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How to Destroy DigitalOcean Kubernetes Clusters

Validated on 12 Mar 2021 • Last edited on 18 Dec 2024

DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) is a Kubernetes service with a fully managed control plane, high availability, and autoscaling. DOKS integrates with standard Kubernetes toolchains and DigitalOcean’s load balancers, volumes, CPU and GPU Droplets, API, and CLI.

Destroy a Cluster Using Automation

How to Delete a Kubernetes Cluster Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
```
doctl auth init
```
Finally, run doctl kubernetes cluster delete. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
```
doctl kubernetes cluster delete <id|name>... [flags]
```
The following example deletes a cluster named example-cluster:
```
doctl kubernetes cluster delete example-cluster
```

How to Delete a Kubernetes Cluster Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
Send a DELETE request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/kubernetes/clusters/{cluster_id}.

cURL

Using cURL:

curl -X DELETE \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/kubernetes/clusters/bd5f5959-5e1e-4205-a714-a914373942af"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    _, err := client.Kubernetes.Delete(ctx, "bd5f5959-5e1e-4205-a714-a914373942af")
}

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean API client for Ruby:

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

client.kubernetes_clusters.delete(id: 'bd5f5959-5e1e-4205-a714-a914373942af')

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

resp = client.kubernetes.delete_cluster(cluster_id="da8fda8")

Destroy a Cluster Using the Control Panel

To destroy a cluster, go to the Kubernetes page in the control panel. From the cluster’s More menu, select Destroy and click Destroy. In the Destroy Kubernetes cluster dialog box, select the resources, such as load balancers and volumes, associated with the cluster to delete them automatically when the cluster is deleted. Enter the name of the cluster, then click Destroy to confirm.

You can also delete the associated load balancers and volumes manually from the control panel after the cluster is destroyed. You will continue to be billed until the resources are destroyed .

You can also use doctl or the API to delete the associated resources automatically when you destroy a cluster.