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Configure the Kong Mesh CNI

In order for traffic to flow through the Kong Mesh data plane, all inbound and outbound traffic for a service needs to go through its data plane proxy. The recommended way of accomplishing this is via transparent proxying.

On Kubernetes it’s handled automatically by default with the initContainer kuma-init, but this container requires certain privileges.

Another option is to use the Kong Mesh CNI. This frees every Pod in the mesh from requiring said privileges, which can make security compliance easier.

The CNI DaemonSet itself requires elevated privileges because it writes executables to the host filesystem as root.

Install the CNI using either kumactl or Helm

. The default settings are tuned for OpenShift with Multus. To use it in other environments, set the relevant configuration parameters.

Kong Mesh CNI applies NetworkAttachmentDefinitions to applications in any namespace with kuma.io/sidecar-injection label. To apply NetworkAttachmentDefinitions to applications not in a Mesh, add the label kuma.io/sidecar-injection with the value disabled to the namespace.

Installation

Below are the details of how to set up Kong Mesh CNI in different environments using both kumactl and helm.

Cilium

Calico

K3D with Flannel

Kind

Azure

Azure Overlay

AWS - EKS

Google - GKE

OpenShift 3.11

OpenShift 4

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=05-cilium.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=05-cilium.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

You need to set the Cilium config value cni-exclusive or the corresponding Helm chart value cni.exclusive to false in order to use Cilum and Kong Mesh together. This is necessary starting with the release of Cilium v1.14.

For installing Kong Mesh CNI with Cilium on GKE, you should follow the Google - GKE section.

For Cilium versions < 1.14 you should use kuma.cni.confName=05-cilium.conf as this has changed for version starting from Cilium 1.14.

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-calico.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-calico.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

For installing Kong Mesh CNI with Calico on GKE, you should follow the Google - GKE section.

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-flannel.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/var/lib/rancher/k3s/agent/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-flannel.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-kindnet.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-kindnet.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-azure.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-azure.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=15-azure-swift-overlay.conflist" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=15-azure-swift-overlay.conflist" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-aws.conflist" \
  --set "kuma.controlPlane.envVars.KUMA_RUNTIME_KUBERNETES_INJECTOR_SIDECAR_CONTAINER_IP_FAMILY_MODE=ipv4" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/opt/cni/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=10-aws.conflist" \
  --set "kuma.controlPlane.envVars.KUMA_RUNTIME_KUBERNETES_INJECTOR_SIDECAR_CONTAINER_IP_FAMILY_MODE=ipv4" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

Add KUMA_RUNTIME_KUBERNETES_INJECTOR_SIDECAR_CONTAINER_IP_FAMILY_MODE=ipv4 as EKS has IPv6 disabled by default.

You need to enable network-policy in your cluster (for existing clusters this redeploys the nodes).

Define the Variable CNI_CONF_NAME by your CNI, like: export CNI_CONF_NAME=05-cilium.conflist or export CNI_CONF_NAME=10-calico.conflist

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/home/kubernetes/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=${CNI_CONF_NAME}" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.chained=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.netDir=/etc/cni/net.d" \
  --set "kuma.cni.binDir=/home/kubernetes/bin" \
  --set "kuma.cni.confName=${CNI_CONF_NAME}" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

Follow the instructions in OpenShift 3.11 installation to get the MutatingAdmissionWebhook and ValidatingAdmissionWebhook enabled (this is required for regular Kong Mesh installation).
You need to grant privileged permission to kuma-cni service account:

oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z kuma-cni -n kube-system

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.containerSecurityContext.privileged=true" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.containerSecurityContext.privileged=true" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

kumactl

helm

kumactl install control-plane \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.containerSecurityContext.privileged=true" \
  | kubectl apply -f -

Before using Kong Mesh with helm, please follow these steps to configure your local helm repo.

helm install --create-namespace --namespace kong-mesh-system \
  --set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
  --set "kuma.cni.containerSecurityContext.privileged=true" \
  kong-mesh kong-mesh/kong-mesh

Kong Mesh CNI v2

The CNI v2 is a rewritten and improved version of the previous transparent-proxy.

To install v2 CNI append the following options to the command from installation:

--set ... \
--set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
--set "kuma.experimental.cni=true"

Until 2.2.x the v2 CNI was behind an experimental flag, but now it’s the default.

Kong Mesh CNI taint controller

To prevent a race condition described in this issue a new controller was implemented. The controller will taint a node with NoSchedule taint to prevent scheduling before the CNI DaemonSet is running and ready. Once the CNI DaemonSet is running and ready it will remove the taint and allow other pods to be scheduled into the node.

To disable the taint controller use the following env variable:

KUMA_RUNTIME_KUBERNETES_NODE_TAINT_CONTROLLER_ENABLED="false"

Merbridge CNI with eBPF

To install merbridge CNI with eBPF append the following options to the command from installation:

To use Merbridge CNI with eBPF your environment has to use Kernel >= 5.7 and have cgroup2 available

--set ... \
--set "kuma.cni.enabled=true" \
--set "kuma.experimental.ebpf.enabled=true"

Kong Mesh CNI logs

Logs of the CNI plugin are available in /tmp/kuma-cni.log on the node and the logs of the installer are available via kubectl logs.

If you are using the CNI v2 version logs are available via kubectl logs instead.