Upgrade Guide

This upgrade guide is intended for Cilium running on Kubernetes. If you have questions, feel free to ping us on the Slack channel.

Warning

Read the full upgrade guide to understand all the necessary steps before performing them.

Do not upgrade to 1.11.0 before reading the section 1.11 Upgrade Notes and completing the required steps. Skipping this step may lead to an non-functional upgrade.

Running pre-flight check (Required)

When rolling out an upgrade with Kubernetes, Kubernetes will first terminate the pod followed by pulling the new image version and then finally spin up the new image. In order to reduce the downtime of the agent and to prevent ErrImagePull errors during upgrade, the pre-flight check pre-pulls the new image version. If you are running in Kubernetes Without kube-proxy mode you must also pass on the Kubernetes API Server IP and / or the Kubernetes API Server Port when generating the cilium-preflight.yaml file.

kubectl
Helm
kubectl (kubeproxy-free)
Helm (kubeproxy-free)
helm template cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set preflight.enabled=true \
  --set agent=false \
  --set operator.enabled=false \
  > cilium-preflight.yaml
kubectl create -f cilium-preflight.yaml

helm install cilium-preflight cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set preflight.enabled=true \
  --set agent=false \
  --set operator.enabled=false

helm template cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set preflight.enabled=true \
  --set agent=false \
  --set operator.enabled=false \
  --set k8sServiceHost=API_SERVER_IP \
  --set k8sServicePort=API_SERVER_PORT \
  > cilium-preflight.yaml
kubectl create -f cilium-preflight.yaml

helm install cilium-preflight cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set preflight.enabled=true \
  --set agent=false \
  --set operator.enabled=false \
  --set k8sServiceHost=API_SERVER_IP \
  --set k8sServicePort=API_SERVER_PORT

After applying the cilium-preflight.yaml, ensure that the number of READY pods is the same number of Cilium pods running.

$ kubectl get daemonset -n kube-system | sed -n '1p;/cilium/p'
NAME                      DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
cilium                    2         2         2       2            2           <none>          1h20m
cilium-pre-flight-check   2         2         2       2            2           <none>          7m15s

Once the number of READY pods are equal, make sure the Cilium pre-flight deployment is also marked as READY 1/1. If it shows READY 0/1, consult the CNP Validation section and resolve issues with the deployment before continuing with the upgrade.

$ kubectl get deployment -n kube-system cilium-pre-flight-check -w
NAME                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
cilium-pre-flight-check   1/1     1            0           12s

Clean up pre-flight check

Once the number of READY for the preflight DaemonSet is the same as the number of cilium pods running and the preflight Deployment is marked as READY 1/1 you can delete the cilium-preflight and proceed with the upgrade.

kubectl
Helm
kubectl delete -f cilium-preflight.yaml

helm delete cilium-preflight --namespace=kube-system

Upgrading Cilium

During normal cluster operations, all Cilium components should run the same version. Upgrading just one of them (e.g., upgrading the agent without upgrading the operator) could result in unexpected cluster behavior. The following steps will describe how to upgrade all of the components from one stable release to a later stable release.

Warning

Read the full upgrade guide to understand all the necessary steps before performing them.

Do not upgrade to 1.11.0 before reading the section 1.11 Upgrade Notes and completing the required steps. Skipping this step may lead to an non-functional upgrade.

Step 1: Upgrade to latest patch version

When upgrading from one minor release to another minor release, for example 1.x to 1.y, it is recommended to upgrade to the latest patch release for a Cilium release series first. The latest patch releases for each supported version of Cilium are here. Upgrading to the latest patch release ensures the most seamless experience if a rollback is required following the minor release upgrade. The upgrade guides for previous versions can be found for each minor version at the bottom left corner.

Step 2: Use Helm to Upgrade your Cilium deployment

Helm can be used to either upgrade Cilium directly or to generate a new set of YAML files that can be used to upgrade an existing deployment via kubectl. By default, Helm will generate the new templates using the default values files packaged with each new release. You still need to ensure that you are specifying the equivalent options as used for the initial deployment, either by specifying a them at the command line or by committing the values to a YAML file.

