Configuring Felix

Operator

If you have installed Calico using the operator, you cannot modify the environment provided to felix directly. To configure felix, see the FelixConfiguration resource instead.

Manifest

note

The following tables detail the configuration file and environment variable parameters. For FelixConfiguration resource settings, refer to Felix Configuration Resource.

Configuration for Felix is read from one of four possible locations, in order, as follows.

1. Environment variables.
2. The Felix configuration file.
3. Host-specific FelixConfiguration resources (node.<nodename>).
4. The global FelixConfiguration resource (default).

The value of any configuration parameter is the value read from the first location containing a value. For example, if an environment variable contains a value, it takes top precedence.

If not set in any of these locations, most configuration parameters have defaults, and it should be rare to have to explicitly set them.

The full list of parameters which can be set is as follows.

General configuration

Configuration file parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
DataplaneWatchdogTimeout	FELIX_DATAPLANEWATCHDOGTIMEOUT	Deprecated: superseded by HealthTimeoutOverrides. Timeout before the main dataplane goroutine is determined to have hung and Felix will report non-live and non-ready. Can be increased if the liveness check incorrectly fails (for example if Felix is running slowly on a heavily loaded system). [Default: 90]	int
AwsSrcDstCheck	FELIX_AWSSRCDSTCHECK	Set the source-destination-check when using AWS EC2 instances. Check IAM role and profile configuration for setting the necessary permission for this setting to work. [Default: DoNothing]	DoNothing, Disable, Enable
DatastoreType	FELIX_DATASTORETYPE	The datastore that Felix should read endpoints and policy information from. [Default: etcdv3]	etcdv3, kubernetes
DeviceRouteSourceAddress	FELIX_DEVICEROUTESOURCEADDRESS	IPv4 address to use as the source hint on device routes programmed by Felix [Default: No source hint is set on programmed routes and for local traffic from host to workload the source address will be chosen by the kernel.]	<IPv4-address>
DeviceRouteSourceAddressIPv6	FELIX_DEVICEROUTESOURCEADDRESSIPV6	IPv6 address to use as the source hint on device routes programmed by Felix [Default: No source hint is set on programmed routes and for local traffic from host to workload the source address will be chosen by the kernel.]	<IPv6-address>
DeviceRouteProtocol	FELIX_DEVICEROUTEPROTOCOL	This defines the route protocol added to programmed device routes. [Default: RTPROT_BOOT]	int
DisableConntrackInvalidCheck	FELIX_DISABLECONNTRACKINVALIDCHECK	Disable the dropping of packets that aren't either a valid handshake or part of an established connection. [Default: false]	boolean
EndpointReportingDelaySecs	FELIX_ENDPOINTREPORTINGDELAYSECS	Set the endpoint reporting delay between status check intervals, in seconds. Only used if endpoint reporting is enabled. [Default: 1]	int
EndpointReportingEnabled	FELIX_ENDPOINTREPORTINGENABLED	Enable the endpoint status reporter. [Default: false]	boolean
EndpointStatusPathPrefix	FELIX_ENDPOINTSTATUSPATHPREFIX	Path to the directory where Felix should create the endpoint-status directory. Choosing a mounted volume such as /var/run/calico is recommended as the directory can then be monitored by host processes such as the Calico CNI. Leaving this field empty disables endpoint-status files. [Default: ""]	string
ExternalNodesCIDRList	FELIX_EXTERNALNODESCIDRLIST	Comma-delimited list of IPv4 or CIDR of external-non-calico-nodes from which IPIP traffic is accepted by calico-nodes. [Default: ""]	string
FailsafeInboundHostPorts	FELIX_FAILSAFEINBOUNDHOSTPORTS	List of PortProto struct objects including UDP/TCP/SCTP ports and CIDRs that Felix will allow incoming traffic to host endpoints on irrespective of the security policy. This is useful to avoid accidentally cutting off a host with incorrect configuration. For backwards compatibility, if the protocol is not specified, it defaults to "tcp". If a CIDR is not specified, it will allow traffic from all addresses. To disable all inbound host ports, use the value []. The default value allows ssh access, DHCP, BGP, etcd and the Kubernetes API. [Default: [{"port":22,"protocol":"tcp"},{"port":68,"protocol":"udp"},{"port":179,"protocol":"tcp"},{"port":2379,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":2380,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":5473,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":6443,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":6666,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":6667,"protocol":"tcp"}]]	list
