Chapter 7. Network security


7.1. Understanding network policy APIs

Kubernetes offers two features that users can use to enforce network security. One feature that allows users to enforce network policy is the NetworkPolicy API that is designed mainly for application developers and namespace tenants to protect their namespaces by creating namespace-scoped policies.

The second feature is AdminNetworkPolicy which consists of two APIs: the AdminNetworkPolicy (ANP) API and the BaselineAdminNetworkPolicy (BANP) API. ANP and BANP are designed for cluster and network administrators to protect their entire cluster by creating cluster-scoped policies. Cluster administrators can use ANPs to enforce non-overridable policies that take precedence over NetworkPolicy objects. Administrators can use BANP to set up and enforce optional cluster-scoped network policy rules that are overridable by users using NetworkPolicy objects when necessary. When used together, ANP, BANP, and network policy can achieve full multi-tenant isolation that administrators can use to secure their cluster.

OVN-Kubernetes CNI in OpenShift Dedicated implements these network policies using Access Control List (ACL) Tiers to evaluate and apply them. ACLs are evaluated in descending order from Tier 1 to Tier 3.

Tier 1 evaluates AdminNetworkPolicy (ANP) objects. Tier 2 evaluates NetworkPolicy objects. Tier 3 evaluates BaselineAdminNetworkPolicy (BANP) objects.

OVK-Kubernetes Access Control List (ACL)

ANPs are evaluated first. When the match is an ANP allow or deny rule, any existing NetworkPolicy and BaselineAdminNetworkPolicy (BANP) objects in the cluster are skipped from evaluation. When the match is an ANP pass rule, then evaluation moves from tier 1 of the ACL to tier 2 where the NetworkPolicy policy is evaluated. If no NetworkPolicy matches the traffic then evaluation moves from tier 2 ACLs to tier 3 ACLs where BANP is evaluated.

7.1.1. Key differences between AdminNetworkPolicy and NetworkPolicy custom resources

The following table explains key differences between the cluster scoped AdminNetworkPolicy API and the namespace scoped NetworkPolicy API.

Policy elementsAdminNetworkPolicyNetworkPolicy

Applicable user

Cluster administrator or equivalent

Namespace owners

Scope

Cluster

Namespaced

Drop traffic

Supported with an explicit Deny action set as a rule.

Supported via implicit Deny isolation at policy creation time.

Delegate traffic

Supported with an Pass action set as a rule.

Not applicable

Allow traffic

Supported with an explicit Allow action set as a rule.

The default action for all rules is to allow.

Rule precedence within the policy

Depends on the order in which they appear within an ANP. The higher the rule’s position the higher the precedence.

Rules are additive

Policy precedence

Among ANPs the priority field sets the order for evaluation. The lower the priority number higher the policy precedence.

There is no policy ordering between policies.

Feature precedence

Evaluated first via tier 1 ACL and BANP is evaluated last via tier 3 ACL.

Enforced after ANP and before BANP, they are evaluated in tier 2 of the ACL.

Matching pod selection

Can apply different rules across namespaces.

Can apply different rules across pods in single namespace.

Cluster egress traffic

Supported via nodes and networks peers

Supported through ipBlock field along with accepted CIDR syntax.

Cluster ingress traffic

Not supported

Not supported

Fully qualified domain names (FQDN) peer support

Not supported

Not supported

Namespace selectors

Supports advanced selection of Namespaces with the use of namespaces.matchLabels field

Supports label based namespace selection with the use of namespaceSelector field

7.2. Network policy

7.2.1. About network policy

As a developer, you can define network policies that restrict traffic to pods in your cluster.

7.2.1.1. About network policy

By default, all pods in a project are accessible from other pods and network endpoints. To isolate one or more pods in a project, you can create NetworkPolicy objects in that project to indicate the allowed incoming connections. Project administrators can create and delete NetworkPolicy objects within their own project.

If a pod is matched by selectors in one or more NetworkPolicy objects, then the pod will accept only connections that are allowed by at least one of those NetworkPolicy objects. A pod that is not selected by any NetworkPolicy objects is fully accessible.

A network policy applies to only the TCP, UDP, ICMP, and SCTP protocols. Other protocols are not affected.