Note

Make sure you have Helm 3 installed. Helm 2 is no longer supported.

Setup Helm repository:

helm repo add cilium https://helm.cilium.io/

To minimize datapath disruption during the upgrade, the upgradeCompatibility option should be set to the initial Cilium version which was installed in this cluster. Valid options are:

  • 1.7 if the initial install was Cilium 1.7.x or earlier.
  • 1.8 if the initial install was Cilium 1.8.x.
  • 1.9 if the initial install was Cilium 1.9.x.
  • 1.10 if the initial install was Cilium 1.10.x.
kubectl
Helm

Generate the required YAML file and deploy it:

helm template cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --set upgradeCompatibility=1.X \
  --namespace kube-system \
  > cilium.yaml
kubectl apply -f cilium.yaml

Deploy Cilium release via Helm:

helm upgrade cilium cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set upgradeCompatibility=1.X

Note

Instead of using --set, you can also save the values relative to your deployment in a YAML file and use it to regenerate the YAML for the latest Cilium version. Running any of the previous commands will overwrite the existing cluster’s ConfigMap so it is critical to preserve any existing options, either by setting them at the command line or storing them in a YAML file, similar to:

agent: true
upgradeCompatibility: "1.8"
ipam:
  mode: "kubernetes"
k8sServiceHost: "API_SERVER_IP"
k8sServicePort: "API_SERVER_PORT"
kubeProxyReplacement: "strict"

You can then upgrade using this values file by running:

helm upgrade cilium cilium/cilium --version 1.11.5 \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  -f my-values.yaml

When upgrading from one minor release to another minor release using helm upgrade, do not use Helm’s --reuse-values flag. The --reuse-values flag ignores any newly introduced values present in the new release and thus may cause the Helm template to render incorrectly. Instead, if you want to reuse the values from your existing installation, save the old values in a values file, check the file for any renamed or deprecated values, and then pass it to the helm upgrade command as described above. You can retrieve and save the values from an existing installation with the following command:

helm get values cilium --namespace=kube-system -o yaml > old-values.yaml

The --reuse-values flag may only be safely used if the Cilium chart version remains unchanged, for example when helm upgrade is used to apply configuration changes without upgrading Cilium.

Step 3: Rolling Back

Occasionally, it may be necessary to undo the rollout because a step was missed or something went wrong during upgrade. To undo the rollout run:

kubectl
Helm
kubectl rollout undo daemonset/cilium -n kube-system

helm history cilium --namespace=kube-system
helm rollback cilium [REVISION] --namespace=kube-system

This will revert the latest changes to the Cilium DaemonSet and return Cilium to the state it was in prior to the upgrade.

Note

When rolling back after new features of the new minor version have already been consumed, consult the Version Specific Notes to check and prepare for incompatible feature use before downgrading/rolling back. This step is only required after new functionality introduced in the new minor version has already been explicitly used by creating new resources or by opting into new features via the ConfigMap.

Version Specific Notes

This section documents the specific steps required for upgrading from one version of Cilium to another version of Cilium. There are particular version transitions which are suggested by the Cilium developers to avoid known issues during upgrade, then subsequently there are sections for specific upgrade transitions, ordered by version.

The table below lists suggested upgrade transitions, from a specified current version running in a cluster to a specified target version. If a specific combination is not listed in the table below, then it may not be safe. In that case, consider performing incremental upgrades between versions (e.g. upgrade from 1.9.x to 1.10.y first, and to 1.11.z only afterwards).

Current version Target version L3/L4 impact L7 impact
1.10.x 1.11.y Minimal to None Clients must reconnect[1]
1.9.x 1.10.y Minimal to None Clients must reconnect[1]
1.8.x 1.9.y Minimal to None Clients must reconnect[1]

Annotations:

  1. Clients must reconnect: Any traffic flowing via a proxy (for example, because an L7 policy is in place) will be disrupted during upgrade. Endpoints communicating via the proxy must reconnect to re-establish connections.

