System requirements

Node requirements

• x86-64, arm64, ppc64le, or s390x processor

• Calico must be able to manage cali* interfaces on the host. When IPIP is enabled (the default), Calico also needs to be able to manage tunl* interfaces. When VXLAN is enabled, Calico also needs to be able to manage thevxlan.calico interface.

• Linux kernel 3.10 or later with required dependencies. The following distributions have the required kernel, its dependencies, and are known to work well with Calico and host protection.

  • RedHat Linux 7
  • CentOS 7
  • CoreOS Container Linux stable
  • Ubuntu 16.04
  • Debian 8

note

Many Linux distributions, such as most of the above, include NetworkManager. By default, NetworkManager does not allow Calico to manage interfaces. If your nodes have NetworkManager, complete the steps in Preventing NetworkManager from controlling Calico interfaces before installing Calico.

• If your Linux distribution comes with installed Firewalld or another iptables manager it should be disabled. These may interfere with rules added by Calico and result in unexpected behavior.

note

If a host firewall is needed, it can be configured by Calico HostEndpoint and GlobalNetworkPolicy. More information about configuration at Security for host.

Key/value store

Calico requires a key/value store accessible by all Calico components. The key/value store must be etcdv3.

Network requirements

Ensure that your hosts and firewalls allow the necessary traffic based on your configuration.

Privileges

Ensure that Calico has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN privilege.

The simplest way to provide the necessary privilege is to run Calico as root or in a privileged container.

Kernel Dependencies

tip

If you are using one of the recommended distributions, you will already satisfy these.

Due to the large number of distributions and kernel version out there, it’s hard to be precise about the names of the particular kernel modules that are required to run Calico. However, in general, you’ll need:

• The iptables modules (both the “legacy” and “nft” variants are supported). These are typically broken up into many small modules, one for each type of match criteria and one for each type of action. Calico requires:

  • The “base” modules (including the IPv6 versions if IPv6 is enabled in your cluster).
  • At least the following match criteria: set,rpfilter, addrtype, comment,conntrack, icmp, tcp,udp, ipvs, icmpv6 (if IPv6 is enabled in your kernel), mark, multiport,rpfilter, sctp, ipvs (if usingkube-proxy in IPVS mode).
  • At least the following actions: REJECT,ACCEPT, DROP, LOG.

• IP sets support.

• Netfilter Conntrack support compiled in (with SCTP support if using SCTP).

• IPVS support if using kube-proxy in IPVS mode.

• IPIP, VXLAN, Wireguard support, if using Caliconetworking in one of those modes.

• eBPF (including the tc hook support) and XDP (if you want to use the eBPF dataplane).