azure-container-networking/docs/npm.md

Microsoft Azure Container Networking

Azure Network Policy Manager

azure-npm Network Policy plugin implements the Kubernetes Network Policy

The plugin is available on Linux and (preview) Windows Server 2022.

Azure-NPM serves as a distributed firewall for the Kubernetes cluster, and it can be easily controlled by kubectl.

Documentation

1. Secure traffic between pods using network policies in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
2. Monitor and Visualize Network Configurations with Azure NPM

Install

Specify --network-policy=azure when creating an AKS cluster. For more information, see the Microsoft Docs.

Manual Installation

Running the command below will bring up one azure-npm instance on each Kubernetes node.

# linux
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-container-networking/master/npm/deploy/npm/azure-npm.yaml
# windows
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-container-networking/master/npm/examples/windows/azure-npm.yaml

Now you can secure your Kubernetes cluster with Azure-NPM by applying Kubernetes network policies.

Build

Linux

azure-npm can be built directly from the source code in this repository.

make azure-npm
make npm-image
make azure-npm-archive

The first command builds the azure-npm executable. The second command builds the azure-npm docker image. The third command builds the azure-npm binary and place it in a tar archive. The binaries are placed in the output directory.

Windows

$env:ACN_PACKAGE_PATH = "github.com/Azure/azure-container-networking"
$env:NPM_AI_PATH = "$env:ACN_PACKAGE_PATH/npm.aiMetadata"
$env:NPM_AI_ID = "1234abcd-1234-abcd-1234-12345678abcd"
$env:VERSION = "0.0.0"
$env:REPO = "mcr.microsoft.com/azure-npm:" # include colon at end
$env:IMAGE = "$env:REPO$env:VERSION"
docker build `
	-f npm/windows.Dockerfile `
	-t $env:IMAGE `
	--build-arg VERSION=$env:VERSION `
	--build-arg NPM_AI_PATH=$env:NPM_AI_PATH `
	--build-arg NPM_AI_ID=$env:NPM_AI_ID `
	.
docker push $env:IMAGE
echo $env:IMAGE

Usage

Microsoft Docs has a detailed step by step example on how to use Kubernetes network policy.

Troubleshooting

When azure-npm isn't working as expected, try to delete all networkpolicies and apply them again. Also, a good practice is to merge all network policies targeting the same set of pods/labels into one yaml file. This way, operators can keep the minimum number of network policies and makes it easier for operators to troubleshoot.

Linux

NPM adds firewall rules via iptables and ipset. You can examine the configuration on a given node with:

• kubectl exec -it -n kube-system $npmPod -- iptables -vnL
• kubectl exec -it -n kube-system $npmPod -- ipset -L

Windows

NPM adds firewall rules via HNS. You can examine the configuration on a given node with:

• ACLs applied on Pod Endpoints: kubectl exec -n kube-system $npmWinPod -- Get-HNSEndpoint
• SetPolicies are like ipsets: (Get-HNSNetwork | ? Name -Like Azure).Policies