--- title: "Using Static Token file" linkTitle: "Using Static Token file" weight: 1 date: 2021-08-04 description: > Using a static token file in Minikube --- ## Overview A [static token file](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/access-authn-authz/authentication/#static-token-file) can be used to ensure only authenticated users access the API server. As minikube nodes are run in VMs/containers, this adds a complication to ensuring this token file is accessible to the node. This tutorial explains how to configure a static token file. ## Tutorial This must be done before creating the minikube cluster. ```shell # Create the folder that will be copied into the control plane. mkdir -p ~/.minikube/files/etc/ca-certificates/ # Copy the token file into the folder. cp token.csv ~/.minikube/files/etc/ca-certificates/token.csv # Start minikube with the token auth file specified. minikube start \ --extra-config=apiserver.token-auth-file=/etc/ca-certificates/token.csv ``` Placing files in `~/.minikube/files/` automatically copies them to the specified path in each minikube node. This means once we call `minikube start`, it is able to access the token file since it is locally present in the node.