feat(cilium): export Plex's pre-SNAT client address via Hubble, scoped to tcp/32400
The requirement is log visibility only -- which address connected to Plex.
Plex's own log cannot show it. Every LoadBalancer Service here is
externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster, so the node holding the VIP's L2 lease SNATs
the client before forwarding to the backend pod. Measured: Plex had logged
3,214 requests from 10.0.1.x (lease holder k3s-prod-3's own address, Cilium
identity 1 = reserved:host) and ZERO from any 192.168.x address, ever. No
X-Forwarded-For either -- it serves raw tcp/32400, not HTTP via the Gateway.
Nothing on the router does this; there is no hairpin NAT. It is Cilium.
The address is not lost, only unrecorded. Cilium observes the flow at ingress,
BEFORE its own translation, so Hubble already has it:
192.168.2.133 -> 10.0.0.135 real LAN client -> the Plex pod
10.0.1.78 -> 10.0.0.135 same traffic post-SNAT, what Plex sees
What was missing is RETENTION: 4095/4095 flows at ~303/s is about thirteen
seconds of history, metrics disabled, no exporter configured.
So enable the static exporter, port-scoped, to the agent's stdout -- Alloy
already tails every pod into Loki, so this needs no new mount, no rotation
handling and no Alloy change.
{namespace="kube-system", app="cilium"} |= "32400"
Scoped BY PORT, not namespace, on evidence: --to-namespace plex returned only
the post-SNAT flows; the record carrying the real client address did not match
it. A namespace filter would drop exactly what this exists to capture.
Rejected, with reasons: eTP:Local is incompatible with cilium 1.20's L2
announcer per upstream docs for this version ("may cause service IPs to be
announced on nodes without pods causing traffic drops") -- and the VIP is on
prod-3 while the pod is on prod-1, so it would black-hole 32400 immediately;
making it safe costs Plex its ability to reschedule. DSR: routing-mode is
vxlan, not native/geneve, and DSR returns bypass the ingress node, breaking
the router's stateful NAT on the remote path.
Also corrects the repo's own record: 2026-10-03 says the SNAT lands in
192.168.0.0/16 (the node's LAN address). It is 10.0.1.x, the cilium_host
inside the pod CIDR -- which is why LanNetworksBandwidth can never separate
local from remote while eTP is Cluster.
UNVERIFIED and stated in the handoff: nothing is reconciled; `filePath: stdout`
is taken from a verbatim upstream sentence but not confirmed against 1.20.1
source (a wrong notation is a silent no-op, with the file+Alloy fallback
documented); the port FlowFilter has no upstream example; and this change
ROLLS CILIUM -- prod-3 announces the Gateway, PiHole DNS and Plex VIPs, so a
lease move during the rollout could briefly interrupt LAN DNS.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
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@@ -101,6 +101,60 @@ spec:
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enabled: true
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ui:
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enabled: true # exposure gated behind oauth2-proxy forward-auth later (ADR-0014)
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# --- STATIC FLOW EXPORT: persist the PRE-SNAT client address for Plex (2026-10-04) ---
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# [parity] MUST equal Ansible: hubble.export.static.{enabled,filePath,allowList}
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#
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# WHY THIS EXISTS. Plex's own log cannot show who connected. Every LoadBalancer Service in
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# this cluster is `externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster`, so the node holding the L2 lease for the
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# VIP SNATs the client before forwarding to the backend pod. Measured 2026-10-04: Plex had
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# logged 3,214 requests from `10.0.1.x` (the lease holder k3s-prod-3's own address, Cilium
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# identity 1 = reserved:host) and ZERO from any 192.168.x address, ever. No X-Forwarded-For
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# either -- it serves raw tcp/32400, not HTTP through the Gateway.
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#
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# THE ADDRESS IS NOT LOST, ONLY UNRECORDED. Cilium observes the flow at ingress, BEFORE its
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# own translation, so Hubble already has the true source. Measured on the lease holder:
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# 192.168.2.133 -> 10.0.0.135 (real LAN client -> the Plex pod)
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# 10.0.1.78 -> 10.0.0.135 (the same traffic, post-SNAT -- what Plex sees)
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# What was missing is RETENTION: the ring buffer was 4095/4095 flows at ~303 flows/s, i.e.
