Chapter 14. OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider


14.1. About the OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider

OpenShift Container Platform uses a software-defined networking (SDN) approach to provide a unified cluster network that enables communication between pods across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This pod network is established and maintained by the OpenShift SDN, which configures an overlay network using Open vSwitch (OVS).

14.1.1. OpenShift SDN network isolation modes

OpenShift SDN provides three SDN modes for configuring the pod network:

  • Network policy mode allows project administrators to configure their own isolation policies using NetworkPolicy objects. Network policy is the default mode in OpenShift Container Platform 4.7.
  • Multitenant mode provides project-level isolation for pods and services. Pods from different projects cannot send packets to or receive packets from pods and services of a different project. You can disable isolation for a project, allowing it to send network traffic to all pods and services in the entire cluster and receive network traffic from those pods and services.
  • Subnet mode provides a flat pod network where every pod can communicate with every other pod and service. The network policy mode provides the same functionality as subnet mode.

14.1.2. Supported default CNI network provider feature matrix

OpenShift Container Platform offers two supported choices, OpenShift SDN and OVN-Kubernetes, for the default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider. The following table summarizes the current feature support for both network providers:

Table 14.1. Default CNI network provider feature comparison
FeatureOpenShift SDNOVN-Kubernetes

Egress IPs

Supported

Supported

Egress firewall [1]

Supported

Supported

Egress router

Supported

Partially supported [3]

IPsec encryption

Not supported

Supported

Kubernetes network policy

Partially supported [2]

Supported

Multicast

Supported

Supported

  1. Egress firewall is also known as egress network policy in OpenShift SDN. This is not the same as network policy egress.
  2. Network policy for OpenShift SDN does not support egress rules and some ipBlock rules.
  3. Egress router for OVN-Kubernetes supports only redirect mode.

14.2. Configuring egress IPs for a project

As a cluster administrator, you can configure the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider to assign one or more egress IP addresses to a project.

14.2.1. Egress IP address assignment for project egress traffic

By configuring an egress IP address for a project, all outgoing external connections from the specified project will share the same, fixed source IP address. External resources can recognize traffic from a particular project based on the egress IP address. An egress IP address assigned to a project is different from the egress router, which is used to send traffic to specific destinations.

Egress IP addresses are implemented as additional IP addresses on the primary network interface of the node and must be in the same subnet as the node’s primary IP address.

Important

Egress IP addresses must not be configured in any Linux network configuration files, such as ifcfg-eth0.

Egress IPs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Azure are supported only on OpenShift Container Platform version 4.10 and later.

Allowing additional IP addresses on the primary network interface might require extra configuration when using some virtual machines solutions.

You can assign egress IP addresses to namespaces by setting the egressIPs parameter of the NetNamespace object. After an egress IP is associated with a project, OpenShift SDN allows you to assign egress IPs to hosts in two ways:

  • In the automatically assigned approach, an egress IP address range is assigned to a node.
  • In the manually assigned approach, a list of one or more egress IP address is assigned to a node.

Namespaces that request an egress IP address are matched with nodes that can host those egress IP addresses, and then the egress IP addresses are assigned to those nodes. If the egressIPs parameter is set on a NetNamespace object, but no node hosts that egress IP address, then egress traffic from the namespace will be dropped.

High availability of nodes is automatic. If a node that hosts an egress IP address is unreachable and there are nodes that are able to host that egress IP address, then the egress IP address will move to a new node. When the unreachable node comes back online, the egress IP address automatically moves to balance egress IP addresses across nodes.

Important

The following limitations apply when using egress IP addresses with the OpenShift SDN cluster network provider:

  • You cannot use manually assigned and automatically assigned egress IP addresses on the same nodes.
  • If you manually assign egress IP addresses from an IP address range, you must not make that range available for automatic IP assignment.
  • You cannot share egress IP addresses across multiple namespaces using the OpenShift SDN egress IP address implementation. If you need to share IP addresses across namespaces, the OVN-Kubernetes cluster network provider egress IP address implementation allows you to span IP addresses across multiple namespaces.
Note

If you use OpenShift SDN in multitenant mode, you cannot use egress IP addresses with any namespace that is joined to another namespace by the projects that are associated with them. For example, if project1 and project2 are joined by running the oc adm pod-network join-projects --to=project1 project2 command, neither project can use an egress IP address. For more information, see BZ#1645577.

14.2.1.1. Considerations when using automatically assigned egress IP addresses

When using the automatic assignment approach for egress IP addresses the following considerations apply:

  • You set the egressCIDRs parameter of each node’s HostSubnet resource to indicate the range of egress IP addresses that can be hosted by a node. OpenShift Container Platform sets the egressIPs parameter of the HostSubnet resource based on the IP address range you specify.
  • Only a single egress IP address per namespace is supported when using the automatic assignment mode.

If the node hosting the namespace’s egress IP address is unreachable, OpenShift Container Platform will reassign the egress IP address to another node with a compatible egress IP address range. The automatic assignment approach works best for clusters installed in environments with flexibility in associating additional IP addresses with nodes.

14.2.1.2. Considerations when using manually assigned egress IP addresses

This approach is used for clusters where there can be limitations on associating additional IP addresses with nodes such as in public cloud environments.

When using the manual assignment approach for egress IP addresses the following considerations apply:

  • You set the egressIPs parameter of each node’s HostSubnet resource to indicate the IP addresses that can be hosted by a node.
  • Multiple egress IP addresses per namespace are supported.

When a namespace has multiple egress IP addresses, if the node hosting the first egress IP address is unreachable, OpenShift Container Platform will automatically switch to using the next available egress IP address until the first egress IP address is reachable again.