FailsafeOutboundHostPorts	FELIX_FAILSAFEOUTBOUNDHOSTPORTS	List of PortProto struct objects including UDP/TCP/SCTP ports and CIDRs that Felix will allow outgoing traffic from host endpoints to irrespective of the security policy. This is useful to avoid accidentally cutting off a host with incorrect configuration. For backwards compatibility, if the protocol is not specified, it defaults to "tcp". If a CIDR is not specified, it will allow traffic from all addresses. To disable all outbound host ports, use the value []. The default value opens etcd's standard ports to ensure that Felix does not get cut off from etcd as well as allowing DHCP, DNS, BGP and the Kubernetes API. [Default: [{"port":53,"protocol":"udp"},{"port":67,"protocol":"udp"}, {"port":179,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":2379,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":2380,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":5473,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":6443,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port": 6666,"protocol":"tcp"}, {"port":6667,"protocol":"tcp"}]]	list
FelixHostname	FELIX_FELIXHOSTNAME	The hostname Felix reports to the plugin. Should be used if the hostname Felix autodetects is incorrect or does not match what the plugin will expect. [Default: socket.gethostname()]	string
HealthEnabled	FELIX_HEALTHENABLED	When enabled, exposes felix health information via an http endpoint.	boolean
HealthHost	FELIX_HEALTHHOST	The address on which Felix will respond to health requests. [Default: localhost]	string
HealthPort	FELIX_HEALTHPORT	The port on which Felix will respond to health requests. [Default: 9099]	int
HealthTimeoutOverrides	FELIX_HEALTHTIMEOUTOVERRIDES	Allows the internal watchdog timeouts of individual subcomponents to be overridden; example: "InternalDataplaneMainLoop=30s,CalculationGraph=2m". This is useful for working around "false positive" liveness timeouts that can occur in particularly stressful workloads or if CPU is constrained. For a list of active subcomponents, see Felix's logs. [Default: ``]	Comma-delimited list of key/value pairs where the values are durations: 1s, 10s, 5m, etc.
IpInIpEnabled	FELIX_IPINIPENABLED	Optional, you shouldn't need to change this setting as Felix calculates if IPIP should be enabled based on the existing IP Pools. When set, this overrides whether Felix should configure an IPinIP interface on the host. When explicitly disabled in FelixConfiguration, Felix will not clean up addresses from the tunl0 interface (use this if you need to add addresses to that interface and don't want to have them removed). [Default: unset]	optional boolean
IpInIpMtu	FELIX_IPINIPMTU	The MTU to set on the IPIP tunnel device. Zero value means auto-detect. See Configuring MTU [Default: 0]	int
IPv4VXLANTunnelAddr		IP address of the IPv4 VXLAN tunnel. This is system configured and should not be updated manually.	string
LogFilePath	FELIX_LOGFILEPATH	The full path to the Felix log. Set to none to disable file logging. [Default: /var/log/calico/felix.log]	string
LogSeverityFile	FELIX_LOGSEVERITYFILE	The log severity above which logs are sent to the log file. [Default: Info]	Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Fatal
LogSeverityScreen	FELIX_LOGSEVERITYSCREEN	The log severity above which logs are sent to the stdout. [Default: Info]	Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Fatal
LogSeveritySys	FELIX_LOGSEVERITYSYS	The log severity above which logs are sent to the syslog. Set to none for no logging to syslog. [Default: Info]	Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Fatal
LogDebugFilenameRegex	FELIX_LOGDEBUGFILENAMEREGEX	Controls which source code files have their Debug log output included in the logs. Only logs from files with names that match the given regular expression are included. The filter only applies to Debug level logs. [Default: ""]	regex
PolicySyncPathPrefix	FELIX_POLICYSYNCPATHPREFIX	File system path where Felix notifies services of policy changes over Unix domain sockets. This is only required if you're configuring application layer policy. Set to "" to disable. [Default: ""]	string
PrometheusGoMetricsEnabled	FELIX_PROMETHEUSGOMETRICSENABLED	Set to false to disable Go runtime metrics collection, which the Prometheus client does by default. This reduces the number of metrics reported, reducing Prometheus load. [Default: true]	boolean
PrometheusMetricsEnabled	FELIX_PROMETHEUSMETRICSENABLED	Set to true to enable the Prometheus metrics server in Felix. [Default: false]	boolean
PrometheusMetricsHost	FELIX_PROMETHEUSMETRICSHOST	TCP network address that the Prometheus metrics server should bind to. [Default: ""]	string
PrometheusMetricsPort	FELIX_PROMETHEUSMETRICSPORT	TCP port that the Prometheus metrics server should bind to. [Default: 9091]	int
PrometheusProcessMetricsEnabled	FELIX_PROMETHEUSPROCESSMETRICSENABLED	Set to false to disable process metrics collection, which the Prometheus client does by default. This reduces the number of metrics reported, reducing Prometheus load. [Default: true]	boolean