1.11 Upgrade Notes

  • The Cilium agent will now fail instead of falling back to auto-detection when device wildcard expansion (--devices=eth+) yields no devices.
  • Device auto-detection now discovers devices through the routing table and only considers devices that have a global unicast route in some routing table.
  • The XDP-based prefilter is enabled for all devices specified by --devices if --prefilter-device is set.
  • New flags were added to enable installation where alternative VXLAN/Geneve and health ports need to be used (--tunnel-port and --cluster-health-port). Default values of these flags haven’t changed, however if --tunnel-port gets set to non-default values on upgrade, there will datapath downtime between nodes. If --tunnel-port needs to change, it’s recommended to perform the upgrade first, and change the port afterwards, in order to separate agent upgrade from configuration update. Changing --cluster-health-port will not affect datapath, however it’s recommended to still handle configuration change separately from agent upgrade. Changing both ports simultaneously shouldn’t cause any issues.
  • When Egress Gateway is enabled, upgrading to 1.11 will cause a brief interruption of the connectivity between the client pods and the egress gateway nodes. Once the connectivity is restored, clients will need to reconnect.

Removed Metrics/Labels

  • cilium_operator_identity_gc_entries_total is removed. Please use cilium_operator_identity_gc_entries instead.
  • cilium_operator_identity_gc_runs_total is removed. Please use cilium_operator_identity_gc_runs instead.

Removed Options

  • bpf-compile-debug: This option does not have any effect since 1.10 and is now removed.
  • k8s-force-json-patch: This option does not have any effect for environments running Kubernetes >= 1.13, is deprecated since 1.10, and now removed.
  • masquerade: This option has been deprecated in 1.10 and replaced by enable-ipv4-masquerade.
  • skip-crd-creation: This option does not have any effect since 1.10 and is now removed.
  • hubble-flow-buffer-size: This option was deprecated in 1.10 in favor of hubble-event-buffer-capacity. It is now removed.
  • The Capabilities Helm value has been removed. When using helm template to generate the Kubernetes manifest for a specific Kubernetes version, please use the --kube-version flag (introduced in Helm 3.6.0) instead.
  • The deprecated hubble-ca-cert ConfigMap has been removed. Use hubble-ca-secret secret instead.
  • The azure-cloud-name option for cilium-operator-azure was deprecated in 1.10 and is now removed.

Deprecated Options

  • native-routing-cidr: This option has been deprecated in favor of ipv4-native-routing-cidr and will be removed in 1.12.
  • prefilter-device and prefilter-mode: These options have been deprecated in favor of enable-xdp-prefilter and bpf-lb-acceleration, and will be removed in 1.12. To select the prefilter devices use devices.
  • The NodePort related bpf-lb-bypass-fib-lookup option to enable a FIB lookup bypass optimization for NodePort’s reverse NAT handling has been deprecated as the Linux kernel’s FIB table is now always consulted. Thus, explicitly setting the option has no effect. It is scheduled for removal in 1.12.
  • IPVLAN support has been deprecated due to lack of feature support and lack of community interest. Recent improvements Virtual Ethernet device performance have granted many of the benefits of IPVLAN to the standard veth mode.
  • Support for Consul as a kvstore backend has been deprecated due to a lack of community interest. It is planned for removal in 1.12.
  • The in-pod Cilium CLI command cilium policy trace has been deprecated in favor of approaches using the Network Policy Editor or guide for Creating policies from verdicts.
  • Cilium no longer recognizes label sources from Mesos.

New Options

  • kvstore-max-consecutive-quorum-errors: This option configures the max acceptable kvstore consecutive quorum errors before the agent assumes permanent failure.

Renamed Options

The following option has been renamed:

  • enable-egress-gateway to enable-ipv4-egress-gateway.

Deprecated Options in Cilium Operator

  • nodes-gc-interval: This option will be removed in 1.12. Its value does not have any effect in 1.11.