14.2.2. Configuring automatically assigned egress IP addresses for a namespace

In OpenShift Container Platform you can enable automatic assignment of an egress IP address for a specific namespace across one or more nodes.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Update the NetNamespace object with the egress IP address using the following JSON:

     $ oc patch netnamespace <project_name> --type=merge -p \ 1
      '{
        "egressIPs": [
          "<ip_address>" 2
        ]
      }'
    1
    Specify the name of the project.
    2
    Specify a single egress IP address. Using multiple IP addresses is not supported.

    For example, to assign project1 to an IP address of 192.168.1.100 and project2 to an IP address of 192.168.1.101:

    $ oc patch netnamespace project1 --type=merge -p \
      '{"egressIPs": ["192.168.1.100"]}'
    $ oc patch netnamespace project2 --type=merge -p \
      '{"egressIPs": ["192.168.1.101"]}'
    Note

    Because OpenShift SDN manages the NetNamespace object, you can make changes only by modifying the existing NetNamespace object. Do not create a new NetNamespace object.

  2. Indicate which nodes can host egress IP addresses by setting the egressCIDRs parameter for each host using the following JSON:

    $ oc patch hostsubnet <node_name> --type=merge -p \ 1
      '{
        "egressCIDRs": [
          "<ip_address_range_1>", "<ip_address_range_2>" 2
        ]
      }'
    1
    Specify a node name.
    2
    Specify one or more IP address ranges in CIDR format.

    For example, to set node1 and node2 to host egress IP addresses in the range 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.255:

    $ oc patch hostsubnet node1 --type=merge -p \
      '{"egressCIDRs": ["192.168.1.0/24"]}'
    $ oc patch hostsubnet node2 --type=merge -p \
      '{"egressCIDRs": ["192.168.1.0/24"]}'

    OpenShift Container Platform automatically assigns specific egress IP addresses to available nodes in a balanced way. In this case, it assigns the egress IP address 192.168.1.100 to node1 and the egress IP address 192.168.1.101 to node2 or vice versa.

14.2.3. Configuring manually assigned egress IP addresses for a namespace

In OpenShift Container Platform you can associate one or more egress IP addresses with a namespace.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Update the NetNamespace object by specifying the following JSON object with the desired IP addresses:

    $ oc patch netnamespace <project> --type=merge -p \ 1
      '{
        "egressIPs": [ 2
          "<ip_address>"
          ]
      }'
    1
    Specify the name of the project.
    2
    Specify one or more egress IP addresses. The egressIPs parameter is an array.

    For example, to assign the project1 project to an IP address of 192.168.1.100:

    $ oc patch netnamespace project1 --type=merge \
      -p '{"egressIPs": ["192.168.1.100"]}'

    You can set egressIPs to two or more IP addresses on different nodes to provide high availability. If multiple egress IP addresses are set, pods use the first IP in the list for egress, but if the node hosting that IP address fails, pods switch to using the next IP in the list after a short delay.

    Note

    Because OpenShift SDN manages the NetNamespace object, you can make changes only by modifying the existing NetNamespace object. Do not create a new NetNamespace object.

  2. Manually assign the egress IP to the node hosts. Set the egressIPs parameter on the HostSubnet object on the node host. Using the following JSON, include as many IPs as you want to assign to that node host:

    $ oc patch hostsubnet <node_name> --type=merge -p \ 1
      '{
        "egressIPs": [ 2
          "<ip_address_1>",
          "<ip_address_N>"
          ]
      }'
    1
    Specify the name of the node.
    2
    Specify one or more egress IP addresses. The egressIPs field is an array.

    For example, to specify that node1 should have the egress IPs 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101, and 192.168.1.102:

    $ oc patch hostsubnet node1 --type=merge -p \
      '{"egressIPs": ["192.168.1.100", "192.168.1.101", "192.168.1.102"]}'

    In the previous example, all egress traffic for project1 will be routed to the node hosting the specified egress IP, and then connected (using NAT) to that IP address.

14.3. Configuring an egress firewall for a project

As a cluster administrator, you can create an egress firewall for a project that restricts egress traffic leaving your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

14.3.1. How an egress firewall works in a project

As a cluster administrator, you can use an egress firewall to limit the external hosts that some or all pods can access from within the cluster. An egress firewall supports the following scenarios:

  • A pod can only connect to internal hosts and cannot initiate connections to the public Internet.
  • A pod can only connect to the public Internet and cannot initiate connections to internal hosts that are outside the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • A pod cannot reach specified internal subnets or hosts outside the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • A pod can connect to only specific external hosts.

For example, you can allow one project access to a specified IP range but deny the same access to a different project. Or you can restrict application developers from updating from Python pip mirrors, and force updates to come only from approved sources.

You configure an egress firewall policy by creating an EgressNetworkPolicy custom resource (CR) object. The egress firewall matches network traffic that meets any of the following criteria:

  • An IP address range in CIDR format
  • A DNS name that resolves to an IP address
Important

If your egress firewall includes a deny rule for 0.0.0.0/0, access to your OpenShift Container Platform API servers is blocked. To ensure that pods can continue to access the OpenShift Container Platform API servers, you must include the IP address range that the API servers listen on in your egress firewall rules, as in the following example:

apiVersion: network.openshift.io/v1
kind: EgressNetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: <namespace> 1
spec:
  egress:
  - to:
      cidrSelector: <api_server_address_range> 2
    type: Allow
# ...
  - to:
      cidrSelector: 0.0.0.0/0 3
    type: Deny
1
The namespace for the egress firewall.
2
The IP address range that includes your OpenShift Container Platform API servers.
3
A global deny rule prevents access to the OpenShift Container Platform API servers.