PrometheusWireGuardMetricsEnabled	FELIX_PROMETHEUSWIREGUARDMETRICSENABLED	Set to false to disable wireguard device metrics collection, which Felix does by default. [Default: true]	boolean
RemoveExternalRoutes	FELIX_REMOVEEXTERNALROUTES	Whether or not to remove device routes that have not been programmed by Felix. Disabling this will allow external applications to also add device routes. [Default: true]	bool
ReportingIntervalSecs	FELIX_REPORTINGINTERVALSECS	Interval at which Felix reports its status into the datastore. 0 means disabled and is correct for Kubernetes-only clusters. Must be non-zero in OpenStack deployments. [Default: 30]	int
ReportingTTLSecs	FELIX_REPORTINGTTLSECS	Time-to-live setting for process-wide status reports. [Default: 90]	int
RouteTableRange	FELIX_ROUTETABLERANGE	deprecated in favor of RouteTableRanges Calico programs additional Linux route tables for various purposes. RouteTableRange specifies the indices of the route tables that Calico should use. [Default: ""]	<min>-<max>
RouteTableRanges	FELIX_ROUTETABLERANGES	Calico programs additional Linux route tables for various purposes. RouteTableRanges specifies a set of table index ranges that Calico should use. Deprecates RouteTableRange, overrides RouteTableRange. [Default: "1-250"]	<min>-<max>,<min>-<max>,...
RouteSyncDisabled	FELIX_ROUTESYNCDISABLED	Set to true to disable Calico programming routes to local workloads. [Default: false]	boolean
SidecarAccelerationEnabled	FELIX_SIDECARACCELERATIONENABLED	Enable experimental acceleration between application and proxy sidecar when using application layer policy. [Default: false]	boolean
UsageReportingEnabled	FELIX_USAGEREPORTINGENABLED	Reports anonymous Calico version number and cluster size to projectcalico.org. Logs warnings returned by the usage server. For example, if a significant security vulnerability has been discovered in the version of Calico being used. [Default: true]	boolean
UsageReportingInitialDelaySecs	FELIX_USAGEREPORTINGINITIALDELAYSECS	Minimum delay before first usage report, in seconds. [Default: 300]	int
UsageReportingIntervalSecs	FELIX_USAGEREPORTINGINTERVALSECS	Interval at which to make usage reports, in seconds. [Default: 86400]	int
VXLANEnabled	FELIX_VXLANENABLED	Optional, you shouldn't need to change this setting as Felix calculates if VXLAN should be enabled based on the existing IP Pools. When set, this overrides whether Felix should create the VXLAN tunnel device for VXLAN networking. [Default: unset]	optional boolean
VXLANMTU	FELIX_VXLANMTU	The MTU to set on the IPv4 VXLAN tunnel device. Zero value means auto-detect. Also controls NodePort MTU when eBPF enabled. See Configuring MTU [Default: 0]	int
VXLANMTUV6	FELIX_VXLANMTUV6	The MTU to set on the IPv6 VXLAN tunnel device. Zero value means auto-detect. Also controls NodePort MTU when eBPF enabled. See Configuring MTU [Default: 0]	int
VXLANPort	FELIX_VXLANPORT	The UDP port to use for VXLAN. [Default: 4789]	int
VXLANTunnelMACAddr		MAC address of the IPv4 VXLAN tunnel. This is system configured and should not be updated manually.	string
VXLANVNI	FELIX_VXLANVNI	The virtual network ID to use for VXLAN. [Default: 4096]	int
AllowVXLANPacketsFromWorkloads	FELIX_ALLOWVXLANPACKETSFROMWORKLOADS	Set to true to allow VXLAN encapsulated traffic from workloads. [Default: false]	boolean
AllowIPIPPacketsFromWorkloads	FELIX_ALLOWIPIPPACKETSFROMWORKLOADS	Set to true to allow IPIP encapsulated traffic from workloads. [Default: false]	boolean
TyphaAddr	FELIX_TYPHAADDR	IPv4 address at which Felix should connect to Typha. [Default: none]	string
TyphaK8sServiceName	FELIX_TYPHAK8SSERVICENAME	Name of the Typha Kubernetes service	string
Ipv6Support	FELIX_IPV6SUPPORT	Enable Calico networking and security for IPv6 traffic as well as for IPv4.	boolean
RouteSource	FELIX_ROUTESOURCE	Where Felix gets is routing information from for VXLAN and the BPF dataplane. The CalicoIPAM setting is more efficient because it supports route aggregation, but it only works when Calico's IPAM or host-local IPAM is in use. Use the WorkloadIPs setting if you are using Calico's VXLAN or BPF dataplane and not using Calico IPAM or host-local IPAM. [Default: "CalicoIPAM"]	'CalicoIPAM', or 'WorkloadIPs'
mtuIfacePattern	FELIX_MTUIFACEPATTERN	Pattern used to discover the host's interface for MTU auto-detection. [Default: ^((en|wl|ww|sl|ib)[opsvx].*|(eth|wlan|wwan).*) ]	regex
FeatureDetectOverride	FELIX_FEATUREDETECTOVERRIDE	Is used to override the feature detection. Values are specified in a comma separated list with no spaces, example; "SNATFullyRandom=true,MASQFullyRandom=false,RestoreSupportsLock=true,IPIPDeviceIsL3=true. "true" or "false" will force the feature, empty or omitted values are auto-detected. [Default: ""]	string
FeatureGates	FELIX_FEATUREGATES	Is used to enable or disable tech-preview Calico features. Values are specified in a comma separated list with no spaces. This is used to enable features that are not fully production ready. Example; "AbC=enabled,XyZ=false" [Default: not set]	string