Helm Options

  • hostFirewall was renamed to hostFirewall.enabled.
  • ipam.operator.clusterPoolIPv4PodCIDR was deprecated in favor of ipam.operator.clusterPoolIPv4PodCIDRList
  • ipam.operator.clusterPoolIPv6PodCIDR was deprecated in favor of ipam.operator.clusterPoolIPv6PodCIDRList
  • nativeRoutingCIDR: was deprecated in favor of ipv4NativeRoutingCIDR

Advanced

Upgrade Impact

Upgrades are designed to have minimal impact on your running deployment. Networking connectivity, policy enforcement and load balancing will remain functional in general. The following is a list of operations that will not be available during the upgrade:

  • API aware policy rules are enforced in user space proxies and are currently running as part of the Cilium pod unless Cilium is configured to run in Istio mode. Upgrading Cilium will cause the proxy to restart which will result in a connectivity outage and connection to be reset.
  • Existing policy will remain effective but implementation of new policy rules will be postponed to after the upgrade has been completed on a particular node.
  • Monitoring components such as cilium monitor will experience a brief outage while the Cilium pod is restarting. Events are queued up and read after the upgrade. If the number of events exceeds the event buffer size, events will be lost.

Rebasing a ConfigMap

This section describes the procedure to rebase an existing ConfigMap to the template of another version.

Export the current ConfigMap

$ kubectl get configmap -n kube-system cilium-config -o yaml --export > cilium-cm-old.yaml
$ cat ./cilium-cm-old.yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  clean-cilium-state: "false"
  debug: "true"
  disable-ipv4: "false"
  etcd-config: |-
    ---
    endpoints:
    - https://192.168.60.11:2379
    #
    # In case you want to use TLS in etcd, uncomment the 'trusted-ca-file' line
    # and create a kubernetes secret by following the tutorial in
    # https://cilium.link/etcd-config
    trusted-ca-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client-ca.crt'
    #
    # In case you want client to server authentication, uncomment the following
    # lines and add the certificate and key in cilium-etcd-secrets below
    key-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client.key'
    cert-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client.crt'
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: cilium-config
  selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/configmaps/cilium-config

In the ConfigMap above, we can verify that Cilium is using debug with true, it has a etcd endpoint running with TLS, and the etcd is set up to have client to server authentication.

Generate the latest ConfigMap

helm template cilium \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set agent.enabled=false \
  --set config.enabled=true \
  --set operator.enabled=false \
  > cilium-configmap.yaml

Add new options

Add the new options manually to your old ConfigMap, and make the necessary changes.

In this example, the debug option is meant to be kept with true, the etcd-config is kept unchanged, and monitor-aggregation is a new option, but after reading the Version Specific Notes the value was kept unchanged from the default value.

After making the necessary changes, the old ConfigMap was migrated with the new options while keeping the configuration that we wanted:

$ cat ./cilium-cm-old.yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  debug: "true"
  disable-ipv4: "false"
  # If you want to clean cilium state; change this value to true
  clean-cilium-state: "false"
  monitor-aggregation: "medium"
  etcd-config: |-
    ---
    endpoints:
    - https://192.168.60.11:2379
    #
    # In case you want to use TLS in etcd, uncomment the 'trusted-ca-file' line
    # and create a kubernetes secret by following the tutorial in
    # https://cilium.link/etcd-config
    trusted-ca-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client-ca.crt'
    #
    # In case you want client to server authentication, uncomment the following
    # lines and add the certificate and key in cilium-etcd-secrets below
    key-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client.key'
    cert-file: '/var/lib/etcd-secrets/etcd-client.crt'
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: cilium-config
  selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/configmaps/cilium-config

Apply new ConfigMap

After adding the options, manually save the file with your changes and install the ConfigMap in the kube-system namespace of your cluster.

$ kubectl apply -n kube-system -f ./cilium-cm-old.yaml

As the ConfigMap is successfully upgraded we can start upgrading Cilium DaemonSet and RBAC which will pick up the latest configuration from the ConfigMap.

Restrictions on unique prefix lengths for CIDR policy rules

The Linux kernel applies limitations on the complexity of eBPF code that is loaded into the kernel so that the code may be verified as safe to execute on packets. Over time, Linux releases become more intelligent about the verification of programs which allows more complex programs to be loaded. However, the complexity limitations affect some features in Cilium depending on the kernel version that is used with Cilium.

