replicas should always be less than the number of nodes, otherwise 
   rolling upgrades will stall. In addition, Typha only helps with scale if there are fewer 
   Typha instances than there are nodes.

1. Apply the manifest using the following command.

   ```bash
   kubectl apply -f calico.yaml
   ```

1. If you wish to enforce application layer policies and secure workload-to-workload
   communications with mutual TLS authentication, continue to [Enabling application layer policy](app-layer-policy) (optional).