Feature Gates

• BPFConnectTimeLoadBalancingWorkaround - Use when connect-time loadbalancer (CTLB) is turned off or if you want to turn it off for UDP only. When CTLB is turned off, host networked processes cannot always reach services. This workaround makes sure that they can. When CTLB is turned on, UDP clients may get stuck sending traffic to endpoint that does not exist anymore. So CTLB needs to be turned off sometimes.
  • enabled - when CTLB is turned off make sure that services are always accessible.
  • udp - turns off CTLB for UDP only and makes sure that services are always accessible. Preferred setting to make sure that DNS works.

etcd datastore configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
EtcdCaFile	FELIX_ETCDCAFILE	Path to the file containing the root certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the etcd server certificate. Configures Felix to trust the CA that signed the root certificate. The file may contain multiple root certificates, causing Felix to trust each of the CAs included. To disable authentication of the server by Felix, set the value to none. [Default: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt]	string
EtcdCertFile	FELIX_ETCDCERTFILE	Path to the file containing the client certificate issued to Felix. Enables Felix to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. Example: /etc/felix/cert.pem (optional)	string
EtcdEndpoints	FELIX_ETCDENDPOINTS	Comma-delimited list of etcd endpoints to connect to. Example: http://127.0.0.1:2379,http://127.0.0.2:2379.	<scheme>://<ip-or-fqdn>:<port>
EtcdKeyFile	FELIX_ETCDKEYFILE	Path to the file containing the private key matching Felix's client certificate. Enables Felix to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the etcd server. Example: /etc/felix/key.pem (optional)	string