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# about THIRTEEN SECONDS of history, with hubble metrics disabled and no exporter configured.
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#
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# WHY NOT FIX THE SNAT INSTEAD. `externalTrafficPolicy: Local` would preserve the address in
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# Plex's own log, but cilium 1.20's L2 announcer is explicitly incompatible with it -- upstream
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# docs for this exact version: "incompatible with the externalTrafficPolicy: Local on services
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# as it may cause service IPs to be announced on nodes without pods causing traffic drops",
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# and "L2 announcements isn't currently aware of this setting". Live proof that this is not
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# theoretical: the VIP is announced by k3s-prod-3 while the pod runs on k3s-prod-1, so the
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# flip would black-hole tcp/32400 immediately. Making it safe would mean pinning BOTH the pod
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# and the announcement to one node and giving up Plex's ability to reschedule -- a real
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# availability loss to buy a log field. (It is the same trap platform/crafty/service-l4.yaml
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# documents from an 8-day Minecraft outage.) DSR was also rejected: routing-mode here is
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# vxlan, not native/geneve, and DSR returns bypass the ingress node, which breaks the SOHO
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# router's stateful NAT on the remote path.
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#
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# `filePath: stdout` RATHER THAN A FILE, deliberately. Grafana Alloy already runs as a
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# DaemonSet tailing every pod's logs into Loki (platform/monitoring/alloy.yaml), so stdout
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# reaches Loki with NO new hostPath mount, no file-rotation handling and no Alloy change.
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# Upstream documents it: "To get Hubble flows directly exported to the logs instead of written
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# to a rotated file, `stdout` can be defined as `hubble-export-file-path`." fileMaxSizeMb /
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# fileMaxBackups are therefore left at chart defaults and do not apply.
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# Query: {namespace="kube-system", app="cilium"} |= "32400"
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#
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# SCOPED BY PORT, NOT BY NAMESPACE -- and that is a measured decision, not a preference. A
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# `--to-namespace plex` query returned ONLY the post-SNAT flows; the flow carrying the real
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# client address did NOT match it, because at the point of observation the destination
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# identity is not yet resolved to the plex pod. Filtering by namespace would therefore drop
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# exactly the record this change exists to capture. Port it is.
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#
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# Both directions are listed so the return path is captured too. Volume is small (a few
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# hundred to a few thousand lines a day); if it ever becomes noisy, narrow it with
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# `fieldMask` rather than by removing a filter.
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export:
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static:
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enabled: true
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filePath: stdout
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allowList:
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- '{"destination_port":["32400"]}'
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- '{"source_port":["32400"]}'
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# --- L2 announcement for the ingress VIP on the flat LAN (docs/09, OQ-1 resolved) ---
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# [parity] MUST equal Ansible: l2announcements.enabled: true. IP pool +
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# CiliumL2AnnouncementPolicy (reserved 10.73.0.240-.250) authored by WS-NET in Phase 2.
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@@ -38,6 +38,18 @@ hubble:
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enabled: true
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ui:
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enabled: true
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# [parity] static flow export -> cilium-agent stdout -> Alloy -> Loki. Records the PRE-SNAT
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# client address for Plex's raw tcp/32400, which Plex's own log cannot show (every LB Service here
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# is externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster, so the VIP lease holder SNATs the client). Scoped BY PORT,
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# not namespace: the flow carrying the real client IP does not match a namespace filter. Full
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# rationale, measurements and the rejected alternatives are in helmrelease.yaml.
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export:
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static:
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enabled: true
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filePath: stdout
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allowList:
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- '{"destination_port":["32400"]}'
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- '{"source_port":["32400"]}'
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# [parity] ingress VIP announcement on the flat LAN (docs/09, OQ-1)
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l2announcements:
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enabled: true
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