To find the IP address for your API servers, run oc get ep kubernetes -n default.

For more information, see BZ#1988324.

Important

You must have OpenShift SDN configured to use either the network policy or multitenant mode to configure an egress firewall.

If you use network policy mode, an egress firewall is compatible with only one policy per namespace and will not work with projects that share a network, such as global projects.

Warning

Egress firewall rules do not apply to traffic that goes through routers. Any user with permission to create a Route CR object can bypass egress firewall policy rules by creating a route that points to a forbidden destination.

14.3.1.1. Limitations of an egress firewall

An egress firewall has the following limitations:

  • No project can have more than one EgressNetworkPolicy object.
  • A maximum of one EgressNetworkPolicy object with a maximum of 1,000 rules can be defined per project.
  • The default project cannot use an egress firewall.
  • When using the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider in multitenant mode, the following limitations apply:

    • Global projects cannot use an egress firewall. You can make a project global by using the oc adm pod-network make-projects-global command.
    • Projects merged by using the oc adm pod-network join-projects command cannot use an egress firewall in any of the joined projects.

Violating any of these restrictions results in a broken egress firewall for the project, and may cause all external network traffic to be dropped.

An Egress Firewall resource can be created in the kube-node-lease, kube-public, kube-system, openshift and openshift- projects.

14.3.1.2. Matching order for egress firewall policy rules

The egress firewall policy rules are evaluated in the order that they are defined, from first to last. The first rule that matches an egress connection from a pod applies. Any subsequent rules are ignored for that connection.

14.3.1.3. How Domain Name Server (DNS) resolution works

If you use DNS names in any of your egress firewall policy rules, proper resolution of the domain names is subject to the following restrictions:

  • Domain name updates are polled based on the TTL (time to live) value of the domain returned by the local non-authoritative servers.
  • The pod must resolve the domain from the same local name servers when necessary. Otherwise the IP addresses for the domain known by the egress firewall controller and the pod can be different. If the IP addresses for a hostname differ, the egress firewall might not be enforced consistently.
  • Because the egress firewall controller and pods asynchronously poll the same local name server, the pod might obtain the updated IP address before the egress controller does, which causes a race condition. Due to this current limitation, domain name usage in EgressNetworkPolicy objects is only recommended for domains with infrequent IP address changes.
Note

The egress firewall always allows pods access to the external interface of the node that the pod is on for DNS resolution.

If you use domain names in your egress firewall policy and your DNS resolution is not handled by a DNS server on the local node, then you must add egress firewall rules that allow access to your DNS server’s IP addresses. if you are using domain names in your pods.

14.3.2. EgressNetworkPolicy custom resource (CR) object

You can define one or more rules for an egress firewall. A rule is either an Allow rule or a Deny rule, with a specification for the traffic that the rule applies to.

The following YAML describes an EgressNetworkPolicy CR object:

EgressNetworkPolicy object

apiVersion: network.openshift.io/v1
kind: EgressNetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: <name> 1
spec:
  egress: 2
    ...

1
A name for your egress firewall policy.
2
A collection of one or more egress network policy rules as described in the following section.

14.3.2.1. EgressNetworkPolicy rules

The following YAML describes an egress firewall rule object. The egress stanza expects an array of one or more objects.

Egress policy rule stanza

egress:
- type: <type> 1
  to: 2
    cidrSelector: <cidr> 3
    dnsName: <dns_name> 4

1
The type of rule. The value must be either Allow or Deny.
2
A stanza describing an egress traffic match rule. A value for either the cidrSelector field or the dnsName field for the rule. You cannot use both fields in the same rule.
3
An IP address range in CIDR format.
4
A domain name.

14.3.2.2. Example EgressNetworkPolicy CR objects

The following example defines several egress firewall policy rules:

apiVersion: network.openshift.io/v1
kind: EgressNetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  egress: 1
  - type: Allow
    to:
      cidrSelector: 1.2.3.0/24
  - type: Allow
    to:
      dnsName: www.example.com
  - type: Deny
    to:
      cidrSelector: 0.0.0.0/0
1
A collection of egress firewall policy rule objects.

14.3.3. Creating an egress firewall policy object

As a cluster administrator, you can create an egress firewall policy object for a project.

Important

If the project already has an EgressNetworkPolicy object defined, you must edit the existing policy to make changes to the egress firewall rules.

Prerequisites

  • A cluster that uses the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider plug-in.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

  1. Create a policy rule:

    1. Create a <policy_name>.yaml file where <policy_name> describes the egress policy rules.
    2. In the file you created, define an egress policy object.
  2. Enter the following command to create the policy object. Replace <policy_name> with the name of the policy and <project> with the project that the rule applies to.

    $ oc create -f <policy_name>.yaml -n <project>

    In the following example, a new EgressNetworkPolicy object is created in a project named project1:

    $ oc create -f default.yaml -n project1

    Example output

    egressnetworkpolicy.network.openshift.io/v1 created

  3. Optional: Save the <policy_name>.yaml file so that you can make changes later.

14.4. Editing an egress firewall for a project

As a cluster administrator, you can modify network traffic rules for an existing egress firewall.

14.4.1. Viewing an EgressNetworkPolicy object

You can view an EgressNetworkPolicy object in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • A cluster using the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider plug-in.
  • Install the OpenShift Command-line Interface (CLI), commonly known as oc.
  • You must log in to the cluster.

