OVN-Kubernetes network provider for Azure Red Hat OpenShift clusters
The OpenShift Container Platform cluster uses a virtualized network for pod and service networks. The OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) plug-in is a network provider for the default cluster network. OVN-Kubernetes, which is based on the Open Virtual Network (OVN), provides an overlay-based networking implementation.
A cluster that uses the OVN-Kubernetes network provider also runs Open vSwitch (OVS) on each node. OVN configures OVS on each node to implement the declared network configuration.
OVN-Kubernetes features
The OVN-Kubernetes CNI cluster network provider offers the following features:
- Uses OVN to manage network traffic flows. OVN is a community developed, vendor-agnostic network virtualization solution.
- Implements Kubernetes network policy support, including ingress and egress rules.
- Uses the Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (Geneve) protocol rather than the Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) protocol to create an overlay network between nodes.
Important
Since ARO 4.11, OVN-Kubernetes has been the CNI for all new Azure Red Hat OpenShift clusters. For clusters created before then, migrating from the previous SDN standard to OVN is recommended. SDN has been deprecated since version 4.14 and will no longer be supported after version 4.16. You must migrate to OVN-Kubernetes prior to updating to 4.17.
For more information about OVN-Kubernetes CNI network provider, see About the OVN-Kubernetes default Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider.
For information about migrating from SDN to OVN-Kubernetes, see Migrate from OpenShift SDN to OVN-Kubernetes.