---
approvers:
- danwent
title: Use Cilium for NetworkPolicy
---

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This page shows how to use Cilium for NetworkPolicy.

For background on Cilium, read the [Introduction to Cilium](https://cilium.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro).
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## Deploying Cilium on Minikube for Basic Testing

To get familiar with Cilium easily you can follow the
[Cilium Kubernetes Getting Started Guide](https://docs.cilium.io/en/latest/gettingstarted/minikube/)
to perform a basic DaemonSet installation of Cilium in minikube.

Installation in a minikube setup uses a simple ''all-in-one'' YAML
file that includes DaemonSet configurations for Cilium, to connect
to the minikube's etcd instance as well as appropriate RBAC settings:

```shell
$ kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/cilium/master/examples/kubernetes/cilium.yaml
configmap "cilium-config" created
secret "cilium-etcd-secrets" created
serviceaccount "cilium" created
clusterrolebinding "cilium" created
daemonset "cilium" created
clusterrole "cilium" created
```

The remainder of the Getting Started Guide explains how to enforce both L3/L4
(i.e., IP address + port) security policies, as well as L7 (e.g., HTTP) security
policies using an example application.

## Deploying Cilium for Production Use

For detailed instructions around deploying Cilium for production, see:
[Cilium Kubernetes Installation Guide](https://cilium.readthedocs.io/en/latest/kubernetes/install/)
This documentation includes detailed requirements, instructions and example
production DaemonSet files.

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##  Understanding Cilium components

Deploying a cluster with Cilium adds Pods to the `kube-system` namespace. To see
this list of Pods run:

```shell
kubectl get pods --namespace=kube-system
```

You'll see a list of Pods similar to this:

```console
NAME            DESIRED   CURRENT   READY     NODE-SELECTOR   AGE
cilium          1         1         1         <none>          2m
...
```

There are two main components to be aware of:

- One `cilium` Pod runs on each node in your cluster and enforces network policy
on the traffic to/from Pods on that node using Linux BPF.
- For production deployments, Cilium should leverage the key-value store cluster
(e.g., etcd) used by Kubernetes, which typically runs on the Kubernetes master nodes.
The [Cilium Kubernetes Installation Guide](https://cilium.readthedocs.io/en/latest/kubernetes/install/)
includes an example DaemonSet which can be customized to point to this key-value
store cluster. The simple ''all-in-one'' DaemonSet for minikube requires no such
configuration because it automatically connects to the minikube's etcd instance.

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Once your cluster is running, you can follow the
[Declare Network Policy](/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/declare-network-policy/)
to try out Kubernetes NetworkPolicy with Cilium.
Have fun, and if you have questions, contact us using the
[Cilium Slack Channel](https://cilium.herokuapp.com/).
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