Kubernetes API datastore configuration

The Kubernetes API datastore driver reads its configuration from Kubernetes-provided environment variables.

iptables dataplane configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
ChainInsertMode	FELIX_CHAININSERTMODE	Controls whether Felix hooks the kernel's top-level iptables chains by inserting a rule at the top of the chain or by appending a rule at the bottom. Insert is the safe default since it prevents Calico's rules from being bypassed. If you switch to Append mode, be sure that the other rules in the chains signal acceptance by falling through to the Calico rules, otherwise the Calico policy will be bypassed. [Default: Insert]	Insert, Append
DefaultEndpointToHostAction	FELIX_DEFAULTENDPOINTTOHOSTACTION	This parameter controls what happens to traffic that goes from a workload endpoint to the host itself (after the traffic hits the endpoint egress policy). By default Calico blocks traffic from workload endpoints to the host itself with an iptables Drop action. If you want to allow some or all traffic from endpoint to host, set this parameter to Return or Accept. Use Return if you have your own rules in the iptables "INPUT" chain; Calico will insert its rules at the top of that chain, then Return packets to the "INPUT" chain once it has completed processing workload endpoint egress policy. Use Accept to unconditionally accept packets from workloads after processing workload endpoint egress policy. [Default: Drop]	Drop, Return, Accept
GenericXDPEnabled	FELIX_GENERICXDPENABLED	When enabled, Felix can fallback to the non-optimized generic XDP mode. This should only be used for testing since it doesn't improve performance over the non-XDP mode. [Default: false]	boolean
InterfaceExclude	FELIX_INTERFACEEXCLUDE	A comma-separated list of interface names that should be excluded when Felix is resolving host endpoints. The default value ensures that Felix ignores Kubernetes' internal kube-ipvs0 device. If you want to exclude multiple interface names using a single value, the list supports regular expressions. For regular expressions you must wrap the value with /. For example having values /^kube/,veth1 will exclude all interfaces that begin with kube and also the interface veth1. [Default: kube-ipvs0]	string
IpsetsRefreshInterval	FELIX_IPSETSREFRESHINTERVAL	Period, in seconds, at which Felix re-checks the IP sets in the dataplane to ensure that no other process has accidentally broken Calico's rules. Set to 0 to disable IP sets refresh. Note: the default for this value is lower than the other refresh intervals as a workaround for a Linux kernel bug that was fixed in kernel version 4.11. If you are using v4.11 or greater you may want to set this to, a higher value to reduce Felix CPU usage. [Default: 10]	int
IptablesBackend	FELIX_IPTABLESBACKEND	This parameter controls which variant of iptables binary Felix uses. Set this to Auto for auto detection of the backend. If a specific backend is needed then use NFT for hosts using a netfilter backend or Legacy for others. [Default: Auto]	Legacy, NFT, Auto
IptablesFilterAllowAction	FELIX_IPTABLESFILTERALLOWACTION	This parameter controls what happens to traffic that is allowed by a Felix policy chain in the iptables filter table (i.e., a normal policy chain). The default will immediately Accept the traffic. Use Return to send the traffic back up to the system chains for further processing. [Default: Accept]	Accept, Return
IptablesLockFilePath	FELIX_IPTABLESLOCKFILEPATH	Deprecated: For iptables versions prior to v1.6.2, location of the iptables lock file (later versions of iptables always use value "/run/xtables.lock"). You may need to change this if the lock file is not in its standard location (for example if you have mapped it into Felix's container at a different path). [Default: /run/xtables.lock]	string
IptablesLockProbeIntervalMillis	FELIX_IPTABLESLOCKPROBEINTERVALMILLIS	Time, in milliseconds, that Felix will wait between attempts to acquire the iptables lock if it is not available. Lower values make Felix more responsive when the lock is contended, but use more CPU. [Default: 50]	int
IptablesLockTimeoutSecs	FELIX_IPTABLESLOCKTIMEOUTSECS	Time, in seconds, that Felix will wait for the iptables lock. Versions of iptables prior to v1.6.2 support disabling the iptables lock by setting this value to 0; v1.6.2 and above do not so Felix will default to 10s if a non-positive number is used. To use this feature, Felix must share the iptables lock file with all other processes that also take the lock. When running Felix inside a container, this typically requires the file /run/xtables.lock on the host to be mounted into the calico/node or calico/felix container. [Default: 0 disabled for iptables <v1.6.2 or 10s for later versions]	int
IptablesMangleAllowAction	FELIX_IPTABLESMANGLEALLOWACTION	This parameter controls what happens to traffic that is allowed by a Felix policy chain in the iptables mangle table (i.e., a pre-DNAT policy chain). The default will immediately Accept the traffic. Use Return to send the traffic back up to the system chains for further processing. [Default: Accept]	Accept, Return
IptablesMarkMask	FELIX_IPTABLESMARKMASK	Mask that Felix selects its IPTables Mark bits from. Should be a 32 bit hexadecimal number with at least 8 bits set, none of which clash with any other mark bits in use on the system. When using Calico with Kubernetes' kube-proxy in IPVS mode, we recommend allowing at least 16 bits. [Default: 0xffff0000]	netmask
IptablesNATOutgoingInterfaceFilter	FELIX_IPTABLESNATOUTGOINGINTERFACEFILTER	This parameter can be used to limit the host interfaces on which Calico will apply SNAT to traffic leaving a Calico IPAM pool with "NAT outgoing" enabled. This can be useful if you have a main data interface, where traffic should be SNATted and a secondary device (such as the docker bridge) which is local to the host and doesn't require SNAT. This parameter uses the iptables interface matching syntax, which allows + as a wildcard. Most users will not need to set this. Example: if your data interfaces are eth0 and eth1 and you want to exclude the docker bridge, you could set this to eth+	string
IptablesPostWriteCheckIntervalSecs	FELIX_IPTABLESPOSTWRITECHECKINTERVALSECS	Period, in seconds, after Felix has done a write to the dataplane that it schedules an extra read back to check the write was not clobbered by another process. This should only occur if another application on the system doesn't respect the iptables lock. [Default: 1]	int
IptablesRefreshInterval	FELIX_IPTABLESREFRESHINTERVAL	Period, in seconds, at which Felix re-checks all iptables state to ensure that no other process has accidentally broken Calico's rules. Set to 0 to disable iptables refresh. [Default: 90]	int
LogPrefix	FELIX_LOGPREFIX	The log prefix that Felix uses when rendering LOG rules. [Default: calico-packet]	string
MaxIpsetSize	FELIX_MAXIPSETSIZE	Maximum size for the ipsets used by Felix. Should be set to a number that is greater than the maximum number of IP addresses that are ever expected in a selector. [Default: 1048576]	int
NATPortRange	FELIX_NATPORTRANGE	Port range used by iptables for port mapping when doing outgoing NAT. (Example: 32768:65000). [Default: iptables maps source ports below 512 to other ports below 512: those between 512 and 1023 inclusive will be mapped to ports below 1024, and other ports will be mapped to 1024 or above. Where possible, no port alteration will occur.]	string
NATOutgoingAddress	FELIX_NATOUTGOINGADDRESS	Source address used by iptables for an SNAT rule when doing outgoing NAT. [Default: an iptables MASQUERADE rule is used for outgoing NAT which will use the address on the interface traffic is leaving on.]	<IPv4-address>
NetlinkTimeoutSecs	FELIX_NETLINKTIMEOUTSECS	Time, in seconds, that Felix will wait for netlink (i.e. routing table list/update) operations to complete before giving up and retrying. [Default: 10]	float
RouteRefreshInterval	FELIX_ROUTEREFRESHINTERVAL	Period, in seconds, at which Felix re-checks the routes in the dataplane to ensure that no other process has accidentally broken Calico's rules. Set to 0 to disable route refresh. [Default: 90]	int
ServiceLoopPrevention	FELIX_SERVICELOOPPREVENTION	When service IP advertisement is enabled, prevent routing loops to service IPs that are not in use, by dropping or rejecting packets that do not get DNAT'd by kube-proxy. Unless set to "Disabled", in which case such routing loops continue to be allowed. [Default: Drop]	Drop, Reject, Disabled
WorkloadSourceSpoofing	FELIX_WORKLOADSOURCESPOOFING	Controls whether pods can enable source IP address spoofing with the cni.projectcalico.org/allowedSourcePrefixes annotation. When set to Any, pods can use this annotation to send packets from any IP address. [Default: Disabled]	Any, Disabled
XDPRefreshInterval	FELIX_XDPREFRESHINTERVAL	Period, in seconds, at which Felix re-checks the XDP state in the dataplane to ensure that no other process has accidentally broken Calico's rules. Set to 0 to disable XDP refresh. [Default: 90]	int
XDPEnabled	FELIX_XDPENABLED	Enable XDP acceleration for host endpoint policies. [Default: true]	boolean