Procedure

  1. Optional: To view the names of the EgressNetworkPolicy objects defined in your cluster, enter the following command:

    $ oc get egressnetworkpolicy --all-namespaces
  2. To inspect a policy, enter the following command. Replace <policy_name> with the name of the policy to inspect.

    $ oc describe egressnetworkpolicy <policy_name>

    Example output

    Name:		default
    Namespace:	project1
    Created:	20 minutes ago
    Labels:		<none>
    Annotations:	<none>
    Rule:		Allow to 1.2.3.0/24
    Rule:		Allow to www.example.com
    Rule:		Deny to 0.0.0.0/0

14.5. Editing an egress firewall for a project

As a cluster administrator, you can modify network traffic rules for an existing egress firewall.

14.5.1. Editing an EgressNetworkPolicy object

As a cluster administrator, you can update the egress firewall for a project.

Prerequisites

  • A cluster using the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider plug-in.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the EgressNetworkPolicy object for the project. Replace <project> with the name of the project.

    $ oc get -n <project> egressnetworkpolicy
  2. Optional: If you did not save a copy of the EgressNetworkPolicy object when you created the egress network firewall, enter the following command to create a copy.

    $ oc get -n <project> egressnetworkpolicy <name> -o yaml > <filename>.yaml

    Replace <project> with the name of the project. Replace <name> with the name of the object. Replace <filename> with the name of the file to save the YAML to.

  3. After making changes to the policy rules, enter the following command to replace the EgressNetworkPolicy object. Replace <filename> with the name of the file containing the updated EgressNetworkPolicy object.

    $ oc replace -f <filename>.yaml

14.6. Removing an egress firewall from a project

As a cluster administrator, you can remove an egress firewall from a project to remove all restrictions on network traffic from the project that leaves the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

14.6.1. Removing an EgressNetworkPolicy object

As a cluster administrator, you can remove an egress firewall from a project.

Prerequisites

  • A cluster using the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider plug-in.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the EgressNetworkPolicy object for the project. Replace <project> with the name of the project.

    $ oc get -n <project> egressnetworkpolicy
  2. Enter the following command to delete the EgressNetworkPolicy object. Replace <project> with the name of the project and <name> with the name of the object.

    $ oc delete -n <project> egressnetworkpolicy <name>

14.7. Considerations for the use of an egress router pod

14.7.1. About an egress router pod

The OpenShift Container Platform egress router pod redirects traffic to a specified remote server from a private source IP address that is not used for any other purpose. An egress router pod enables you to send network traffic to servers that are set up to allow access only from specific IP addresses.

Note

The egress router pod is not intended for every outgoing connection. Creating large numbers of egress router pods can exceed the limits of your network hardware. For example, creating an egress router pod for every project or application could exceed the number of local MAC addresses that the network interface can handle before reverting to filtering MAC addresses in software.

Important

The egress router image is not compatible with Amazon AWS, Azure Cloud, or any other cloud platform that does not support layer 2 manipulations due to their incompatibility with macvlan traffic.

14.7.1.1. Egress router modes

In redirect mode, an egress router pod configures iptables rules to redirect traffic from its own IP address to one or more destination IP addresses. Client pods that need to use the reserved source IP address must be modified to connect to the egress router rather than connecting directly to the destination IP.

In HTTP proxy mode, an egress router pod runs as an HTTP proxy on port 8080. This mode only works for clients that are connecting to HTTP-based or HTTPS-based services, but usually requires fewer changes to the client pods to get them to work. Many programs can be told to use an HTTP proxy by setting an environment variable.

In DNS proxy mode, an egress router pod runs as a DNS proxy for TCP-based services from its own IP address to one or more destination IP addresses. To make use of the reserved, source IP address, client pods must be modified to connect to the egress router pod rather than connecting directly to the destination IP address. This modification ensures that external destinations treat traffic as though it were coming from a known source.

Redirect mode works for all services except for HTTP and HTTPS. For HTTP and HTTPS services, use HTTP proxy mode. For TCP-based services with IP addresses or domain names, use DNS proxy mode.

14.7.1.2. Egress router pod implementation

The egress router pod setup is performed by an initialization container. That container runs in a privileged context so that it can configure the macvlan interface and set up iptables rules. After the initialization container finishes setting up the iptables rules, it exits. Next the egress router pod executes the container to handle the egress router traffic. The image used varies depending on the egress router mode.

The environment variables determine which addresses the egress-router image uses. The image configures the macvlan interface to use EGRESS_SOURCE as its IP address, with EGRESS_GATEWAY as the IP address for the gateway.

Network Address Translation (NAT) rules are set up so that connections to the cluster IP address of the pod on any TCP or UDP port are redirected to the same port on IP address specified by the EGRESS_DESTINATION variable.

If only some of the nodes in your cluster are capable of claiming the specified source IP address and using the specified gateway, you can specify a nodeName or nodeSelector to identify which nodes are acceptable.

14.7.1.3. Deployment considerations

An egress router pod adds an additional IP address and MAC address to the primary network interface of the node. As a result, you might need to configure your hypervisor or cloud provider to allow the additional address.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP)

If you deploy OpenShift Container Platform on RHOSP, you must allow traffic from the IP and MAC addresses of the egress router pod on your OpenStack environment. If you do not allow the traffic, then communication will fail:

$ openstack port set --allowed-address \
  ip_address=<ip_address>,mac_address=<mac_address> <neutron_port_uuid>
Red Hat Virtualization (RHV)
If you are using RHV, you must select No Network Filter for the Virtual network interface controller (vNIC).
VMware vSphere
If you are using VMware vSphere, see the VMware documentation for securing vSphere standard switches. View and change VMware vSphere default settings by selecting the host virtual switch from the vSphere Web Client.