One such limitation affects Cilium’s configuration of CIDR policies. On Linux kernels 4.10 and earlier, this manifests as a restriction on the number of unique prefix lengths supported in CIDR policy rules.

Unique prefix lengths are counted by looking at the prefix portion of CIDR rules and considering which prefix lengths are unique. For example, in the following policy example, the toCIDR section specifies a /32, and the toCIDRSet section specifies a /8 with a /12 removed from it. In addition, three prefix lengths are always counted: the host prefix length for the protocol (IPv4: /32, IPv6: /128), the default prefix length (/0), and the cluster prefix length (default IPv4: /8, IPv6: /64). All in all, the following example counts as seven unique prefix lengths in IPv4:

  • /32 (from toCIDR, also from host prefix)
  • /12 (from toCIDRSet)
  • /11 (from toCIDRSet)
  • /10 (from toCIDRSet)
  • /9 (from toCIDRSet)
  • /8 (from cluster prefix)
  • /0 (from default prefix)
k8s YAML
JSON
apiVersion: "cilium.io/v2"
kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: "cidr-rule"
spec:
  endpointSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myService
  egress:
  - toCIDR:
    - 20.1.1.1/32
  - toCIDRSet:
    - cidr: 10.0.0.0/8
      except:
      - 10.96.0.0/12

[{
    "labels": [{"key": "name", "value": "cidr-rule"}],
    "endpointSelector": {"matchLabels":{"app":"myService"}},
    "egress": [{
        "toCIDR": [
            "20.1.1.1/32"
        ]
    }, {
        "toCIDRSet": [{
            "cidr": "10.0.0.0/8",
            "except": [
                "10.96.0.0/12"
            ]}
        ]
    }]
}]

Affected versions

  • Any version of Cilium running on Linux 4.10 or earlier

When a CIDR policy with too many unique prefix lengths is imported, Cilium will reject the policy with a message like the following:

$ cilium policy import too_many_cidrs.json
Error: Cannot import policy: [PUT /policy][500] putPolicyFailure  Adding
specified prefixes would result in too many prefix lengths (current: 3,
result: 32, max: 18)

The supported count of unique prefix lengths may differ between Cilium minor releases, for example Cilium 1.1 supported 20 unique prefix lengths on Linux 4.10 or older, while Cilium 1.2 only supported 18 (for IPv4) or 4 (for IPv6).

Mitigation

Users may construct CIDR policies that use fewer unique prefix lengths. This can be achieved by composing or decomposing adjacent prefixes.

Solution

Upgrade the host Linux version to 4.11 or later. This step is beyond the scope of the Cilium guide.

Migrating from kvstore-backed identities to Kubernetes CRD-backed identities

Beginning with cilium 1.6, Kubernetes CRD-backed security identities can be used for smaller clusters. Along with other changes in 1.6 this allows kvstore-free operation if desired. It is possible to migrate identities from an existing kvstore deployment to CRD-backed identities. This minimizes disruptions to traffic as the update rolls out through the cluster.

Affected versions

  • Cilium 1.6 deployments using kvstore-backend identities

Mitigation

When identities change, existing connections can be disrupted while cilium initializes and synchronizes with the shared identity store. The disruption occurs when new numeric identities are used for existing pods on some instances and others are used on others. When converting to CRD-backed identities, it is possible to pre-allocate CRD identities so that the numeric identities match those in the kvstore. This allows new and old cilium instances in the rollout to agree.

The steps below show an example of such a migration. It is safe to re-run the command if desired. It will identify already allocated identities or ones that cannot be migrated. Note that identity 34815 is migrated, 17003 is already migrated, and 11730 has a conflict and a new ID allocated for those labels.

The steps below assume a stable cluster with no new identities created during the rollout. Once a cilium using CRD-backed identities is running, it may begin allocating identities in a way that conflicts with older ones in the kvstore.

