> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.streamnative.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Configure Access to Multiple Clusters (snctl)

This page shows how to configure access to multiple Pulsar clusters by using configuration files. After your clusters, authentication information, and contexts are defined in one or more configuration files, you can quickly switch between clusters by using the `pulsarctl context use` command.

<Note title="Note">
  A file that is used to configure access to a cluster is sometimes called a *pulsarconfig* file. This is a generic way of referring to configuration files. It does not mean that there is a file named `pulsarconfig`.
</Note>

<Warning title="Warning">
  Only use pulsarconfig files from trusted sources. Using a specially-crafted pulsarconfig file could result in malicious code execution or file exposure. If you must use an untrusted pulsarconfig file, inspect it carefully first, much as you would a shell script.
</Warning>

## Before you begin

You need to have a Pulsar cluster, and the `pulsarctl` command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one fully-managed Pulsar cluster on [StreamNative Cloud](/cloud/get-started/quickstart-console), [spin a self-managed StreamNative Private Cloud cluster](/private-cloud/v2/quick-start/private-cloud-quickstart), or [run a standalone Pulsar cluster](https://pulsar.apache.org/docs/3.1.x/getting-started-docker/) locally.

To check that `pulsarctl` is installed, run `pulsarctl --version`.

## Define contexts and authentication info

Suppose you have two clusters, one for development work and one for production work. The `development` cluster is self-managed in your own datacenter, using Token authentication, while the `production` cluster is fully-managed on StreamNative Cloud, using OAuth2 authentication.

Now, you can use `pulsarctl context set` to define your clusters and the corresponding authentication information.

First, you can create a `development` context to access your development cluster running at `https://1.2.3.4` using token stored in file `/path/to/token`.

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context set development \
  --admin-service-url https://1.2.3.4 \
  --token-file /path/to/token
```

Secondly, you can create a `production` context to access your production cluster running at `https://5.6.7.8` on StreamNative Cloud using the OAuth2 private key file `/path/to/credentials.json`.

<Note title="Note">
  Instead of manually configuring a context to access a StreamNative Cloud cluster, you can also use `snctl x update-pulsar-config` to [add the cluster to the *pulsarconfig* file](/tools/cli/snctl/snctl-overview#add-context-to-pulsarctl).

  Please note that `x` in `snctl x` is a sub command for a group of experimental commands.
</Note>

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context set production \
  --admin-service-url https://5.6.7.8 \
  --issuer-endpoint https://auth.streamnative.cloud \
  --key-file /path/to/credentials.json \
  --audience urn:sn:pulsar:myorg:production
```

Then you can use `pulsarctl context get` to retrieve the list of available contexts configured for `pulsarctl`. You should be able to see similar output as below.

```bash theme={null}
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| CURRENT |    NAME     |                                BROKER SERVICE URL                                 |  BOOKIE SERVICE URL   |
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| *       | production  | https://5.6.7.8                                                                   | http://localhost:8080 |
|         | development | https://1.2.3.4                                                                   | http://localhost:8080 |
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
```

You are able to find the *pulsarconfig* file located at `${HOME}/.config/pulsar/config`. Run the following command to check the context of *pulsarconfig* file.

```bash theme={null}
cat ${HOME}/.config/pulsar/config
```

You should be able to see similar content as below:

```bash theme={null}
auth-info:
  development:
    locationoforigin: /Users/john.doe/.config/pulsar/config
    tls_trust_certs_file_path: ""
    tls_allow_insecure_connection: false
    token: ""
    tokenFile: /path/to/token
    issuer_endpoint: ""
    client_id: ""
    audience: ""
    scope: ""
    key_file: ""
  production:
    locationoforigin: /Users/john.doe/.config/pulsar/config
    tls_trust_certs_file_path: ""
    tls_allow_insecure_connection: false
    token: ""
    tokenFile: ""
    issuer_endpoint: https://auth.streamnative.cloud
    client_id: ""
    audience: urn:sn:pulsar:myorg:production
    scope: ""
    key_file: /path/to/credentials.json
contexts:
  development:
    admin-service-url: https://1.2.3.4
    bookie-service-url: http://localhost:8080
  production:
    admin-service-url: https://5.6.7.8
    bookie-service-url: http://localhost:8080
current-context: production
```

## Set the current context

When you define the context in `${HOME}/.config/pulsar/config`, you can quickly switch between clusters by using the following command (suppose you want to use the development cluster):

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context use development
```

Now, you are using the context of `development` cluster. And you can validate the current context by using `pulsarctl context current` command.

If you don't know the current available list of contexts, you can use the following command:

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context get
```

You will see a similar output as follows:

```bash theme={null}
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| CURRENT |    NAME     |                                BROKER SERVICE URL                                 |  BOOKIE SERVICE URL   |
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| *       | production  | https://5.6.7.8                                                                   | http://localhost:8080 |
|         | development | https://1.2.3.4                                                                   | http://localhost:8080 |
+---------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
```

## Rename the context

You can modify the context name by using the following command:

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context rename <old_name> <new_name>
```

## Delete the context

If the cluster information is invalid or is not used anymore, you want to delete it. You can use the following command to delete a context:

```bash theme={null}
pulsarctl context delete development
```