Configure Networking
Configure BGP peering
Configure BGP peering for Calico Open Source — full mesh, node-specific peers, top-of-rack switches, and Calico route reflectors — using BGPPeer and BGPConfiguration resources.
Configure BGP peering with nested clusters running on KubeVirt VMs
Peer Calico Open Source nodes with BGP speakers running inside KubeVirt VMs to support nested clusters and route announcements from workloads.
Overlay networking
Pick between VXLAN and IP-in-IP overlay modes in Calico Open Source so pod traffic crosses underlay networks that don't route pod CIDRs natively.
Advertise Kubernetes service IP addresses
Advertise Kubernetes service cluster IPs and external IPs out of the cluster over BGP with Calico Open Source so external clients can route to them directly.
Configure MTU to maximize network performance
Tune the Calico Open Source MTU on the FelixConfiguration resource so pod traffic matches the underlying network, including VXLAN, IP-in-IP, and WireGuard overheads.
Configure outgoing NAT
Set NAT outgoing on Calico Open Source IP pools so pod traffic to destinations outside the cluster is source-NATed to the node's IP.
Use IPVS kube-proxy
Run kube-proxy in IPVS mode with Calico Open Source for constant-time service load balancing on clusters with thousands of services.
Accelerate Istio network performance
Accelerate Istio Envoy sidecar traffic on Calico Open Source by using eBPF SOCKMAP to bypass kernel networking layers between the sidecar and the application.
Use a specific MAC address for a pod
Set a chosen MAC address on a Kubernetes pod interface with the Calico Open Source CNI plugin, useful for software licensing tied to MAC.
Use NodeLocal DNSCache in your cluster
Install NodeLocal DNSCache alongside Calico Open Source and configure network policy that lets pod DNS traffic reach the local cache.
Configure QoS Controls
Cap pod ingress and egress bandwidth, packet rate, and connection counts with Calico Open Source QoS controls, plus DiffServ marking on egress traffic.
Add Maglev load balancing to a service
Switch a Kubernetes service to Maglev consistent-hash load balancing on the Calico Open Source eBPF data plane for resilient backend selection.