By Kappa Category kubernetes
Tags k8s containers docker cloud cloud native CNI
Estimated Read Time: 9 min read
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Photo credit: Katherine McCormack (Unsplash license)
This is the first edition of the article about major Kubernetes distribution. Click here for the update second edition of the article.
I really feel Kubernetes is everywhere. It took over the place of OpenStack, Apache Mesos and Cloud Foundry. All major cloud providers are providing containers services, utilizing Kubernetes. Major Linux vendors are having container products based on Kubernetes. SUSE does not have Kubernetes offering but they acquired Rancher recently. VMware had acquired Pivotal and integrated Pivotal Kubernetes Service (PKS) with vSphere platform. HPE joins the competition with their HPE Ezmeral software portfolio.
This article describes and lists the technologies used and supported by major and notable Kubernetes distributions and cloud providers. I only focus on some of the aspects like the upstream version, container runtimes, CNI and licensing. By no means it is a complete list and comparing all the aspects.
- Note: IBM have private cloud offering called IBM Cloud Private, which is designed to be installed on premises or on cloud. The support configuration and specification between IBM Cloud Private and IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS) are very similar but not exactly the same.
If you found any problems please feel free to let me know.
Edit 1: An update for Rancher, as they released Rancher 2.5 just now.
| Name | Product version | Based on upstream | Container runtime | De facto CNI | Other CNI | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) | October 02, 2020 (R32) |
|
containerd | GKE native CNI | Calico (at creation time) | Commercial cloud service |
| Amazon EKS | As of 2020-Oct-05 | 1.15 to 1.17, 1.18 to be released in 2020-Oct | Docker, containerd in preview | Amazon VPC CNI plugin | From partner support: Calico, Cilium, Weave Net, Antrea | Commercial cloud service |
| OpenShift | 4.5.0 | 1.18 | CRI-O only | OpenShift SDN (make use of Open vSwitch) | OVN-Kubernetes (Technology Preview) | Apache License 2.0. Relies on other products with various licenses - Also have commercial cloud service |
| Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | As of 2020-Oct-05 | 1.16 to 1.18 | Docker | Kubenet and Azure CNI | No other CNI officially supported according to an issue in 2018 | Commercial cloud service |
| VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI) | 1.9 | 1.18.8 | Docker | NSX Container Plugin (NCP) | Antrea backed by VMware (based on Open vSwitch) is not officially supported now | Closed source |
| Rancher | 2.4.8 / 2.5.0 | 1.15.12 to 1.18.6 / 1.16.15 to 1.19.2 | Docker | Canal, Flannel, Calico and Weave (Weave is available as of v2.2.0) | Need the URL for the exact support matrix | Apache License 2.0, also have cloud service |
| IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS) | As of 2020-Oct-05 | 1.16.15, 1.17.12, 1.18.9 | containerd | Calico | N/A | Commercial cloud service |
| D2iQ Konvoy | 1.5 | 1.15.4 (minimum), 1.17.11 (Default) | containerd | Calico | N/A | Commercial product |
| Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE) | As of 2020-Oct-05 | 1.14.8 (minimum), 1.15.7, 1.16.8 (latest) | Oracle Linux Container Services (a modified version of Docker) | Calico | N/A | Commercial product |
Discussion about the result
Let's have a short discussion about the table.
- Upstream support
- All major distributions and cloud providers are supporting the upstream Kubernetes 1.18.
- Amazon EKS plans to support it in this month.
- D2iQ Konvoy 1.5 (and 1.6 beta) currently only support Kubernetes 1.17.
- OKE is lagging behind, on 2020-Jun-22, it introduced support of Kubernetes 1.16.8.
- With Rancher releasing Rancher 2.5 on Oct-06, it supported Kubernetes 1.19.2 by default.
- Container runtime
- Google GKE, D2iQ and IBM IKS are already using containerd runtime.
- Amazon EKS is going to support containerd.
- Red Hat backed CRI-O and they are using it on OpenShift.
- Other distribution and vendors like Microsoft AKS, VMware Tanzu, Rancher and Oracle are still using Docker or modified version of Docker.
- CNI
- Most vendors have their own native CNI. Calico is a popular option.
- Some vendors like Red Hat and VMware make use of Open vSwitch for the CNI.
Reference links
- Google GKE
- AWS EKS
- OpenShift
- Azure AKS
- VMware Tanzu
- Rancher
- IBM IKS
- D2iQ
- Oracle OKE
- A comprehensive comparison of major Kubernetes distribution by Stackrox