eBPF dataplane configuration

eBPF dataplane mode uses the Linux Kernel's eBPF virtual machine to implement networking and policy instead of iptables. When BPFEnabled is set to true, Felix will:

• Require a v5.3 Linux kernel.
• Implement policy with eBPF programs instead of iptables.
• Activate its embedded implementation of kube-proxy to implement Kubernetes service load balancing.
• Disable support for IPv6.

See the HOWTO guide for step-by step instructions to enable this feature.

Configuration parameter / Environment variable	Description	Schema	Default
BPFEnabled / FELIX_BPFENABLED	Enable eBPF dataplane mode. eBPF mode has a number of limitations, see the HOWTO guide.	true, false	false
BPFDisableUnprivileged / FELIX_BPFDISABLEUNPRIVILEGED	If true, Felix sets the kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled sysctl to disable unprivileged use of BPF. This ensures that unprivileged users cannot access Calico's BPF maps and cannot insert their own BPF programs to interfere with the ones that Calico installs.	true, false	true
BPFLogLevel / FELIX_BPFLOGLEVEL	The log level used by the BPF programs. The logs are emitted to the BPF trace pipe, accessible with the command tc exec BPF debug.	Off,Info,Debug	Off
BPFLogFilters / FELIX_ BPFLOGFILTERS	Limits logging for selected interfaces and packets. It is a map of key=values where the value is a pcap filter expression that select packets and the key is an interface name that selects the interface to log. Special values of all denotes all interfaces, weps all workload endpoints and heps all host endpoints. When specified as an environment variable, it accepts a comma-separated list of key=values. It is unset by default which means all debug logs are emitted when BPFLogLevel is Debug.	string	""
BPFCTLBLogFilter / FELIX_BPFCTLBLOGFILTER	Specifies, what is logged by connect time load balancer (CTLB) when BPFLogLevel is debug and BPFLogFilters is set. Must be set to 'all' to see CTLB logs.	string	""
BPFDataIfacePattern / FELIX_BPFDATAIFACEPATTERN	Controls which interfaces Felix should attach BPF programs to catch traffic to/from the external network. This needs to match the interfaces that Calico workload traffic flows over as well as any interfaces that handle incoming traffic to NodePorts and services from outside the cluster. It should not match the workload interfaces (usually named cali...)..	regular expression	^((en|wl|ww|sl|ib) [Popsvx].|* |(eth |wlan |wwan).|*|tunl0$ | vxlan.calico$ | wireguard.cali$ | wg-v6.cali$)
BPFL3IfacePattern / FELIX_BPFL3IFACEPATTERN	Allows to list tunnel devices like wireguard or vxlan (i.e., L3 devices) in addition to BPFDataIfacePattern. That is, tunnel interfaces not created by Calico, that Calico workload traffic flows over as well as any interfaces that handle incoming traffic to nodeports and services from outside the cluster.	regular expression	""
BPFConnectTimeLoadBalancingEnabled / FELIX_BPFCONNECTTIMELOADBALANCINGENABLED	Controls whether Felix installs the connect-time load balancer. In the current release, the connect-time load balancer is required for the host to reach kubernetes services.	true,false	true
BPFConnectTimeLoadBalancing / FELIX_BPFCONNECTTIMELOADBALANCING	Controls whether Felix installs the connect-time load balancer. It improves the performance of pod-to-service connections. When set to TCP (default), connect-time load balancing is available only for services with TCP ports. If set to Enabled, it is enabled for any protocol - with that, UDP applications may keep sending data to a service (e.g., DNS) backend that does not exist anymore. When set to Disabled or TCP, bpfHostNetworkedNATWithoutCTLB must be set to Enabled for host networked processed to be able to reach all service correctly. If ebpf is used with a service mesh that uses sidecars like Istio, set this option to Disabled and bpfHostNetworkedNATWithoutCTLB to Enabled (default). That allows the mesh to intercept service IPs before they get resolved.	TCP,Enabled,Disabled	TCP
BPFHostNetworkedNATWithoutCTLB / FELIX_BPFHOSTNETWORKEDNATWITHOUTCTLB	In eBPF dataplane mode, controls whether Felix resolves service (NAT) without CTLB for host networked processes. This along with BPFConnectTimeLoadBalancing determines the behavior of connect-time load balancer.	Enabled,Disabled	Enabled
BPFExternalServiceMode / FELIX_BPFEXTERNALSERVICEMODE	Controls how traffic from outside the cluster to NodePorts and ClusterIPs is handled. In Tunnel mode, packet is tunneled from the ingress host to the host with the backing pod and back again. In DSR mode, traffic is tunneled to the host with the backing pod and then returned directly; this requires a network that allows direct return.	Tunnel,DSR	Tunnel
BPFDSROptoutCIDRs / FELIX_BPFDSROPTOUTCIDRS	BPFDSROptoutCIDRs is a list of CIDRs that are excluded from DSR. That is, clients in those CIDRs will access nodeports as if BPFExternalServiceMode was set to Tunnel.	string	""
BPFExtToServiceConnmark / FELIX_BPFEXTTOSERVICECONNMARK	Controls a 32bit mark that is set on connections from an external client to a local service. This mark allows us to control how packets of that connection are routed within the host and how is routing interpreted by RPF check.	int	0
BPFEnforceRPF / FELIX_BPFENFORCERPF	Enforce RPF on all host interfaces with BPF programs regardless of what is the per-interfaces or global setting.	Disabled,Strict,Loose	Strict
BPFKubeProxyIptablesCleanupEnabled / FELIX_BPFKUBEPROXYIPTABLESCLEANUPENABLED	Controls whether Felix will clean up the iptables rules created by the Kubernetes kube-proxy; should only be enabled if kube-proxy is not running.	true,false	true
BPFKubeProxyMinSyncPeriod / FELIX_BPFKUBEPROXYMINSYNCPERIOD	Controls the minimum time between dataplane updates for Felix's embedded kube-proxy implementation.	seconds	1
BPFKubeProxyEndpointSlicesEnabled / FELIX_BPFKUBEPROXYENDPOINTSLICESENABLED	Controls whether Felix's embedded kube-proxy derives its services from Kubernetes' EndpointSlices resources. Using EndpointSlices is more efficient but it requires EndpointSlices support to be enabled at the Kubernetes API server.	true,false	false
BPFMapSizeConntrack / FELIX_BPFMapSizeConntrack	Controls the size of the conntrack map. This map must be large enough to hold an entry for each active connection. Warning: changing the size of the conntrack map can cause disruption.	int	512000
BPFMapSizeNATFrontend / FELIX_BPFMapSizeNATFrontend	Controls the size of the NAT frontend map. FrontendMap should be large enough to hold an entry for each nodeport, external IP and each port in each service.	int	65536
BPFMapSizeNATBackend / FELIX_BPFMapSizeNATBackend	Controls the size of the NAT backend map. This is the total number of endpoints. This is mostly more than the size of the number of services.	int	262144
BPFMapSizeNATAffinity / FELIX_BPFMapSizeNATAffinity	Controls the size of the NAT affinity map.	int	65536
BPFMapSizeIPSets / FELIX_BPFMapSizeIPSets	Controls the size of the IPSets map. The IP sets map must be large enough to hold an entry for each endpoint matched by every selector in the source/destination matches in network policy. Selectors such as "all()" can result in large numbers of entries (one entry per endpoint in that case).	int	1048576
BPFMapSizeRoute / FELIX_BPFMapSizeRoute	Controls the size of the route map. The routes map should be large enough to hold one entry per workload and a handful of entries per host (enough to cover its own IPs and tunnel IPs).	int	262144
BPFHostConntrackBypass / FELIX_BPFHostConntrackBypass	Controls whether to bypass Linux conntrack in BPF mode for workloads and services.	true,false	true
BPFEnforceRPF / FELIX_BPFEnforceRPF	Controls RPF on all host interfaces with BPF programs regardless of what is the per-interfaces or global setting. To prevent spoofing, we also enforce it in IPv6 mode. Possible values are Disabled, Strict or Loose.	string	"Loose"
BPFPolicyDebugEnabled / FELIX_BPFPOLICYDEBUGENABLED	In eBPF dataplane mode, Felix records detailed information about the BPF policy programs, which can be examined with the calico-bpf command-line tool.	true, false	true
BPFForceTrackPacketsFromIfaces / FELIX_BPFFORCETRACKPACKETSFROMIFACES	In BPF mode, forces traffic from these interfaces to skip Calico's iptables NOTRACK rule, allowing traffic from those interfaces to be tracked by Linux conntrack. Should only be used for interfaces that are not used for the Calico fabric. For example, a docker bridge device for non-Calico-networked containers. [Default: docker+]	string	"docker+"
BPFDisableGROForIfaces / FELIX_BPFDISABLEGROFORIFACES	A regular expression that controls which interfaces Felix should disable the Generic Receive Offload [GRO] option. It should not match the workload interfaces (usually named cali...).	string	""
BPFExcludeCIDRsFromNAT / FELIX_BPFEXCLUDECIDRSFROMNATIS	A list of CIDRs that are to be excluded from NAT resolution so that host can handle them. A typical use case is node local DNS cache. Set it to your kube-dns service IP if you want to use node local DNS cache.	string	""

