Available CNIs of Federal Frontier Kubernetes Platform (FKP)

CNIs on Frontier managed workload clusters

The Container Network Interface (CNI) is a framework and plug-in responsible configuring network resources, provisioning IP addresses, and maintaining established connections upon multiple hosts. The CNI options available within FKP are the following:

  • Calico Enterprise
  • Calico OS
  • Flannel
  • Canal
  • Cilium

Calico Enterprise

Calico Enterprise

Supported System Requirements

  • CPU: x86-64 processor with at least 2 cores
  • Memory: 12 GB RAM
  • Storage: 20 GB free disk space
  • Operating Systems:
    • Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04
    • RHEL

Supported Kubernetes Distributions

  • RKE2

Calico Enterprise is the official recommended and supported CNI option for FKP RKE2 clusters. It is a capable security solution with full-stack observability for cloud-native applications running on containers and Kubernetes that works across various environments and infrastructures. Calico Enterprise comes packaged with their Manager UI making it simple to create and maintain network policies for Frontier users and administrators. To see how to integrate Calico Enterprise CNI into your Kubernetes clusters, visit these guides below:

Calico OS

Calico OS

Supported System Requirements

  • CPU: x86-64 and arm64 processors
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Operating Systems:
    • Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04
    • RHEL
    • CentOS
    • Flatcar

Supported Kubernetes Distributions

  • RKE2
  • K3s
  • MicroK8s

Calico OS is a free and open-source solution for container networking and security across various system architectures, operating systems, and Kubernetes distributions. To see how to integrate Calico OS CNI into your Kubernetes clusters, visit these guides below:

Flannel

Flannel

Supported System Requirements

  • CPU: x86-64 and arm64 processors
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Operating Systems:
    • Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04
    • RHEL
    • CentOS

Supported Kubernetes Distributions

  • K3s

Flannel is a free and open-source network solution option available for FKP K3s clusters. It is a lightweight CNI plugin pre-packaged with the K3s kubernetes distribution. To see how to integrate Flannel CNI into your Kubernetes clusters, visit these guides below:

Canal

Canal

Supported System Requirements

  • CPU: x86-64 and arm64 processors
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Operating Systems:
    • Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04
    • RHEL
    • CentOS

Supported Kubernetes Distributions

  • RKE2

Canal is a free and open-source network solution option available for FKP RKE2 clusters. It combines Flannel and Calico CNI networking. Canal that comes packaged with RKE2 was purposely re-built for FIPS compliance. To see how to integrate Canal CNI into your Kubernetes clusters, visit these guides below:

Cilium

Cilium

Supported System Requirements

  • CPU: x86-64 and arm64 processors
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Operating Systems:
    • Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, and 22.04
    • CentOS

Supported Kubernetes Distributions

  • RKE2

Canal is a free and open-source network solution option available for FKP RKE2 clusters. It enables network security and control using the Linux kernel technology called BPF. To see how to integrate Cilium CNI into your Kubernetes clusters, visit these guides below: