Choosing and using different CNIs in EKS
We have seen how AWS CNI integrates with the VPC to offer IP address management (IPAM) services and the creation and management of the Pod network interface. The following are some of the reasons why you might want to replace the default AWS VPC CNI:
- If you want to have multiple Pod interfaces
- If you want to use an overlay network for encryption
- If you want to use network acceleration, such as DPDK or eBPF
As the EKS control plane is managed by AWS, there are a limited number of CNIs supported today; please refer to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/alternate-cni-plugins.html for the most up-to-date list.
The most important decision you need to make is whether you can extend the existing VPC CNI as we did with Calico but continue to use the VPC CNI to manage IP addresses and Pod interfaces. This is referred to as CNI plugin chaining, where a primary CNI is enhanced with additional capabilities. Therefore...
