Changing the pods CIDR in a MicroK8s cluster

By default MicroK8s v1.19+ will use the 10.1.0.0/16 network to place its pods.

To change the pods CIDR you need to configure kube-proxy (edit /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/kube-proxy) and tell the calico CNI what the new CIDR is (edit and apply /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/cni-network/cni.yaml).

Configuration steps

  • Remove the current CNI configuration with :
  1. microk8s kubectl delete -f /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/cni-network/cni.yaml

  • Edit /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/kube-proxy and update the --cluster-cidr=10.1.0.0/16 argument with the new CIDR.

  • Restart MicroK8s with:

  1. microk8s stop
  2. microk8s start
  • Edit /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/cni-network/cni.yaml and replace the new IP range in. For example to switch to 10.2.0.0/16 update the CALICO_IPV4POOL_CIDR with:
  1.  - name: CALICO_IPV4POOL_CIDR
  2.    value: "10.2.0.0/16"
  • Apply the new CNI manifest:
  1. microk8s kubectl apply -f /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/cni-network/cni.yaml

Verify the new configuration

At this point new pods are placed on the updated CIDR. To check the update worked try deploying some pods:

  1. microk8s enable dns dashboard

…then check the allocated IP addresses:

  1. microk8s kubectl get po -A -o wide
  1. NAMESPACE     NAME                                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP             NODE     NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
  2. kube-system   pod/calico-node-rdkz6                            1/1     Running   0          4m34s   192.168.1.23   aurora   <none>           <none>
  3. kube-system   pod/calico-kube-controllers-847c8c99d-rjfd4      1/1     Running   0          4m34s   10.2.180.193   aurora   <none>           <none>
  4. kube-system   pod/metrics-server-8bbfb4bdb-wqjxs               1/1     Running   0          3m2s    10.2.180.195   aurora   <none>           <none>
  5. kube-system   pod/coredns-86f78bb79c-cppgt                     1/1     Running   0          3m12s   10.2.180.194   aurora   <none>           <none>
  6. kube-system   pod/kubernetes-dashboard-7ffd448895-2l7xn        1/1     Running   0          2m52s   10.2.180.196   aurora   <none>           <none>
  7. kube-system   pod/dashboard-metrics-scraper-6c4568dc68-5nn7p   1/1     Running   0          2m52s   10.2.180.197   aurora   <none>           <none>

You can also check the IPtable rules:

  1.  sudo iptables -t nat -nL |grep "10\.2\."
  1. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  all  --  10.2.180.194         0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns-tcp */
  2. DNAT       tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns-tcp */ tcp to:10.2.180.194:53
  3. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  all  --  10.2.180.194         0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:metrics */
  4. DNAT       tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:metrics */ tcp to:10.2.180.194:9153
  5. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  all  --  10.2.180.194         0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns */
  6. DNAT       udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns */ udp to:10.2.180.194:53
  7. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  all  --  10.2.180.195         0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/metrics-server */
  8. DNAT       tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            /* kube-system/metrics-server */ tcp to:10.2.180.195:4443
  9. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  tcp  -- !10.2.0.0/16          10.152.183.178       /* kube-system/metrics-server cluster IP */ tcp dpt:443
  10. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  tcp  -- !10.2.0.0/16          10.152.183.1         /* default/kubernetes:https cluster IP */ tcp dpt:443
  11. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  udp  -- !10.2.0.0/16          10.152.183.10        /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns cluster IP */ udp dpt:53
  12. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  tcp  -- !10.2.0.0/16          10.152.183.10        /* kube-system/kube-dns:dns-tcp cluster IP */ tcp dpt:53
  13. KUBE-MARK-MASQ  tcp  -- !10.2.0.0/16          10.152.183.10        /* kube-system/kube-dns:metrics cluster IP */ tcp dpt:9153

Behind a proxy

Remember: If you are also setting up a proxy, you will also need to update /var/snap/microk8s/current/args/containerd-env with the respective IP ranges.

Last updated 4 months ago. Help improve this document in the forum.