Installing the Kubernetes network

After the Kubernetes master has been initialized with kubeadm, the next step is the installation of the Pod network. We have covered Kubernetes networking options in Chapter 5, Kubernetes Networking, which explains in detail which Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins are supported for hybrid Windows/Linux clusters. For this on-premises cluster deployment, we will use the Flannel network with a host-gw backend (a win-bridge CNI plugin on Windows nodes). Remember that you can use this approach only if there is Layer 2 (L2) connectivity (no Layer 3 (L3) routing) between the nodes. In general, a host-gw backend is preferable as it is in a stable feature state, whereas an overlay backend is still in an alpha feature state for Windows nodes.