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 managetunl*
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 OpenShift.
- RedHat Linux 7
- RedHat Container OS
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. With OpenShift, the Kubernetes API datastore is used for the key/value store.
Network requirements
Ensure that your hosts and firewalls allow the necessary traffic based on your configuration.
Configuration | Host(s) | Connection type | Port/protocol |
---|---|---|---|
Calico networking (BGP) | All | Bidirectional | TCP 179 |
Calico networking with IP-in-IP enabled (default) | All | Bidirectional | IP-in-IP, often represented by its protocol number 4 |
Calico networking with VXLAN enabled | All | Bidirectional | UDP 4789 |
Typha access | Typha agent hosts | Incoming | TCP 5473 (default) |
All | kube-apiserver host | Incoming | Often TCP 443 or 8443* |
* The value passed to kube-apiserver using the --secure-port
flag. If you cannot locate this, check the targetPort
value returned bykubectl get svc kubernetes -o yaml
.
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.
OpenShift requirements
Calico v3.24 supports:
- OpenShift Container Platform 4.3+
Refer to the OpenShift documentation for additional requirements.
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).