Chapter 5. OpenShift SDN default CNI network provider
5.1. Enabling multicast for a project
OpenShift SDN CNI is deprecated as of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS 4.14. As of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS 4.15, the network plugin is not an option for new installations. In a subsequent future release, the OpenShift SDN network plugin is planned to be removed and no longer supported. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for this feature until it is removed, but this feature will no longer receive enhancements. As an alternative to OpenShift SDN CNI, you can use OVN Kubernetes CNI instead. For more information, see OpenShift SDN CNI removal.
5.1.1. About multicast
With IP multicast, data is broadcast to many IP addresses simultaneously.
- At this time, multicast is best used for low-bandwidth coordination or service discovery and not a high-bandwidth solution.
-
By default, network policies affect all connections in a namespace. However, multicast is unaffected by network policies. If multicast is enabled in the same namespace as your network policies, it is always allowed, even if there is a
deny-all
network policy. Cluster administrators should consider the implications to the exemption of multicast from network policies before enabling it.
Multicast traffic between Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS pods is disabled by default. If you are using the OpenShift SDN network plugin, you can enable multicast on a per-project basis.
When using the OpenShift SDN network plugin 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 plugin 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.
5.1.2. 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
or thededicated-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:
Change your current project to the project that you enabled multicast for. Replace
<project>
with the project name.$ oc project <project>
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/ubi9 command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"] args: ["dnf -y install socat hostname && sleep inf"] ports: - containerPort: 30102 name: mlistener protocol: UDP EOF
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/ubi9 command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"] args: ["dnf -y install socat && sleep inf"] EOF
In a new terminal window or tab, start the multicast listener.
Get the IP address for the Pod:
$ POD_IP=$(oc get pods mlistener -o jsonpath='{.status.podIP}')
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
Start the multicast transmitter.
Get the pod network IP address range:
$ CIDR=$(oc get Network.config.openshift.io cluster \ -o jsonpath='{.status.clusterNetwork[0].cidr}')
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