Warning

Network policy does not apply to the host network namespace. Pods with host networking enabled are unaffected by network policy rules. However, pods connecting to the host-networked pods might be affected by the network policy rules.

Network policies cannot block traffic from localhost or from their resident nodes.

The following example NetworkPolicy objects demonstrate supporting different scenarios:

  • Deny all traffic:

    To make a project deny by default, add a NetworkPolicy object that matches all pods but accepts no traffic:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: deny-by-default
    spec:
      podSelector: {}
      ingress: []
  • Only allow connections from the OpenShift Dedicated Ingress Controller:

    To make a project allow only connections from the OpenShift Dedicated Ingress Controller, add the following NetworkPolicy object.

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: allow-from-openshift-ingress
    spec:
      ingress:
      - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              network.openshift.io/policy-group: ingress
      podSelector: {}
      policyTypes:
      - Ingress
  • Only accept connections from pods within a project:

    Important

    To allow ingress connections from hostNetwork pods in the same namespace, you need to apply the allow-from-hostnetwork policy together with the allow-same-namespace policy.

    To make pods accept connections from other pods in the same project, but reject all other connections from pods in other projects, add the following NetworkPolicy object:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: allow-same-namespace
    spec:
      podSelector: {}
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector: {}
  • Only allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic based on pod labels:

    To enable only HTTP and HTTPS access to the pods with a specific label (role=frontend in following example), add a NetworkPolicy object similar to the following:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: allow-http-and-https
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          role: frontend
      ingress:
      - ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 80
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 443
  • Accept connections by using both namespace and pod selectors:

    To match network traffic by combining namespace and pod selectors, you can use a NetworkPolicy object similar to the following:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: allow-pod-and-namespace-both
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          name: test-pods
      ingress:
        - from:
          - namespaceSelector:
              matchLabels:
                project: project_name
            podSelector:
              matchLabels:
                name: test-pods

NetworkPolicy objects are additive, which means you can combine multiple NetworkPolicy objects together to satisfy complex network requirements.

For example, for the NetworkPolicy objects defined in previous samples, you can define both allow-same-namespace and allow-http-and-https policies within the same project. Thus allowing the pods with the label role=frontend, to accept any connection allowed by each policy. That is, connections on any port from pods in the same namespace, and connections on ports 80 and 443 from pods in any namespace.

7.2.1.1.1. Using the allow-from-router network policy

Use the following NetworkPolicy to allow external traffic regardless of the router configuration:

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: allow-from-router
spec:
  ingress:
  - from:
    - namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          policy-group.network.openshift.io/ingress: ""1
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
  - Ingress
1
policy-group.network.openshift.io/ingress:"" label supports OVN-Kubernetes.
7.2.1.1.2. Using the allow-from-hostnetwork network policy

Add the following allow-from-hostnetwork NetworkPolicy object to direct traffic from the host network pods.

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: allow-from-hostnetwork
spec:
  ingress:
  - from:
    - namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          policy-group.network.openshift.io/host-network: ""
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
  - Ingress

7.2.1.2. Optimizations for network policy with OVN-Kubernetes network plugin

When designing your network policy, refer to the following guidelines:

  • For network policies with the same spec.podSelector spec, it is more efficient to use one network policy with multiple ingress or egress rules, than multiple network policies with subsets of ingress or egress rules.
  • Every ingress or egress rule based on the podSelector or namespaceSelector spec generates the number of OVS flows proportional to number of pods selected by network policy + number of pods selected by ingress or egress rule. Therefore, it is preferable to use the podSelector or namespaceSelector spec that can select as many pods as you need in one rule, instead of creating individual rules for every pod.

    For example, the following policy contains two rules:

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: test-network-policy
    spec:
      podSelector: {}
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              role: frontend
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              role: backend

    The following policy expresses those same two rules as one:

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: test-network-policy
    spec:
      podSelector: {}
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchExpressions:
            - {key: role, operator: In, values: [frontend, backend]}

    The same guideline applies to the spec.podSelector spec. If you have the same ingress or egress rules for different network policies, it might be more efficient to create one network policy with a common spec.podSelector spec. For example, the following two policies have different rules:

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: policy1
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          role: db
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              role: frontend
    ---
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: policy2
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          role: client
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              role: frontend

    The following network policy expresses those same two rules as one:

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: policy3
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchExpressions:
        - {key: role, operator: In, values: [db, client]}
      ingress:
      - from:
        - podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              role: frontend

    You can apply this optimization when only multiple selectors are expressed as one. In cases where selectors are based on different labels, it may not be possible to apply this optimization. In those cases, consider applying some new labels for network policy optimization specifically.

