Quick Installation

This guides takes you through the quick installation procedure. The default settings will store all required state using Kubernetes custom resource definitions (CRDs). This is the simplest installation method as it only depends on Kubernetes and does not require additional external dependencies. It is a good option for environments up to about 250 nodes. For bigger environments or for environments which want to leverage the clustermesh functionality, a kvstore set up is required which can be set up using an Installation with external etcd or using the Installation with managed etcd.

Should you encounter any issues during the installation, please refer to the Troubleshooting section and / or seek help on the Slack channel.

Please consult the Kubernetes Requirements for information on how you need to configure your Kubernetes cluster to operate with Cilium.

Install Cilium

kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/cilium/1.8.4/install/kubernetes/quick-install.yaml

Validate the Installation

You can monitor as Cilium and all required components are being installed:

kubectl -n kube-system get pods --watch
NAME                                    READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE
cilium-operator-cb4578bc5-q52qk         0/1     Pending             0          8s
cilium-s8w5m                            0/1     PodInitializing     0          7s
coredns-86c58d9df4-4g7dd                0/1     ContainerCreating   0          8m57s
coredns-86c58d9df4-4l6b2                0/1     ContainerCreating   0          8m57s

It may take a couple of minutes for all components to come up:

cilium-operator-cb4578bc5-q52qk         1/1     Running   0          4m13s
cilium-s8w5m                            1/1     Running   0          4m12s
coredns-86c58d9df4-4g7dd                1/1     Running   0          13m
coredns-86c58d9df4-4l6b2                1/1     Running   0          13m

Deploy the connectivity test

You can deploy the “connectivity-check” to test connectivity between pods.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/cilium/1.8.4/examples/kubernetes/connectivity-check/connectivity-check.yaml

It will deploy a series of deployments which will use various connectivity paths to connect to each other. Connectivity paths include with and without service load-balancing and various network policy combinations. The pod name indicates the connectivity variant and the readiness and liveness gate indicates success or failure of the test:

$ kubectl get pods -n cilium-test
NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
echo-a-6788c799fd-42qxx                                 1/1     Running   0          69s
echo-b-59757679d4-pjtdl                                 1/1     Running   0          69s
echo-b-host-f86bd784d-wnh4v                             1/1     Running   0          68s
host-to-b-multi-node-clusterip-585db65b4d-x74nz         1/1     Running   0          68s
host-to-b-multi-node-headless-77c64bc7d8-kgf8p          1/1     Running   0          67s
pod-to-a-allowed-cnp-87b5895c8-bfw4x                    1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-a-b76ddb6b4-2v4kb                                1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-a-denied-cnp-677d9f567b-kkjp4                    1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-b-intra-node-nodeport-8484fb6d89-bwj8q           1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-b-multi-node-clusterip-f7655dbc8-h5bwk           1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-b-multi-node-headless-5fd98b9648-5bjj8           1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-b-multi-node-nodeport-74bd8d7bd5-kmfmm           1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-external-1111-7489c7c46d-jhtkr                   1/1     Running   0          68s
pod-to-external-fqdn-allow-google-cnp-b7b6bcdcb-97p75   1/1     Running   0          68s

Note

If you deploy the connectivity check to a single node cluster, pods that check multi-node functionalities will remain in the Pending state. This is expected since these pods need at least 2 nodes to be scheduled successfully.