Specifically, ensure that the following are enabled:

14.7.1.4. Failover configuration

To avoid downtime, you can deploy an egress router pod with a Deployment resource, as in the following example. To create a new Service object for the example deployment, use the oc expose deployment/egress-demo-controller command.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: egress-demo-controller
spec:
  replicas: 1 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      name: egress-router
  template:
    metadata:
      name: egress-router
      labels:
        name: egress-router
      annotations:
        pod.network.openshift.io/assign-macvlan: "true"
    spec: 2
      initContainers:
        ...
      containers:
        ...
1
Ensure that replicas is set to 1, because only one pod can use a given egress source IP address at any time. This means that only a single copy of the router runs on a node.
2
Specify the Pod object template for the egress router pod.

14.7.2. Additional resources

14.8. Deploying an egress router pod in redirect mode

As a cluster administrator, you can deploy an egress router pod that is configured to redirect traffic to specified destination IP addresses.

14.8.1. Egress router pod specification for redirect mode

Define the configuration for an egress router pod in the Pod object. The following YAML describes the fields for the configuration of an egress router pod in redirect mode:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: egress-1
  labels:
    name: egress-1
  annotations:
    pod.network.openshift.io/assign-macvlan: "true" 1
spec:
  initContainers:
  - name: egress-router
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-router
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_SOURCE 2
      value: <egress_router>
    - name: EGRESS_GATEWAY 3
      value: <egress_gateway>
    - name: EGRESS_DESTINATION 4
      value: <egress_destination>
    - name: EGRESS_ROUTER_MODE
      value: init
  containers:
  - name: egress-router-wait
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-pod
1
The annotation tells OpenShift Container Platform to create a macvlan network interface on the primary network interface controller (NIC) and move that macvlan interface into the pod’s network namespace. You must include the quotation marks around the "true" value. To have OpenShift Container Platform create the macvlan interface on a different NIC interface, set the annotation value to the name of that interface. For example, eth1.
2
IP address from the physical network that the node is on that is reserved for use by the egress router pod. Optional: You can include the subnet length, the /24 suffix, so that a proper route to the local subnet is set. If you do not specify a subnet length, then the egress router can access only the host specified with the EGRESS_GATEWAY variable and no other hosts on the subnet.
3
Same value as the default gateway used by the node.
4
External server to direct traffic to. Using this example, connections to the pod are redirected to 203.0.113.25, with a source IP address of 192.168.12.99.

Example egress router pod specification

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: egress-multi
  labels:
    name: egress-multi
  annotations:
    pod.network.openshift.io/assign-macvlan: "true"
spec:
  initContainers:
  - name: egress-router
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-router
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_SOURCE
      value: 192.168.12.99/24
    - name: EGRESS_GATEWAY
      value: 192.168.12.1
    - name: EGRESS_DESTINATION
      value: |
        80   tcp 203.0.113.25
        8080 tcp 203.0.113.26 80
        8443 tcp 203.0.113.26 443
        203.0.113.27
    - name: EGRESS_ROUTER_MODE
      value: init
  containers:
  - name: egress-router-wait
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-pod

14.8.2. Egress destination configuration format

When an egress router pod is deployed in redirect mode, you can specify redirection rules by using one or more of the following formats:

  • <port> <protocol> <ip_address> - Incoming connections to the given <port> should be redirected to the same port on the given <ip_address>. <protocol> is either tcp or udp.
  • <port> <protocol> <ip_address> <remote_port> - As above, except that the connection is redirected to a different <remote_port> on <ip_address>.
  • <ip_address> - If the last line is a single IP address, then any connections on any other port will be redirected to the corresponding port on that IP address. If there is no fallback IP address then connections on other ports are rejected.

In the example that follows several rules are defined:

  • The first line redirects traffic from local port 80 to port 80 on 203.0.113.25.
  • The second and third lines redirect local ports 8080 and 8443 to remote ports 80 and 443 on 203.0.113.26.
  • The last line matches traffic for any ports not specified in the previous rules.

Example configuration

80   tcp 203.0.113.25
8080 tcp 203.0.113.26 80
8443 tcp 203.0.113.26 443
203.0.113.27

14.8.3. Deploying an egress router pod in redirect mode

In redirect mode, an egress router pod sets up iptables rules to redirect traffic from its own IP address to one or more destination IP addresses. Client pods that need to use the reserved source IP address must be modified to connect to the egress router rather than connecting directly to the destination IP.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create an egress router pod.
  2. To ensure that other pods can find the IP address of the egress router pod, create a service to point to the egress router pod, as in the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: egress-1
    spec:
      ports:
      - name: http
        port: 80
      - name: https
        port: 443
      type: ClusterIP
      selector:
        name: egress-1

    Your pods can now connect to this service. Their connections are redirected to the corresponding ports on the external server, using the reserved egress IP address.

14.8.4. Additional resources

14.9. Deploying an egress router pod in HTTP proxy mode

As a cluster administrator, you can deploy an egress router pod configured to proxy traffic to specified HTTP and HTTPS-based services.