7.2.1.3. Next steps

7.2.2. Creating a network policy

As a user with the admin role, you can create a network policy for a namespace.

7.2.2.1. Example NetworkPolicy object

The following annotates an example NetworkPolicy object:

kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: allow-27107 1
spec:
  podSelector: 2
    matchLabels:
      app: mongodb
  ingress:
  - from:
    - podSelector: 3
        matchLabels:
          app: app
    ports: 4
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 27017
1
The name of the NetworkPolicy object.
2
A selector that describes the pods to which the policy applies. The policy object can only select pods in the project that defines the NetworkPolicy object.
3
A selector that matches the pods from which the policy object allows ingress traffic. The selector matches pods in the same namespace as the NetworkPolicy.
4
A list of one or more destination ports on which to accept traffic.

7.2.2.2. Creating a network policy using the CLI

To define granular rules describing ingress or egress network traffic allowed for namespaces in your cluster, you can create a network policy.

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can create a network policy in any namespace in the cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace that the network policy applies to.

Procedure

  1. Create a policy rule:

    1. Create a <policy_name>.yaml file:

      $ touch <policy_name>.yaml

      where:

      <policy_name>
      Specifies the network policy file name.
    2. Define a network policy in the file that you just created, such as in the following examples:

      Deny ingress from all pods in all namespaces

      This is a fundamental policy, blocking all cross-pod networking other than cross-pod traffic allowed by the configuration of other Network Policies.

      kind: NetworkPolicy
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
        name: deny-by-default
      spec:
        podSelector: {}
        policyTypes:
        - Ingress
        ingress: []

      Allow ingress from all pods in the same namespace

      kind: NetworkPolicy
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
        name: allow-same-namespace
      spec:
        podSelector:
        ingress:
        - from:
          - podSelector: {}

      Allow ingress traffic to one pod from a particular namespace

      This policy allows traffic to pods labelled pod-a from pods running in namespace-y.

      kind: NetworkPolicy
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
        name: allow-traffic-pod
      spec:
        podSelector:
         matchLabels:
            pod: pod-a
        policyTypes:
        - Ingress
        ingress:
        - from:
          - namespaceSelector:
              matchLabels:
                 kubernetes.io/metadata.name: namespace-y
  2. To create the network policy object, enter the following command:

    $ oc apply -f <policy_name>.yaml -n <namespace>

    where:

    <policy_name>
    Specifies the network policy file name.
    <namespace>
    Optional: Specifies the namespace if the object is defined in a different namespace than the current namespace.

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/deny-by-default created

Note

If you log in to the web console with cluster-admin privileges, you have a choice of creating a network policy in any namespace in the cluster directly in YAML or from a form in the web console.

7.2.2.3. Creating a default deny all network policy

This is a fundamental policy, blocking all cross-pod networking other than network traffic allowed by the configuration of other deployed network policies. This procedure enforces a default deny-by-default policy.

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can create a network policy in any namespace in the cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace that the network policy applies to.

Procedure

  1. Create the following YAML that defines a deny-by-default policy to deny ingress from all pods in all namespaces. Save the YAML in the deny-by-default.yaml file:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: deny-by-default
      namespace: default 1
    spec:
      podSelector: {} 2
      ingress: [] 3
    1
    namespace: default deploys this policy to the default namespace.
    2
    podSelector: is empty, this means it matches all the pods. Therefore, the policy applies to all pods in the default namespace.
    3
    There are no ingress rules specified. This causes incoming traffic to be dropped to all pods.
  2. Apply the policy by entering the following command:

    $ oc apply -f deny-by-default.yaml

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/deny-by-default created

7.2.2.4. Creating a network policy to allow traffic from external clients

With the deny-by-default policy in place you can proceed to configure a policy that allows traffic from external clients to a pod with the label app=web.

