MetalLB hooks into your Kubernetes cluster, and provides a network load-balancer implementation. It allows you to create Kubernetes services of type "LoadBalancer" in clusters that don't run on a cloud provider, and thus cannot simply hook into 3rd party products to provide load-balancers. The default operating mode of MetalLB is in "Layer2" but it can also operate in "BGP" mode.
You have to configure arp_ignore and arp_announce to avoid answering ARP queries from kube-ipvs0 interface for MetalLB to work.
kube_proxy_strict_arp: true
You have to explicitly enable the MetalLB extension.
metallb_enabled: true
metallb_speaker_enabled: true
By default only the MetalLB BGP speaker is allowed to run on control plane nodes. If you have a single node cluster or a cluster where control plane are also worker nodes you may need to enable tolerations for the MetalLB controller:
metallb_config:
controller:
tolerations:
- key: "node-role.kubernetes.io/master"
operator: "Equal"
value: ""
effect: "NoSchedule"
- key: "node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane"
operator: "Equal"
value: ""
effect: "NoSchedule"
First you need to specify all of the pools you are going to use:
metallb_config:
address_pools:
primary:
ip_range:
- 192.0.1.0-192.0.1.254
auto_assign: true
pool1:
ip_range:
- 192.0.2.1-192.0.2.1
auto_assign: false # When set to false, you need to explicitly set the loadBalancerIP in the service!
pool2:
ip_range:
- 192.0.2.2-192.0.2.2
auto_assign: false
Pools that need to be configured in layer2 mode, need to be specified in a list:
metallb_config:
layer2:
- primary
When operating in BGP Mode MetalLB needs to have defined upstream peers and link the pool(s) specified above to the correct peer:
metallb_config:
layer3:
defaults:
peer_port: 179 # The TCP port to talk to. Defaults to 179, you shouldn't need to set this in production.
hold_time: 120s # Requested BGP hold time, per RFC4271.
communities:
vpn-only: "1234:1"
NO_ADVERTISE: "65535:65282"
metallb_peers:
peer1:
peer_address: 192.0.2.1
peer_asn: 64512
my_asn: 4200000000
communities:
- vpn-only
address_pool:
- pool1
# (optional) The source IP address to use when establishing the BGP session. In most cases the source-address field should only be used with per-node peers, i.e. peers with node selectors which select only one node. CURRENTLY NOT SUPPORTED
source_address: 192.0.2.2
# (optional) The router ID to use when connecting to this peer. Defaults to the node IP address.
# Generally only useful when you need to peer with another BGP router running on the same machine as MetalLB.
router_id: 1.2.3.4
# (optional) Password for TCPMD5 authenticated BGP sessions offered by some peers.
password: "changeme"
peer2:
peer_address: 192.0.2.2
peer_asn: 64513
my_asn: 4200000000
communities:
- NO_ADVERTISE
address_pool:
- pool2
# (optional) The source IP address to use when establishing the BGP session. In most cases the source-address field should only be used with per-node peers, i.e. peers with node selectors which select only one node. CURRENTLY NOT SUPPORTED
source_address: 192.0.2.1
# (optional) The router ID to use when connecting to this peer. Defaults to the node IP address.
# Generally only useful when you need to peer with another BGP router running on the same machine as MetalLB.
router_id: 1.2.3.5
# (optional) Password for TCPMD5 authenticated BGP sessions offered by some peers.
password: "changeme"
When using calico >= 3.18 you can replace MetalLB speaker by calico Service LoadBalancer IP advertisement.
See calico service IPs advertisement documentation.
In this scenario you should disable the MetalLB speaker and configure the calico_advertise_service_loadbalancer_ips
to match your ip_range
metallb_speaker_enabled: false
metallb_avoid_buggy_ips: true
metallb_config:
address_pools:
primary:
ip_range:
- 10.5.0.0/16
auto_assign: true
layer2:
- primary
calico_advertise_service_loadbalancer_ips: "{{ metallb_config.address_pools.primary.ip_range }}"
If you have additional loadbalancer IP pool in metallb_config.address_pools
, ensure to add them to the list.
metallb_speaker_enabled: false
metallb_config:
address_pools:
primary:
ip_range:
- 10.5.0.0/16
auto_assign: true
pool1:
ip_range:
- 10.6.0.0/16
auto_assign: true
pool2:
ip_range:
- 10.10.0.0/16
auto_assign: true
layer2:
- primary
layer3:
defaults:
peer_port: 179
hold_time: 120s
communities:
vpn-only: "1234:1"
NO_ADVERTISE: "65535:65282"
metallb_peers:
peer1:
peer_address: 10.6.0.1
peer_asn: 64512
my_asn: 4200000000
communities:
- vpn-only
address_pool:
- pool1
peer2:
peer_address: 10.10.0.1
peer_asn: 64513
my_asn: 4200000000
communities:
- NO_ADVERTISE
address_pool:
- pool2
calico_advertise_service_loadbalancer_ips:
- 10.5.0.0/16
- 10.6.0.0/16
- 10.10.0.0/16