How the Tables Have Turned: Kubernetes Says Goodbye to Iptables

Explore a technical conference talk that delves into the transition from iptables to nftables in Kubernetes networking. Learn about the historical significance of iptables as the primary packet filtering system in Linux kernel and its extensive use across Kubernetes networking ecosystem. Discover why iptables is being phased out of next-generation Linux distributions and how nftables emerges as its successor, featuring a beta kube-proxy implementation in v1.31 and network policy using Calico's nftables backend. Gain insights from speakers' experiences in building Kubernetes Service and NetworkPolicy implementations with nftables, understand the performance characteristics and capabilities of Kubernetes networks running on nftables, and examine why eBPF might not be the optimal solution for this particular use case.