Kubernetes-specific configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
KubeNodePortRanges	FELIX_KUBENODEPORTRANGES	A list of port ranges that Felix should treat as Kubernetes node ports. Only when kube-proxy is configured to use IPVS mode: Felix assumes that traffic arriving at the host of one of these ports will ultimately be forwarded instead of being terminated by a host process. [Default: 30000:32767]	Comma-delimited list of <min>:<max> port ranges or single ports.

note

When using Calico with Kubernetes' `kube-proxy` in IPVS mode, Calico uses additional iptables mark bits to store an ID for each local Calico endpoint. For example, the default `IptablesMarkMask` value, `0xffff0000` gives Calico 16 bits, up to 6 of which are used for internal purposes, leaving 10 bits for endpoint IDs. 10 bits is enough for 1024 different values and Calico uses 2 of those for internal purposes, leaving enough for 1022 endpoints on the host.

OpenStack-specific configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
MetadataAddr	FELIX_METADATAADDR	The IP address or domain name of the server that can answer VM queries for cloud-init metadata. In OpenStack, this corresponds to the machine running nova-api (or in Ubuntu, nova-api-metadata). A value of none (case-insensitive) means that Felix should not set up any NAT rule for the metadata path. [Default: 127.0.0.1]	<IPv4-address>, <hostname>, none
MetadataPort	FELIX_METADATAPORT	The port of the metadata server. This, combined with global.MetadataAddr (if not 'None'), is used to set up a NAT rule, from 169.254.169.254:80 to MetadataAddr:MetadataPort. In most cases this should not need to be changed [Default: 8775].	int
OpenStackRegion	FELIX_OPENSTACKREGION	In a multi-region deployment, the name of the region that this Felix is in. [Default: none].	string*

* If non-empty, the value specified for OpenStackRegion must be a string of lower case alphanumeric characters or '-', starting and ending with an alphanumeric character.

Bare metal specific configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
InterfacePrefix	FELIX_INTERFACEPREFIX	The interface name prefix that identifies workload endpoints and so distinguishes them from host endpoint interfaces. Accepts more than one interface name prefix in comma-delimited format, e.g., tap,cali. Note: in environments other than bare metal, the orchestrators configure this appropriately. For example our Kubernetes and Docker integrations set the cali value, and our OpenStack integration sets the tap value. [Default: cali]	string

Felix-Typha Configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
TyphaAddr	FELIX_TYPHAADDR	Address of the Typha Server when running outside a K8S Cluster, in the format IP:PORT	string
TyphaK8sServiceName	FELIX_TYPHAK8SSERVICENAME	Service Name of Typha Deployment when running inside a K8S Cluster	string
TyphaK8sNamespace	FELIX_TYPHAK8SNAMESPACE	Namespace of Typha Deployment when running inside a K8S Cluster. [Default: kube-system]	string
TyphaReadTimeout	FELIX_TYPHAREADTIMEOUT	Timeout of Felix when reading information from Typha, in seconds. [Default: 30]	int
TyphaWriteTimeout	FELIX_TYPHAWRITETIMEOUT	Timeout of Felix when writing information to Typha, in seconds. [Default: 30]	int