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can create a network policy in any namespace in the cluster.

Follow this procedure to configure a policy that allows external service from the public Internet directly or by using a Load Balancer to access the pod. Traffic is only allowed to a pod with the label app=web.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace that the network policy applies to.

Procedure

  1. Create a policy that allows traffic from the public Internet directly or by using a load balancer to access the pod. Save the YAML in the web-allow-external.yaml file:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: web-allow-external
      namespace: default
    spec:
      policyTypes:
      - Ingress
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          app: web
      ingress:
        - {}
  2. Apply the policy by entering the following command:

    $ oc apply -f web-allow-external.yaml

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/web-allow-external created

    This policy allows traffic from all resources, including external traffic as illustrated in the following diagram:

Allow traffic from external clients

7.2.2.5. Creating a network policy allowing traffic to an application from all namespaces

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can create a network policy in any namespace in the cluster.

Follow this procedure to configure a policy that allows traffic from all pods in all namespaces to a particular application.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace that the network policy applies to.

Procedure

  1. Create a policy that allows traffic from all pods in all namespaces to a particular application. Save the YAML in the web-allow-all-namespaces.yaml file:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: web-allow-all-namespaces
      namespace: default
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          app: web 1
      policyTypes:
      - Ingress
      ingress:
      - from:
        - namespaceSelector: {} 2
    1
    Applies the policy only to app:web pods in default namespace.
    2
    Selects all pods in all namespaces.
    Note

    By default, if you omit specifying a namespaceSelector it does not select any namespaces, which means the policy allows traffic only from the namespace the network policy is deployed to.

  2. Apply the policy by entering the following command:

    $ oc apply -f web-allow-all-namespaces.yaml

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/web-allow-all-namespaces created

Verification

  1. Start a web service in the default namespace by entering the following command:

    $ oc run web --namespace=default --image=nginx --labels="app=web" --expose --port=80
  2. Run the following command to deploy an alpine image in the secondary namespace and to start a shell:

    $ oc run test-$RANDOM --namespace=secondary --rm -i -t --image=alpine -- sh
  3. Run the following command in the shell and observe that the request is allowed:

    # wget -qO- --timeout=2 http://web.default

    Expected output

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
    <title>Welcome to nginx!</title>
    <style>
    html { color-scheme: light dark; }
    body { width: 35em; margin: 0 auto;
    font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; }
    </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <h1>Welcome to nginx!</h1>
    <p>If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and
    working. Further configuration is required.</p>
    
    <p>For online documentation and support please refer to
    <a href="http://nginx.org/">nginx.org</a>.<br/>
    Commercial support is available at
    <a href="http://nginx.com/">nginx.com</a>.</p>
    
    <p><em>Thank you for using nginx.</em></p>
    </body>
    </html>

7.2.2.6. Creating a network policy allowing traffic to an application from a namespace

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can create a network policy in any namespace in the cluster.

Follow this procedure to configure a policy that allows traffic to a pod with the label app=web from a particular namespace. You might want to do this to:

  • Restrict traffic to a production database only to namespaces where production workloads are deployed.
  • Enable monitoring tools deployed to a particular namespace to scrape metrics from the current namespace.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace that the network policy applies to.

Procedure

  1. Create a policy that allows traffic from all pods in a particular namespaces with a label purpose=production. Save the YAML in the web-allow-prod.yaml file:

    kind: NetworkPolicy
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: web-allow-prod
      namespace: default
    spec:
      podSelector:
        matchLabels:
          app: web 1
      policyTypes:
      - Ingress
      ingress:
      - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              purpose: production 2
    1
    Applies the policy only to app:web pods in the default namespace.
    2
    Restricts traffic to only pods in namespaces that have the label purpose=production.
  2. Apply the policy by entering the following command:

    $ oc apply -f web-allow-prod.yaml

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/web-allow-prod created

Verification

  1. Start a web service in the default namespace by entering the following command:

    $ oc run web --namespace=default --image=nginx --labels="app=web" --expose --port=80
  2. Run the following command to create the prod namespace:

    $ oc create namespace prod
  3. Run the following command to label the prod namespace:

    $ oc label namespace/prod purpose=production
  4. Run the following command to create the dev namespace:

    $ oc create namespace dev
  5. Run the following command to label the dev namespace:

    $ oc label namespace/dev purpose=testing
  6. Run the following command to deploy an alpine image in the dev namespace and to start a shell:

    $ oc run test-$RANDOM --namespace=dev --rm -i -t --image=alpine -- sh
  7. Run the following command in the shell and observe that the request is blocked:

    # wget -qO- --timeout=2 http://web.default

    Expected output

    wget: download timed out

  8. Run the following command to deploy an alpine image in the prod namespace and start a shell:

    $ oc run test-$RANDOM --namespace=prod --rm -i -t --image=alpine -- sh
  9. Run the following command in the shell and observe that the request is allowed:

    # wget -qO- --timeout=2 http://web.default

    Expected output

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
    <title>Welcome to nginx!</title>
    <style>
    html { color-scheme: light dark; }
    body { width: 35em; margin: 0 auto;
    font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; }
    </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <h1>Welcome to nginx!</h1>
    <p>If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and
    working. Further configuration is required.</p>
    
    <p>For online documentation and support please refer to
    <a href="http://nginx.org/">nginx.org</a>.<br/>
    Commercial support is available at
    <a href="http://nginx.com/">nginx.com</a>.</p>
    
    <p><em>Thank you for using nginx.</em></p>
    </body>
    </html>

7.2.2.7. Creating a network policy using OpenShift Cluster Manager

To define granular rules describing the ingress or egress network traffic allowed for namespaces in your cluster, you can create a network policy.

Prerequisites

  • You logged in to OpenShift Cluster Manager.
  • You created an OpenShift Dedicated cluster.
  • You configured an identity provider for your cluster.
  • You added your user account to the configured identity provider.
  • You created a project within your OpenShift Dedicated cluster.

Procedure

  1. From OpenShift Cluster Manager, click on the cluster you want to access.
  2. Click Open console to navigate to the OpenShift web console.
  3. Click on your identity provider and provide your credentials to log in to the cluster.
  4. From the administrator perspective, under Networking, click NetworkPolicies.
  5. Click Create NetworkPolicy.
  6. Provide a name for the policy in the Policy name field.
  7. Optional: You can provide the label and selector for a specific pod if this policy applies only to one or more specific pods. If you do not select a specific pod, then this policy will be applicable to all pods on the cluster.
  8. Optional: You can block all ingress and egress traffic by using the Deny all ingress traffic or Deny all egress traffic checkboxes.
  9. You can also add any combination of ingress and egress rules, allowing you to specify the port, namespace, or IP blocks you want to approve.
  10. Add ingress rules to your policy:

    1. Select Add ingress rule to configure a new rule. This action creates a new Ingress rule row with an Add allowed source drop-down menu that enables you to specify how you want to limit inbound traffic. The drop-down menu offers three options to limit your ingress traffic:

      • Allow pods from the same namespace limits traffic to pods within the same namespace. You can specify the pods in a namespace, but leaving this option blank allows all of the traffic from pods in the namespace.
      • Allow pods from inside the cluster limits traffic to pods within the same cluster as the policy. You can specify namespaces and pods from which you want to allow inbound traffic. Leaving this option blank allows inbound traffic from all namespaces and pods within this cluster.
      • Allow peers by IP block limits traffic from a specified Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) IP block. You can block certain IPs with the exceptions option. Leaving the CIDR field blank allows all inbound traffic from all external sources.
    2. You can restrict all of your inbound traffic to a port. If you do not add any ports then all ports are accessible to traffic.
  11. Add egress rules to your network policy:

    1. Select Add egress rule to configure a new rule. This action creates a new Egress rule row with an Add allowed destination"* drop-down menu that enables you to specify how you want to limit outbound traffic. The drop-down menu offers three options to limit your egress traffic:

      • Allow pods from the same namespace limits outbound traffic to pods within the same namespace. You can specify the pods in a namespace, but leaving this option blank allows all of the traffic from pods in the namespace.
      • Allow pods from inside the cluster limits traffic to pods within the same cluster as the policy. You can specify namespaces and pods from which you want to allow outbound traffic. Leaving this option blank allows outbound traffic from all namespaces and pods within this cluster.
      • Allow peers by IP block limits traffic from a specified CIDR IP block. You can block certain IPs with the exceptions option. Leaving the CIDR field blank allows all outbound traffic from all external sources.
    2. You can restrict all of your outbound traffic to a port. If you do not add any ports then all ports are accessible to traffic.