The cilium preflight manifest requires etcd support and can be built with:

helm template cilium \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --set preflight.enabled=true \
  --set agent.enabled=false \
  --set config.enabled=false \
  --set operator.enabled=false \
  --set global.etcd.enabled=true \
  --set global.etcd.ssl=true \
  > cilium-preflight.yaml
kubectl create -f cilium-preflight.yaml

Example migration

$ kubectl exec -n kube-system cilium-preflight-1234 -- cilium preflight migrate-identity
INFO[0000] Setting up kvstore client
INFO[0000] Connecting to etcd server...                  config=/var/lib/cilium/etcd-config.yml endpoints="[https://192.168.60.11:2379]" subsys=kvstore
INFO[0000] Setting up kubernetes client
INFO[0000] Establishing connection to apiserver          host="https://192.168.60.11:6443" subsys=k8s
INFO[0000] Connected to apiserver                        subsys=k8s
INFO[0000] Got lease ID 29c66c67db8870c8                 subsys=kvstore
INFO[0000] Got lock lease ID 29c66c67db8870ca            subsys=kvstore
INFO[0000] Successfully verified version of etcd endpoint  config=/var/lib/cilium/etcd-config.yml endpoints="[https://192.168.60.11:2379]" etcdEndpoint="https://192.168.60.11:2379" subsys=kvstore version=3.3.13
INFO[0000] CRD (CustomResourceDefinition) is installed and up-to-date  name=CiliumNetworkPolicy/v2 subsys=k8s
INFO[0000] Updating CRD (CustomResourceDefinition)...    name=v2.CiliumEndpoint subsys=k8s
INFO[0001] CRD (CustomResourceDefinition) is installed and up-to-date  name=v2.CiliumEndpoint subsys=k8s
INFO[0001] Updating CRD (CustomResourceDefinition)...    name=v2.CiliumNode subsys=k8s
INFO[0002] CRD (CustomResourceDefinition) is installed and up-to-date  name=v2.CiliumNode subsys=k8s
INFO[0002] Updating CRD (CustomResourceDefinition)...    name=v2.CiliumIdentity subsys=k8s
INFO[0003] CRD (CustomResourceDefinition) is installed and up-to-date  name=v2.CiliumIdentity subsys=k8s
INFO[0003] Listing identities in kvstore
INFO[0003] Migrating identities to CRD
INFO[0003] Skipped non-kubernetes labels when labelling ciliumidentity. All labels will still be used in identity determination  labels="map[]" subsys=crd-allocator
INFO[0003] Skipped non-kubernetes labels when labelling ciliumidentity. All labels will still be used in identity determination  labels="map[]" subsys=crd-allocator
INFO[0003] Skipped non-kubernetes labels when labelling ciliumidentity. All labels will still be used in identity determination  labels="map[]" subsys=crd-allocator
INFO[0003] Migrated identity                             identity=34815 identityLabels="k8s:class=tiefighter;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.cluster=default;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.serviceaccount=default;k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace=default;k8s:org=empire;"
WARN[0003] ID is allocated to a different key in CRD. A new ID will be allocated for the this key  identityLabels="k8s:class=deathstar;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.cluster=default;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.serviceaccount=default;k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace=default;k8s:org=empire;" oldIdentity=11730
INFO[0003] Reusing existing global key                   key="k8s:class=deathstar;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.cluster=default;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.serviceaccount=default;k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace=default;k8s:org=empire;" subsys=allocator
INFO[0003] New ID allocated for key in CRD               identity=17281 identityLabels="k8s:class=deathstar;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.cluster=default;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.serviceaccount=default;k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace=default;k8s:org=empire;" oldIdentity=11730
INFO[0003] ID was already allocated to this key. It is already migrated  identity=17003 identityLabels="k8s:class=xwing;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.cluster=default;k8s:io.cilium.k8s.policy.serviceaccount=default;k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace=default;k8s:org=alliance;"

Note

It is also possible to use the --k8s-kubeconfig-path and --kvstore-opt cilium CLI options with the preflight command. The default is to derive the configuration as cilium-agent does.
cilium preflight migrate-identity --k8s-kubeconfig-path /var/lib/cilium/cilium.kubeconfig --kvstore etcd --kvstore-opt etcd.config=/var/lib/cilium/etcd-config.yml

