System requirements

2 MINUTE READ

Node requirements

AMD64 processor
Linux kernel 3.10 or later with required dependencies. The following distributions have the required kernel, its dependencies, and are known to work well with Calico and host protection.
- RedHat Linux 7
- CentOS 7
- CoreOS Container Linux stable
- Ubuntu 16.04
- Debian 8
Calico must be able to manage cali* interfaces on the host. When IPIP is enabled (the default), Calico also needs to be able to manage tunl* interfaces.

Note: Many Linux distributions, such as most of the above, include NetworkManager. By default, NetworkManager does not allow Calico to manage interfaces. If your nodes have NetworkManager, complete the steps in Preventing NetworkManager from controlling Calico interfaces before installing Calico.

Calico v3.12 requires a key/value store accessible by all Calico components.The key/value store must be etcdv3.

Ensure that your hosts and firewalls allow the necessary traffic based on your configuration.

Configuration	Host(s)	Connection type	Port/protocol
Calico networking (BGP)	All	Bidirectional	TCP 179
Calico networking with IP-in-IP enabled (default)	All	Bidirectional	IP-in-IP, often represented by its protocol number `4`
Calico networking with VXLAN enabled	All	Bidirectional	UDP 4789
Calico networking with Typha enabled	Typha agent hosts	Incoming	TCP 5473 (default)
flannel networking (VXLAN)	All	Bidirectional	UDP 4789
All	kube-apiserver host	Incoming	Often TCP 443 or 6443*
etcd datastore	etcd hosts	Incoming	Officially TCP 2379 but can vary

Ensure that Calico has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN privilege.

The simplest way to provide the necessary privilege is to run Calico as root or in a privileged container.

Tip: If you are using one of the recommended distributions, you will already satisfy these.

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