14.9.1. Egress router pod specification for HTTP mode

Define the configuration for an egress router pod in the Pod object. The following YAML describes the fields for the configuration of an egress router pod in HTTP mode:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: egress-1
  labels:
    name: egress-1
  annotations:
    pod.network.openshift.io/assign-macvlan: "true" 1
spec:
  initContainers:
  - name: egress-router
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-router
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_SOURCE 2
      value: <egress-router>
    - name: EGRESS_GATEWAY 3
      value: <egress-gateway>
    - name: EGRESS_ROUTER_MODE
      value: http-proxy
  containers:
  - name: egress-router-pod
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-http-proxy
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_HTTP_PROXY_DESTINATION 4
      value: |-
        ...
    ...
1
The annotation tells OpenShift Container Platform to create a macvlan network interface on the primary network interface controller (NIC) and move that macvlan interface into the pod’s network namespace. You must include the quotation marks around the "true" value. To have OpenShift Container Platform create the macvlan interface on a different NIC interface, set the annotation value to the name of that interface. For example, eth1.
2
IP address from the physical network that the node is on that is reserved for use by the egress router pod. Optional: You can include the subnet length, the /24 suffix, so that a proper route to the local subnet is set. If you do not specify a subnet length, then the egress router can access only the host specified with the EGRESS_GATEWAY variable and no other hosts on the subnet.
3
Same value as the default gateway used by the node.
4
A string or YAML multi-line string specifying how to configure the proxy. Note that this is specified as an environment variable in the HTTP proxy container, not with the other environment variables in the init container.

14.9.2. Egress destination configuration format

When an egress router pod is deployed in HTTP proxy mode, you can specify redirection rules by using one or more of the following formats. Each line in the configuration specifies one group of connections to allow or deny:

  • An IP address allows connections to that IP address, such as 192.168.1.1.
  • A CIDR range allows connections to that CIDR range, such as 192.168.1.0/24.
  • A hostname allows proxying to that host, such as www.example.com.
  • A domain name preceded by *. allows proxying to that domain and all of its subdomains, such as *.example.com.
  • A ! followed by any of the previous match expressions denies the connection instead.
  • If the last line is *, then anything that is not explicitly denied is allowed. Otherwise, anything that is not allowed is denied.

You can also use * to allow connections to all remote destinations.

Example configuration

!*.example.com
!192.168.1.0/24
192.168.2.1
*

14.9.3. Deploying an egress router pod in HTTP proxy mode

In HTTP proxy mode, an egress router pod runs as an HTTP proxy on port 8080. This mode only works for clients that are connecting to HTTP-based or HTTPS-based services, but usually requires fewer changes to the client pods to get them to work. Many programs can be told to use an HTTP proxy by setting an environment variable.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create an egress router pod.
  2. To ensure that other pods can find the IP address of the egress router pod, create a service to point to the egress router pod, as in the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: egress-1
    spec:
      ports:
      - name: http-proxy
        port: 8080 1
      type: ClusterIP
      selector:
        name: egress-1
    1
    Ensure the http port is set to 8080.
  3. To configure the client pod (not the egress proxy pod) to use the HTTP proxy, set the http_proxy or https_proxy variables:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: app-1
      labels:
        name: app-1
    spec:
      containers:
        env:
        - name: http_proxy
          value: http://egress-1:8080/ 1
        - name: https_proxy
          value: http://egress-1:8080/
        ...
    1
    The service created in the previous step.
    Note

    Using the http_proxy and https_proxy environment variables is not necessary for all setups. If the above does not create a working setup, then consult the documentation for the tool or software you are running in the pod.

14.9.4. Additional resources

14.10. Deploying an egress router pod in DNS proxy mode

As a cluster administrator, you can deploy an egress router pod configured to proxy traffic to specified DNS names and IP addresses.

14.10.1. Egress router pod specification for DNS mode

Define the configuration for an egress router pod in the Pod object. The following YAML describes the fields for the configuration of an egress router pod in DNS mode:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: egress-1
  labels:
    name: egress-1
  annotations:
    pod.network.openshift.io/assign-macvlan: "true" 1
spec:
  initContainers:
  - name: egress-router
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-router
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_SOURCE 2
      value: <egress-router>
    - name: EGRESS_GATEWAY 3
      value: <egress-gateway>
    - name: EGRESS_ROUTER_MODE
      value: dns-proxy
  containers:
  - name: egress-router-pod
    image: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-egress-dns-proxy
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_DNS_PROXY_DESTINATION 4
      value: |-
        ...
    - name: EGRESS_DNS_PROXY_DEBUG 5
      value: "1"
    ...
1
The annotation tells OpenShift Container Platform to create a macvlan network interface on the primary network interface controller (NIC) and move that macvlan interface into the pod’s network namespace. You must include the quotation marks around the "true" value. To have OpenShift Container Platform create the macvlan interface on a different NIC interface, set the annotation value to the name of that interface. For example, eth1.
2
IP address from the physical network that the node is on that is reserved for use by the egress router pod. Optional: You can include the subnet length, the /24 suffix, so that a proper route to the local subnet is set. If you do not specify a subnet length, then the egress router can access only the host specified with the EGRESS_GATEWAY variable and no other hosts on the subnet.
3
Same value as the default gateway used by the node.
4
Specify a list of one or more proxy destinations.
5
Optional: Specify to output the DNS proxy log output to stdout.

14.10.2. Egress destination configuration format

When the router is deployed in DNS proxy mode, you specify a list of port and destination mappings. A destination may be either an IP address or a DNS name.

An egress router pod supports the following formats for specifying port and destination mappings:

Port and remote address
You can specify a source port and a destination host by using the two field format: <port> <remote_address>.

The host can be an IP address or a DNS name. If a DNS name is provided, DNS resolution occurs at runtime. For a given host, the proxy connects to the specified source port on the destination host when connecting to the destination host IP address.

Port and remote address pair example

80 172.16.12.11
100 example.com

Port, remote address, and remote port
You can specify a source port, a destination host, and a destination port by using the three field format: <port> <remote_address> <remote_port>.

