Calico vs Cilium: Kubernetes CNI for a Home Cluster

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Set up a fresh Kubernetes cluster and one of the first decisions you’re handed is also one of the least explained: which CNI? Your nodes sit there in NotReady, the docs wave vaguely at a list, and you pick whatever the tutorial used. Months later you’re trying to write a NetworkPolicy or debug a packet that vanishes, and you finally wish you’d understood the choice.

The Container Network Interface is the plugin that gives every pod an IP and makes pods on different nodes able to talk to each other. Without one, your cluster is a collection of isolated boxes. For self-hosters, two names dominate the conversation: Calico and Cilium. They reach the same destination by very different roads.

CNI - Tag - vo.rs

Calico vs Cilium: Kubernetes CNI for a Home Cluster