Best Container Networking Software for OpenStack

Calico is a versatile open-source solution designed for networking and securing containers, virtual machines, and workloads on native hosts. It is compatible with a wide array of platforms such as Kubernetes, OpenShift, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine (MKE), OpenStack, and even bare metal environments. Users can choose between leveraging Calico's eBPF data plane or utilizing the traditional networking pipeline of Linux, ensuring exceptional performance and true scalability tailored for cloud-native applications. Both developers and cluster administrators benefit from a uniform experience and a consistent set of features, whether operating in public clouds or on-premises, on a single node, or across extensive multi-node clusters. Additionally, Calico offers flexibility in data planes, featuring options like a pure Linux eBPF data plane, a conventional Linux networking data plane, and a Windows HNS data plane. No matter if you are inclined toward the innovative capabilities of eBPF or the traditional networking fundamentals familiar to seasoned system administrators, Calico accommodates all preferences and needs effectively. Ultimately, this adaptability makes Calico a compelling choice for organizations seeking robust networking solutions.

Open vSwitch is a high-quality, multilayer virtual switch that operates under the open-source Apache 2.0 license. It is specifically engineered to facilitate extensive network automation through programming extensions, while still accommodating standard management interfaces and protocols such as NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, RSPAN, CLI, LACP, and 802.1ag. Additionally, it is built to allow distribution across various physical servers, akin to VMware's vNetwork distributed vSwitch or Cisco's Nexus 1000V. Open vSwitch is implemented in numerous products and is utilized in many substantial production environments, some of which are extraordinarily large. Each stable version undergoes rigorous testing, including a regression suite that consists of hundreds of system-level tests and thousands of unit tests. Furthermore, alongside OVS, the Open vSwitch community actively develops the OVN project, which enhances OVS by providing native support for virtual network abstractions, such as virtual L2 and L3 overlays and security groups. This commitment to continuous improvement ensures that Open vSwitch remains a robust solution for network virtualization in diverse settings.

Address the challenges of complex tooling and excessive workload by utilizing a single, streamlined networking and security solution. By consolidating your tools, you can reduce the time spent on tedious context switches, ultimately minimizing swivel-chair fatigue. TF excels in plugin integration, consistently going beyond the bare essentials to offer advanced capabilities that many other SDN plugins simply lack. It facilitates seamless network interactions, ensuring that your infrastructure is interconnected rather than isolated by embracing widely accepted open protocol standards in both the control and data planes. The open-source nature of TF fosters continuous innovation from various contributors, granting you the flexibility to tailor results to meet your specific needs or collaborate with trusted vendors. Moreover, it provides options for namespace isolation and micro-segmentation on a per-microservice basis, allowing for customizable security rules and tenant configurations. This adaptability positions TF as a vital tool for organizations looking to enhance their network security and operational efficiency.

Flannel serves as a specialized virtual networking layer tailored for containers. In the context of the OpenShift Container Platform, it can be utilized for container networking as an alternative to the standard software-defined networking (SDN) components. This approach is particularly advantageous when deploying OpenShift within a cloud environment that also employs SDN solutions, like OpenStack, allowing for the avoidance of double packet encapsulation across both systems. Each flanneld agent transmits this information to a centralized etcd store, enabling other agents on different hosts to effectively route packets to various containers within the flannel network. Additionally, the accompanying diagram showcases the architecture and the data flow involved in facilitating communication between containers over a flannel network. This setup enhances overall network efficiency and simplifies container management in complex environments.