Felix-Typha TLS configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
TyphaCAFile	FELIX_TYPHACAFILE	Path to the file containing the root certificate of the CA that issued the Typha server certificate. Configures Felix to trust the CA that signed the root certificate. The file may contain multiple root certificates, causing Felix to trust each of the CAs included. Example: /etc/felix/ca.pem	string
TyphaCertFile	FELIX_TYPHACERTFILE	Path to the file containing the client certificate issued to Felix. Enables Felix to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the Typha server. Example: /etc/felix/cert.pem	string
TyphaCN	FELIX_TYPHACN	If set, the Common Name that Typha's certificate must have. If you have enabled TLS on the communications from Felix to Typha, you must set a value here or in TyphaURISAN. You can set values in both, as well, such as to facilitate a migration from using one to the other. If either matches, the communication succeeds. [Default: none]	string
TyphaKeyFile	FELIX_TYPHAKEYFILE	Path to the file containing the private key matching the Felix client certificate. Enables Felix to participate in mutual TLS authentication and identify itself to the Typha server. Example: /etc/felix/key.pem (optional)	string
TyphaURISAN	FELIX_TYPHAURISAN	If set, a URI SAN that Typha's certificate must have. We recommend populating this with a SPIFFE string that identifies Typha. All Typha instances should use the same SPIFFE ID. If you have enabled TLS on the communications from Felix to Typha, you must set a value here or in TyphaCN. You can set values in both, as well, such as to facilitate a migration from using one to the other. If either matches, the communication succeeds. [Default: none]	string

For more information on how to use and set these variables, refer to Connections from Felix to Typha (Kubernetes).

WireGuard configuration

Configuration parameter	Environment variable	Description	Schema
wireguardEnabled	Enable encryption for IPv4 on WireGuard supported nodes in cluster. When enabled, pod to pod traffic will be sent over encrypted tunnels between the nodes.	true, false	boolean	false
wireguardEnabledV6	Enable encryption for IPv6 on WireGuard supported nodes in cluster. When enabled, pod to pod traffic will be sent over encrypted tunnels between the nodes.	true, false	boolean	false
wireguardInterfaceName	Name of the IPv4 WireGuard interface created by Felix. If you change the name, and want to clean up the previously-configured interface names on each node, this is a manual process.	string	string	wireguard.cali
wireguardInterfaceNameV6	Name of the IPv6 WireGuard interface created by Felix. If you change the name, and want to clean up the previously-configured interface names on each node, this is a manual process.	string	string	wg-v6.cali
wireguardListeningPort	Port used by IPv4 WireGuard tunnels. Felix sets up an IPv4 WireGuard tunnel on each node specified by this port. Available for configuration only in the global FelixConfiguration resource; setting it per host, config-file or environment variable will not work.	1-65535	int	51820
wireguardListeningPortV6	Port used by IPv6 WireGuard tunnels. Felix sets up an IPv6 WireGuard tunnel on each node specified by this port. Available for configuration only in the global FelixConfiguration resource; setting it per host, config-file or environment variable will not work.	1-65535	int	51821
wireguardMTU	MTU set on the IPv4 WireGuard interface created by Felix. Zero value means auto-detect. See Configuring MTU.	int	int	0
wireguardMTUV6	MTU set on the IPv6 WireGuard interface created by Felix. Zero value means auto-detect. See Configuring MTU.	int	int	0
wireguardRoutingRulePriority	WireGuard routing rule priority value set up by Felix. If you change the default value, set it to a value most appropriate to routing rules for your nodes.	1-32765	int	99
wireguardHostEncryptionEnabled	Experimental: Adds host-namespace workload IP's to WireGuard's list of peers. Should not be enabled when WireGuard is enabled on a cluster's control plane node, as networking deadlock can occur.	true, false	boolean	false
wireguardKeepAlive	WireguardKeepAlive controls Wireguard PersistentKeepalive option. Set 0 to disable. [Default: 0]	int	int	25

For more information on encrypting in-cluster traffic with WireGuard, refer to Encrypt cluster pod traffic

Environment variables

The highest priority of configuration is that read from environment variables. To set a configuration parameter via an environment variable, set the environment variable formed by taking FELIX_ and appending the uppercase form of the variable name. For example, to set the etcd address, set the environment variable FELIX_ETCDADDR. Other examples include FELIX_ETCDSCHEME, FELIX_ETCDKEYFILE, FELIX_ETCDCERTFILE, FELIX_ETCDCAFILE, FELIX_FELIXHOSTNAME, FELIX_LOGFILEPATH and FELIX_METADATAADDR.

Configuration file

On startup, Felix reads an ini-style configuration file. The path to this file defaults to /etc/calico/felix.cfg but can be overridden using the -c or --config-file options on the command line. If the file exists, then it is read (ignoring section names) and all parameters are set from it.

In OpenStack, we recommend putting all configuration into configuration files, since the etcd database is transient (and may be recreated by the OpenStack plugin in certain error cases). However, in a Docker environment the use of environment variables or etcd is often more convenient.

Datastore

Felix also reads configuration parameters from the datastore. It supports a global setting and a per-host override.

1. Get the current felixconfig settings.

   calicoctl get felixconfig default -o yaml --export > felix.yaml

2. Modify logFilePath to your intended path, e.g. "/tmp/felix.log"

   vim felix.yaml
   tip

   For a global change set name to "default". For a node-specific change: set name to node.<nodename>, e.g. "node.Calico-node-1"

3. Replace the current felixconfig settings

   calicoctl replace -f felix.yaml

For more information, see Felix Configuration Resource.