"Flannel Network Overlay for Kubernetes"

"Flannel Network Overlay for Kubernetes" is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to mastering container networking in modern Kubernetes environments. The book begins with a robust overview of Kubernetes networking architecture, comparing overlay and underlay models, and exploring the broader ecosystem of Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins. Readers are equipped with best practices for service discovery, inter-pod communications, multitenancy, and scalability concerns critical to real-world cluster success.

A deep technical focus is placed on Flannel itself, meticulously covering its origins, architectural principles, supported backends, and the intricacies of subnet allocation, encapsulation, and key-value store integration. Step-by-step deployment instructions detail everything from cluster preparation to backend selection, secure operations, upgrades, cloud integration, and advanced performance tuning. Through practical examples, troubleshooting guides, and observability strategies, operators learn to design, implement, and optimize resilient overlay networks for enterprise and cloud-native platforms.

The book also provides extensive coverage of security and compliance challenges, regulatory considerations, and defense-in-depth strategies tailored for Kubernetes overlays. Comparative analyses evaluate Flannel against other leading CNIs such as Calico and Cilium, while a forward-looking perspective discusses innovations like eBPF, edge deployments, and sustainable networking. Whether you’re building multi-region clusters or integrating with managed cloud services, this book is an invaluable resource for engineers, architects, and DevOps teams seeking to deploy, secure, and scale Kubernetes networks with confidence.