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Cilium

Cilium is the CNI (Container Network Interface) of Hikube Kubernetes clusters. It manages pod networking, security and observability using eBPF, and enforces NetworkPolicy objects.

In the console​

Cilium is part of the Advanced Configuration of the Addons step: it is always present in the cluster and cannot be disabled. You can only override its configuration.

  1. At creation (Addons step) or from Edit > Extensions & Addons, expand the Cilium block in the Advanced Configuration section.
  2. Enter your values in Helm Configuration (YAML) — optional.
  3. Confirm with Next then Create cluster (creation) or Save (modification).
note

Clearing the field, or a line of the override, from Edit does not remove a value already applied to the cluster. Contact support to return to the default values.

On the cluster detail page, the CNI line of the Network section shows Custom when a Cilium configuration is applied.

Override the configuration​

The YAML value is passed to the Cilium Helm chart, under the cilium key. For example, to enable Hubble:

cilium-override.yaml
cilium:
  hubble:
    enabled: true

The available options are described in the Cilium Helm reference.

warning

The cluster network depends on Cilium. An incorrect override can cut communication between pods or with the control plane: only change options whose effect you fully understand.

Usage in the cluster​

# Cilium pods (one per node)
kubectl get pods -A -l k8s-app=cilium

# Cilium agent status
CILIUM_NS=$(kubectl get ds -A -l k8s-app=cilium -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.namespace}')
kubectl exec -n "$CILIUM_NS" -it ds/cilium -- cilium status

See How to configure networking for NetworkPolicy objects and Hubble.

Best practices​

  • Enable Hubble to get network visibility and flow tracking.
  • Use NetworkPolicy objects to restrict traffic between your applications.
  • Test any override on a staging cluster before production.