The three field format behaves identically to the two field version, with the exception that the destination port can be different than the source port.

Port, remote address, and remote port example

8080 192.168.60.252 80
8443 web.example.com 443

14.10.3. Deploying an egress router pod in DNS proxy mode

In DNS proxy mode, an egress router pod acts as a DNS proxy for TCP-based services from its own IP address to one or more destination IP addresses.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create an egress router pod.
  2. Create a service for the egress router pod:

    1. Create a file named egress-router-service.yaml that contains the following YAML. Set spec.ports to the list of ports that you defined previously for the EGRESS_DNS_PROXY_DESTINATION environment variable.

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: Service
      metadata:
        name: egress-dns-svc
      spec:
        ports:
          ...
        type: ClusterIP
        selector:
          name: egress-dns-proxy

      For example:

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: Service
      metadata:
        name: egress-dns-svc
      spec:
        ports:
        - name: con1
          protocol: TCP
          port: 80
          targetPort: 80
        - name: con2
          protocol: TCP
          port: 100
          targetPort: 100
        type: ClusterIP
        selector:
          name: egress-dns-proxy
    2. To create the service, enter the following command:

      $ oc create -f egress-router-service.yaml

      Pods can now connect to this service. The connections are proxied to the corresponding ports on the external server, using the reserved egress IP address.

14.10.4. Additional resources

14.11. Configuring an egress router pod destination list from a config map

As a cluster administrator, you can define a ConfigMap object that specifies destination mappings for an egress router pod. The specific format of the configuration depends on the type of egress router pod. For details on the format, refer to the documentation for the specific egress router pod.

14.11.1. Configuring an egress router destination mappings with a config map

For a large or frequently-changing set of destination mappings, you can use a config map to externally maintain the list. An advantage of this approach is that permission to edit the config map can be delegated to users without cluster-admin privileges. Because the egress router pod requires a privileged container, it is not possible for users without cluster-admin privileges to edit the pod definition directly.

Note

The egress router pod does not automatically update when the config map changes. You must restart the egress router pod to get updates.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a file containing the mapping data for the egress router pod, as in the following example:

    # Egress routes for Project "Test", version 3
    
    80   tcp 203.0.113.25
    
    8080 tcp 203.0.113.26 80
    8443 tcp 203.0.113.26 443
    
    # Fallback
    203.0.113.27

    You can put blank lines and comments into this file.

  2. Create a ConfigMap object from the file:

    $ oc delete configmap egress-routes --ignore-not-found
    $ oc create configmap egress-routes \
      --from-file=destination=my-egress-destination.txt

    In the previous command, the egress-routes value is the name of the ConfigMap object to create and my-egress-destination.txt is the name of the file that the data is read from.

  3. Create an egress router pod definition and specify the configMapKeyRef stanza for the EGRESS_DESTINATION field in the environment stanza:

    ...
    env:
    - name: EGRESS_DESTINATION
      valueFrom:
        configMapKeyRef:
          name: egress-routes
          key: destination
    ...

14.11.2. Additional resources

14.12. Enabling multicast for a project

14.12.1. About multicast

With IP multicast, data is broadcast to many IP addresses simultaneously.

Important

At this time, multicast is best used for low-bandwidth coordination or service discovery and not a high-bandwidth solution.

Multicast traffic between OpenShift Container Platform pods is disabled by default. If you are using the OpenShift SDN default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider, you can enable multicast on a per-project basis.

When using the OpenShift SDN network plug-in in networkpolicy isolation mode:

  • Multicast packets sent by a pod will be delivered to all other pods in the project, regardless of NetworkPolicy objects. Pods might be able to communicate over multicast even when they cannot communicate over unicast.
  • Multicast packets sent by a pod in one project will never be delivered to pods in any other project, even if there are NetworkPolicy objects that allow communication between the projects.

When using the OpenShift SDN network plug-in in multitenant isolation mode:

  • Multicast packets sent by a pod will be delivered to all other pods in the project.
  • Multicast packets sent by a pod in one project will be delivered to pods in other projects only if each project is joined together and multicast is enabled in each joined project.

14.12.2. Enabling multicast between pods

You can enable multicast between pods for your project.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster with a user that has the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  • Run the following command to enable multicast for a project. Replace <namespace> with the namespace for the project you want to enable multicast for.

    $ oc annotate netnamespace <namespace> \
        netnamespace.network.openshift.io/multicast-enabled=true

Verification

To verify that multicast is enabled for a project, complete the following procedure:

  1. Change your current project to the project that you enabled multicast for. Replace <project> with the project name.

    $ oc project <project>
  2. Create a pod to act as a multicast receiver:

    $ cat <<EOF| oc create -f -
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: mlistener
      labels:
        app: multicast-verify
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: mlistener
          image: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8
          command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
          args:
            ["dnf -y install socat hostname && sleep inf"]
          ports:
            - containerPort: 30102
              name: mlistener
              protocol: UDP
    EOF
  3. Create a pod to act as a multicast sender:

    $ cat <<EOF| oc create -f -
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: msender
      labels:
        app: multicast-verify
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: msender
          image: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8
          command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
          args:
            ["dnf -y install socat && sleep inf"]
    EOF
  4. In a new terminal window or tab, start the multicast listener.

    1. Get the IP address for the Pod:

      $ POD_IP=$(oc get pods mlistener -o jsonpath='{.status.podIP}')
    2. Start the multicast listener by entering the following command:

      $ oc exec mlistener -i -t -- \
          socat UDP4-RECVFROM:30102,ip-add-membership=224.1.0.1:$POD_IP,fork EXEC:hostname
  5. Start the multicast transmitter.