7.2.3. Viewing a network policy

As a user with the admin role, you can view a network policy for a namespace.

7.2.3.1. Example NetworkPolicy object

The following annotates an example NetworkPolicy object:

kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: allow-27107 1
spec:
  podSelector: 2
    matchLabels:
      app: mongodb
  ingress:
  - from:
    - podSelector: 3
        matchLabels:
          app: app
    ports: 4
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 27017
1
The name of the NetworkPolicy object.
2
A selector that describes the pods to which the policy applies. The policy object can only select pods in the project that defines the NetworkPolicy object.
3
A selector that matches the pods from which the policy object allows ingress traffic. The selector matches pods in the same namespace as the NetworkPolicy.
4
A list of one or more destination ports on which to accept traffic.

7.2.3.2. Viewing network policies using the CLI

You can examine the network policies in a namespace.

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can view any network policy in the cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace where the network policy exists.

Procedure

  • List network policies in a namespace:

    • To view network policy objects defined in a namespace, enter the following command:

      $ oc get networkpolicy
    • Optional: To examine a specific network policy, enter the following command:

      $ oc describe networkpolicy <policy_name> -n <namespace>

      where:

      <policy_name>
      Specifies the name of the network policy to inspect.
      <namespace>
      Optional: Specifies the namespace if the object is defined in a different namespace than the current namespace.

      For example:

      $ oc describe networkpolicy allow-same-namespace

      Output for oc describe command

      Name:         allow-same-namespace
      Namespace:    ns1
      Created on:   2021-05-24 22:28:56 -0400 EDT
      Labels:       <none>
      Annotations:  <none>
      Spec:
        PodSelector:     <none> (Allowing the specific traffic to all pods in this namespace)
        Allowing ingress traffic:
          To Port: <any> (traffic allowed to all ports)
          From:
            PodSelector: <none>
        Not affecting egress traffic
        Policy Types: Ingress

Note

If you log in to the web console with cluster-admin privileges, you have a choice of viewing a network policy in any namespace in the cluster directly in YAML or from a form in the web console.

7.2.3.3. Viewing network policies using OpenShift Cluster Manager

You can view the configuration details of your network policy in Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

Prerequisites

  • You logged in to OpenShift Cluster Manager.
  • You created an OpenShift Dedicated cluster.
  • You configured an identity provider for your cluster.
  • You added your user account to the configured identity provider.
  • You created a network policy.

Procedure

  1. From the Administrator perspective in the OpenShift Cluster Manager web console, under Networking, click NetworkPolicies.
  2. Select the desired network policy to view.
  3. In the Network Policy details page, you can view all of the associated ingress and egress rules.
  4. Select YAML on the network policy details to view the policy configuration in YAML format.

    Note

    You can only view the details of these policies. You cannot edit these policies.

7.2.4. Deleting a network policy

As a user with the admin role, you can delete a network policy from a namespace.

7.2.4.1. Deleting a network policy using the CLI

You can delete a network policy in a namespace.

Note

If you log in with a user with the cluster-admin role, then you can delete any network policy in the cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.
  • You are working in the namespace where the network policy exists.

Procedure

  • To delete a network policy object, enter the following command:

    $ oc delete networkpolicy <policy_name> -n <namespace>

    where:

    <policy_name>
    Specifies the name of the network policy.
    <namespace>
    Optional: Specifies the namespace if the object is defined in a different namespace than the current namespace.

    Example output

    networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/default-deny deleted

Note

If you log in to the web console with cluster-admin privileges, you have a choice of deleting a network policy in any namespace in the cluster directly in YAML or from the policy in the web console through the Actions menu.

7.2.4.2. Deleting a network policy using OpenShift Cluster Manager

You can delete a network policy in a namespace.

