--- title: "System requirements for Kubernetes" description: "Cluster, kernel, and platform requirements you must meet before installing Calico Open Source on Kubernetes." product: "Calico Open Source" version: "3.32 (latest)" section: "Installing and upgrading" canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/kubernetes/requirements" --- # System requirements for Kubernetes ## Node requirements - x86-64, arm64, ppc64le, or s390x processor * Calico must be able to manage `cali*` interfaces on the host. When IPIP is enabled (the default), Calico also needs to be able to manage `tunl*` interfaces. When VXLAN is enabled, Calico also needs to be able to manage the `vxlan.calico` interface. - Linux kernel 5.10 or later with [required dependencies](#kernel-dependencies). The following distributions have the required kernel, its dependencies, and are known to work well with Calico. - Ubuntu 20.04 or later - RHEL 8 or later - Debian 10 or later - BottleRocket 1.47 or later - Talos 1.6 or later > **SECONDARY:** Many Linux distributions, such as most of the above, include NetworkManager. By default, NetworkManager does not allow Calico to manage interfaces. If your nodes have NetworkManager, complete the steps in [Preventing NetworkManager from controlling Calico interfaces](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/troubleshoot/troubleshooting.md#configure-networkmanager) before installing Calico. - If your Linux distribution comes with installed Firewalld or another iptables manager it should be disabled. These may interfere with rules added by Calico and result in unexpected behavior. > **SECONDARY:** If a host firewall is needed, it can be configured by Calico HostEndpoint and GlobalNetworkPolicy. More information about configuration at [Policy for hosts and VMs](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/network-policy/hosts.md). ## Key/value store Calico requires a key/value store accessible by all Calico components. On Kubernetes, you can configure Calico to access an etcdv3 cluster directly or to use the Kubernetes API datastore. ## Network requirements Ensure that your hosts and firewalls allow the necessary traffic based on your configuration. | Configuration | Host(s) | Connection type | Port/protocol | | ------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Calico networking (BGP) | All | Bidirectional | TCP 179 | | Calico networking with IP-in-IP enabled (default) | All | Bidirectional | IP-in-IP, often represented by its protocol number `4` | | Calico networking with VXLAN enabled | All | Bidirectional | UDP 4789 | | Calico networking with Typha enabled | Typha agent hosts | Incoming | TCP 5473 (default) | | Calico networking with IPv4 WireGuard enabled | All | Bidirectional | UDP 51820 (default) | | Calico networking with IPv6 WireGuard enabled | All | Bidirectional | UDP 51821 (default) | | flannel networking (VXLAN) | All | Bidirectional | UDP 4789 | | All | kube-apiserver host | Incoming | Often TCP 443 or 6443\* | | etcd datastore | etcd hosts | Incoming | [Officially](http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.txt)TCP 2379 but can vary | \* *The value passed to kube-apiserver using the `--secure-port` flag. If you cannot locate this, check the `targetPort` value returned by `kubectl get svc kubernetes -o yaml`.* ## Privileges Ensure that Calico has the `CAP_SYS_ADMIN` privilege. The simplest way to provide the necessary privilege is to run Calico as root or in a privileged container. When installed as a Kubernetes daemon set, Calico meets this requirement by running as a privileged container. This requires that the kubelet be allowed to run privileged containers. There are two ways this can be achieved. - Specify `--allow-privileged` on the kubelet (deprecated). - Use a [pod security policy](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/policy/pod-security-policy/). ## Kubernetes requirements #### Supported versions We test Calico v3.32 against the following Kubernetes versions. Other versions may work, but we are not actively testing them. - 1.34 - 1.35 - 1.36 Due to changes in the Kubernetes API, Calico v3.32 will not work on Kubernetes v1.20 or below. v1.21 may work, but is no longer tested. Newer versions may also work, but we recommend upgrading to a version of Calico that is tested against the newer Kubernetes version. #### CNI plug-in enabled Calico must be installed as a CNI plugin in the container runtime. This installation must use the Kubernetes default CNI configuration directory (`/etc/cni/net.d`) and binary directory (`/opt/cni/bin`). #### Other network providers Generally, you cannot use Calico together with another network provider. Notable exceptions include the following: - [flannel](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/kubernetes/flannel.md) - Platform-specific CNIs, such as the [AWS VPC CNI](https://github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/blob/master/README.md) and [Azure VNet CNI](https://github.com/Azure/azure-container-networking/blob/master/docs/cni.md) plugins. If you're working with a cluster that already uses another CNI, you cannot migrate to Calico. #### Supported kube-proxy modes Calico supports the following kube-proxy modes: - `iptables` (default) - `ipvs`: Requires Kubernetes ≥ v1.9.3. Refer to [Use IPVS kube-proxy](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/networking/configuring/use-ipvs.md) for more details. - `nftables`: Requires Kubernetes ≥ v1.31.0. Refer to [Calico nftables data plane](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/getting-started/kubernetes/nftables.md) for more details. #### IP pool configuration The IP range selected for pod IP addresses cannot overlap with any other IP ranges in your network, including: - The Kubernetes service cluster IP range - The range from which host IPs are allocated ## Kernel dependencies > **SUCCESS:** If you are using one of the recommended distributions, you will already satisfy these. Due to the large number of distributions and kernel version out there, it’s hard to be precise about the names of the particular kernel modules that are required to run Calico. However, in general, you’ll need: - The `iptables` modules (both the “legacy” and “nft” variants are supported). These are typically broken up into many small modules, one for each type of match criteria and one for each type of action. Calico requires: - The “base” modules (including the IPv6 versions if IPv6 is enabled in your cluster). - At least the following match criteria: `set`, `rpfilter`, `addrtype`, `comment`, `conntrack`, `icmp`, `tcp`, `udp`, `ipvs`, `icmpv6` (if IPv6 is enabled in your kernel), `mark`, `multiport`, `rpfilter`, `sctp`, `ipvs` (if using `kube-proxy` in IPVS mode). - At least the following actions: `REJECT`, `ACCEPT`, `DROP`, `LOG`. - IP sets support. - Netfilter Conntrack support compiled in (with SCTP support if using SCTP). - IPVS support if using `kube-proxy` in IPVS mode. - IPIP, VXLAN, WireGuard support, if using Calico networking in one of those modes. - eBPF (including the `tc` hook support) and XDP (if you want to use the eBPF data plane).