    1. Get the pod network IP address range:

      $ CIDR=$(oc get Network.config.openshift.io cluster \
          -o jsonpath='{.status.clusterNetwork[0].cidr}')
    2. To send a multicast message, enter the following command:

      $ oc exec msender -i -t -- \
          /bin/bash -c "echo | socat STDIO UDP4-DATAGRAM:224.1.0.1:30102,range=$CIDR,ip-multicast-ttl=64"

      If multicast is working, the previous command returns the following output:

      mlistener

14.13. Disabling multicast for a project

14.13.1. Disabling multicast between pods

You can disable multicast between pods for your project.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster with a user that has the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  • Disable multicast by running the following command:

    $ oc annotate netnamespace <namespace> \ 1
        netnamespace.network.openshift.io/multicast-enabled-
    1
    The namespace for the project you want to disable multicast for.

14.14. Configuring network isolation using OpenShift SDN

When your cluster is configured to use the multitenant isolation mode for the OpenShift SDN CNI plug-in, each project is isolated by default. Network traffic is not allowed between pods or services in different projects in multitenant isolation mode.

You can change the behavior of multitenant isolation for a project in two ways:

  • You can join one or more projects, allowing network traffic between pods and services in different projects.
  • You can disable network isolation for a project. It will be globally accessible, accepting network traffic from pods and services in all other projects. A globally accessible project can access pods and services in all other projects.

14.14.1. Prerequisites

  • You must have a cluster configured to use the OpenShift SDN Container Network Interface (CNI) plug-in in multitenant isolation mode.

14.14.2. Joining projects

You can join two or more projects to allow network traffic between pods and services in different projects.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster with a user that has the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  1. Use the following command to join projects to an existing project network:

    $ oc adm pod-network join-projects --to=<project1> <project2> <project3>

    Alternatively, instead of specifying specific project names, you can use the --selector=<project_selector> option to specify projects based upon an associated label.

  2. Optional: Run the following command to view the pod networks that you have joined together:

    $ oc get netnamespaces

    Projects in the same pod-network have the same network ID in the NETID column.

14.14.3. Isolating a project

You can isolate a project so that pods and services in other projects cannot access its pods and services.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster with a user that has the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  • To isolate the projects in the cluster, run the following command:

    $ oc adm pod-network isolate-projects <project1> <project2>

    Alternatively, instead of specifying specific project names, you can use the --selector=<project_selector> option to specify projects based upon an associated label.

14.14.4. Disabling network isolation for a project

You can disable network isolation for a project.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You must log in to the cluster with a user that has the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  • Run the following command for the project:

    $ oc adm pod-network make-projects-global <project1> <project2>

    Alternatively, instead of specifying specific project names, you can use the --selector=<project_selector> option to specify projects based upon an associated label.

14.15. Configuring kube-proxy

The Kubernetes network proxy (kube-proxy) runs on each node and is managed by the Cluster Network Operator (CNO). kube-proxy maintains network rules for forwarding connections for endpoints associated with services.

14.15.1. About iptables rules synchronization

The synchronization period determines how frequently the Kubernetes network proxy (kube-proxy) syncs the iptables rules on a node.

A sync begins when either of the following events occurs:

  • An event occurs, such as service or endpoint is added to or removed from the cluster.
  • The time since the last sync exceeds the sync period defined for kube-proxy.

14.15.2. kube-proxy configuration parameters

You can modify the following kubeProxyConfig parameters.

Note

Because of performance improvements introduced in OpenShift Container Platform 4.3 and greater, adjusting the iptablesSyncPeriod parameter is no longer necessary.

Table 14.2. Parameters
ParameterDescriptionValuesDefault

iptablesSyncPeriod

The refresh period for iptables rules.

A time interval, such as 30s or 2m. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time package documentation.

30s

proxyArguments.iptables-min-sync-period

The minimum duration before refreshing iptables rules. This parameter ensures that the refresh does not happen too frequently. By default, a refresh starts as soon as a change that affects iptables rules occurs.

A time interval, such as 30s or 2m. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time package

0s

14.15.3. Modifying the kube-proxy configuration

You can modify the Kubernetes network proxy configuration for your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in to a running cluster with the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  1. Edit the Network.operator.openshift.io custom resource (CR) by running the following command:

    $ oc edit network.operator.openshift.io cluster
  2. Modify the kubeProxyConfig parameter in the CR with your changes to the kube-proxy configuration, such as in the following example CR:

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Network
    metadata:
      name: cluster
    spec:
      kubeProxyConfig:
        iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s
        proxyArguments:
          iptables-min-sync-period: ["30s"]
  3. Save the file and exit the text editor.

    The syntax is validated by the oc command when you save the file and exit the editor. If your modifications contain a syntax error, the editor opens the file and displays an error message.

  4. Enter the following command to confirm the configuration update:

    $ oc get networks.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: v1
    items:
    - apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
      kind: Network
      metadata:
        name: cluster
      spec:
        clusterNetwork:
        - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
          hostPrefix: 23
        defaultNetwork:
          type: OpenShiftSDN
        kubeProxyConfig:
          iptablesSyncPeriod: 30s
          proxyArguments:
            iptables-min-sync-period:
            - 30s
        serviceNetwork:
        - 172.30.0.0/16
      status: {}
    kind: List

  5. Optional: Enter the following command to confirm that the Cluster Network Operator accepted the configuration change:

    $ oc get clusteroperator network

    Example output

    NAME      VERSION     AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
    network   4.1.0-0.9   True        False         False      1m

    The AVAILABLE field is True when the configuration update is applied successfully.

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