Prerequisites

  • You logged in to OpenShift Cluster Manager.
  • You created an OpenShift Dedicated cluster.
  • You configured an identity provider for your cluster.
  • You added your user account to the configured identity provider.

Procedure

  1. From the Administrator perspective in the OpenShift Cluster Manager web console, under Networking, click NetworkPolicies.
  2. Use one of the following methods for deleting your network policy:

    • Delete the policy from the Network Policies table:

      1. From the Network Policies table, select the stack menu on the row of the network policy you want to delete and then, click Delete NetworkPolicy.
    • Delete the policy using the Actions drop-down menu from the individual network policy details:

      1. Click on Actions drop-down menu for your network policy.
      2. Select Delete NetworkPolicy from the menu.

7.2.5. Configuring multitenant isolation with network policy

As a cluster administrator, you can configure your network policies to provide multitenant network isolation.

Note

Configuring network policies as described in this section provides network isolation similar to the multitenant mode of OpenShift SDN in previous versions of OpenShift Dedicated.

7.2.5.1. Configuring multitenant isolation by using network policy

You can configure your project to isolate it from pods and services in other project namespaces.

Prerequisites

  • Your cluster uses a network plugin that supports NetworkPolicy objects, such as the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, with mode: NetworkPolicy set.
  • You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You are logged in to the cluster with a user with admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create the following NetworkPolicy objects:

    1. A policy named allow-from-openshift-ingress.

      $ cat << EOF| oc create -f -
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      kind: NetworkPolicy
      metadata:
        name: allow-from-openshift-ingress
      spec:
        ingress:
        - from:
          - namespaceSelector:
              matchLabels:
                policy-group.network.openshift.io/ingress: ""
        podSelector: {}
        policyTypes:
        - Ingress
      EOF
      Note

      policy-group.network.openshift.io/ingress: "" is the preferred namespace selector label for OVN-Kubernetes.

    2. A policy named allow-from-openshift-monitoring:

      $ cat << EOF| oc create -f -
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      kind: NetworkPolicy
      metadata:
        name: allow-from-openshift-monitoring
      spec:
        ingress:
        - from:
          - namespaceSelector:
              matchLabels:
                network.openshift.io/policy-group: monitoring
        podSelector: {}
        policyTypes:
        - Ingress
      EOF
    3. A policy named allow-same-namespace:

      $ cat << EOF| oc create -f -
      kind: NetworkPolicy
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
        name: allow-same-namespace
      spec:
        podSelector:
        ingress:
        - from:
          - podSelector: {}
      EOF
    4. A policy named allow-from-kube-apiserver-operator:

      $ cat << EOF| oc create -f -
      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
      kind: NetworkPolicy
      metadata:
        name: allow-from-kube-apiserver-operator
      spec:
        ingress:
        - from:
          - namespaceSelector:
              matchLabels:
                kubernetes.io/metadata.name: openshift-kube-apiserver-operator
            podSelector:
              matchLabels:
                app: kube-apiserver-operator
        policyTypes:
        - Ingress
      EOF

      For more details, see New kube-apiserver-operator webhook controller validating health of webhook.

  2. Optional: To confirm that the network policies exist in your current project, enter the following command:

    $ oc describe networkpolicy

    Example output

    Name:         allow-from-openshift-ingress
    Namespace:    example1
    Created on:   2020-06-09 00:28:17 -0400 EDT
    Labels:       <none>
    Annotations:  <none>
    Spec:
      PodSelector:     <none> (Allowing the specific traffic to all pods in this namespace)
      Allowing ingress traffic:
        To Port: <any> (traffic allowed to all ports)
        From:
          NamespaceSelector: network.openshift.io/policy-group: ingress
      Not affecting egress traffic
      Policy Types: Ingress
    
    
    Name:         allow-from-openshift-monitoring
    Namespace:    example1
    Created on:   2020-06-09 00:29:57 -0400 EDT
    Labels:       <none>
    Annotations:  <none>
    Spec:
      PodSelector:     <none> (Allowing the specific traffic to all pods in this namespace)
      Allowing ingress traffic:
        To Port: <any> (traffic allowed to all ports)
        From:
          NamespaceSelector: network.openshift.io/policy-group: monitoring
      Not affecting egress traffic
      Policy Types: Ingress

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