Clearing CRD identities

If a migration has gone wrong, it possible to start with a clean slate. Ensure that no cilium instances are running with identity-allocation-mode crd and execute:

$ kubectl delete ciliumid --all

CNP Validation

Running the CNP Validator will make sure the policies deployed in the cluster are valid. It is important to run this validation before an upgrade so it will make sure Cilium has a correct behavior after upgrade. Avoiding doing this validation might cause Cilium from updating its NodeStatus in those invalid Network Policies as well as in the worst case scenario it might give a false sense of security to the user if a policy is badly formatted and Cilium is not enforcing that policy due a bad validation schema. This CNP Validator is automatically executed as part of the pre-flight check Running pre-flight check (Required).

Start by deployment the cilium-pre-flight-check and check if the Deployment shows READY 1/1, if it does not check the pod logs.

$ kubectl get deployment -n kube-system cilium-pre-flight-check -w
NAME                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
cilium-pre-flight-check   0/1     1            0           12s

$ kubectl logs -n kube-system deployment/cilium-pre-flight-check -c cnp-validator --previous
level=info msg="Setting up kubernetes client"
level=info msg="Establishing connection to apiserver" host="https://172.20.0.1:443" subsys=k8s
level=info msg="Connected to apiserver" subsys=k8s
level=info msg="Validating CiliumNetworkPolicy 'default/cidr-rule': OK!
level=error msg="Validating CiliumNetworkPolicy 'default/cnp-update': unexpected validation error: spec.labels: Invalid value: \"string\": spec.labels in body must be of type object: \"string\""
level=error msg="Found invalid CiliumNetworkPolicy"

In this example, we can see the CiliumNetworkPolicy in the default namespace with the name cnp-update is not valid for the Cilium version we are trying to upgrade. In order to fix this policy we need to edit it, we can do this by saving the policy locally and modify it. For this example it seems the .spec.labels has set an array of strings which is not correct as per the official schema.

$ kubectl get cnp -n default cnp-update -o yaml > cnp-bad.yaml
$ cat cnp-bad.yaml
  apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
  kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
  [...]
  spec:
    endpointSelector:
      matchLabels:
        id: app1
    ingress:
    - fromEndpoints:
      - matchLabels:
          id: app2
      toPorts:
      - ports:
        - port: "80"
          protocol: TCP
    labels:
    - custom=true
  [...]

To fix this policy we need to set the .spec.labels with the right format and commit these changes into Kubernetes.

$ cat cnp-bad.yaml
  apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
  kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
  [...]
  spec:
    endpointSelector:
      matchLabels:
        id: app1
    ingress:
    - fromEndpoints:
      - matchLabels:
          id: app2
      toPorts:
      - ports:
        - port: "80"
          protocol: TCP
    labels:
    - key: "custom"
      value: "true"
  [...]
$
$ kubectl apply -f ./cnp-bad.yaml

After applying the fixed policy we can delete the pod that was validating the policies so that Kubernetes creates a new pod immediately to verify if the fixed policies are now valid.

$ kubectl delete pod -n kube-system -l k8s-app=cilium-pre-flight-check-deployment
pod "cilium-pre-flight-check-86dfb69668-ngbql" deleted
$ kubectl get deployment -n kube-system cilium-pre-flight-check
NAME                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
cilium-pre-flight-check   1/1     1            1           55m
$ kubectl logs -n kube-system deployment/cilium-pre-flight-check -c cnp-validator
level=info msg="Setting up kubernetes client"
level=info msg="Establishing connection to apiserver" host="https://172.20.0.1:443" subsys=k8s
level=info msg="Connected to apiserver" subsys=k8s
level=info msg="Validating CiliumNetworkPolicy 'default/cidr-rule': OK!
level=info msg="Validating CiliumNetworkPolicy 'default/cnp-update': OK!
level=info msg="All CCNPs and CNPs valid!"

Once they are valid you can continue with the upgrade process. Clean up pre-flight check