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Requirements

Before installing Pixie to your Kubernetes cluster, please ensure that your system meets the requirements below.

Please refer to the install guides for information on how to install Pixie to your K8s cluster.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes v1.21+ is required.

The following tables list Kubernetes environments that have been tested with Pixie.

Production Environments

K8s EnvironmentSupport
AKSSupported
EKSSupported (includes support on Bottlerocket AMIs)
EKS FargateNot Supported (Fargate does not support eBPF)
GKESupported
GKE AutopilotNot Supported (Autopilot does not support eBPF)
OKESupported
OpenShiftSupported
kOpsSupported
Self-hostedGenerally supported, see requirements below including Linux kernel version.

Local Development Environments

For local development, we recommend using Minikube with a VM driver (kvm2 on Linux, hyperkit on Mac). Note that Kubernetes environments that run inside a container are not currently supported.

K8s EnvironmentSupport
Docker DesktopNot supported
Rancher DesktopSupported for containerd container runtime (not supported for dockerd runtime)
k0sSupported
k3sSupported
k3dNot Supported (k3d runs k3s clusters inside Docker container "nodes")
kindNot Supported (kind runs K8s clusters inside Docker container "nodes")
minikube with driver=kvm2Supported
minikube with driver=hyperkitSupported
minikube with driver=dockerNot Supported
minikube with driver=noneNot Supported

Operating System

Pixie runs on Linux nodes only. You can configure Pixie to deploy to a subset of the nodes in your cluster.

SupportVersion
LinuxSupportedv4.14+
WindowsNot SupportedNot in roadmap

Linux Distribution

The following table lists Linux distributions that are known to work with Pixie.

Version
CentOS7.3+
Debian10+
RedHat Enterprise Linux8+
Ubuntu18.04+

CPU

Pixie requires an x86-64 architecture.

Support
x86-64Supported
ARMNot Supported

Memory

Pixie requires the following memory per node:

MinimumNotes
1GiBTo accommodate application pods, we recommend using no more than 25% of the nodes' total memory for Pixie.

Pixie deploys its PEMs as a DaemonSet on your cluster in order to collect and store telemetry data. The default memory limit is 2Gi per PEM. The lowest recommended value is 1Gi per PEM. For more information on how to configure Pixie's memory usage, see the Tuning Memory Usage page.

Network Traffic

Pixie's Vizier module sends outgoing HTTPS/2 requests to Pixie's Cloud on port 443.

Your cluster's telemetry data flows through Pixie's Cloud via a reverse proxy as encrypted traffic without any persistence. This allows users to access data without being in the same VPC/network as the cluster. Pixie offers end-to-end encryption for telemetry data in flight.

Pod Security Context

Pixie interacts with the Linux kernel to install BPF programs to collect telemetry data. In order to install BPF programs, Pixie vizier-pem-* pods require privileged access.

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