pia-credentials and pia-custom-ovpn were gluetun's PIA creds; gluetun is retired and the node
tunnel uses host-side Ansible vault creds (docs/07), so these cluster Secrets are unused. Remove
them from the kustomization + delete the encrypted files (recoverable from git history). Flux
will prune the Secrets from the vpn-egress namespace.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
The policy is wired into the kustomization, reconciled by Flux, and conformance-green; gluetun
is retired. Update the header banner + bottom checklist to reflect that. Comment-only — the
CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy spec is unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
The in-cluster Gluetun gateway is retired; VPN egress is now a node-level host
OpenVPN split-tunnel (Ansible role vpn_egress_gateway) steered by a Cilium
Egress Gateway policy with a host nftables kill-switch (ADR-0015). Credentials
moved host-side to the Ansible vault. Update docs/comments only:
- platform/vpn-egress/README.md: rewrite for ADR-0015 (live + conformance-green);
drop the resolved "option 1 not viable with Gluetun" finding to a brief history note.
- platform/kustomization.yaml: Phase 3 comment -> node tunnel + Cilium steering.
- platform/kyverno/.../require-egress-class-label.yaml: ADR-0013 -> ADR-0015 steering.
- schemas/servicedefinition.schema.json: egress=vpn description -> node tunnel + Cilium.
- clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml: reframe PIA_REGION / CLUSTER_POD_CIDR WHY comments
to ADR-0015 (Cilium excludedCIDRs); both keys retained (still referenced/documented).
- platform/vpn-egress/namespace.yaml: no privileged gateway pod under ADR-0015.
- pia-credentials.sops.yaml / pia-custom-ovpn.sops.yaml: comment headers only note
they are now UNUSED (creds host-side), retained pending cleanup; payloads untouched.
No runtime manifest behavior, alert exprs, kustomization resources, or SOPS payloads
changed. No spec-repo edits.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Prepared on a feature branch for operator review — NOT merged/pushed (retiring the running
fallback needs explicit approval). The node-level host OpenVPN tunnel steered by Cilium Egress
Gateway is validated end-to-end and gated by green conformance (egress-class + vpn-killswitch).
A Gluetun pod's tun0 was never steerable by Cilium egress gateway (the reason ADR-0015 moved the
tunnel to the node), so gluetun serves no steering role. The now-unused pia-* SOPS secrets are
retained pending a separate cleanup (creds are host-side in the Ansible vault).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
The CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy authored in 38fcfad was inadvertently removed from main when
feature/vpn-egress-gateway-role (which carried a git-rm of the duplicated file) was merged.
The kustomization now references it, so restore the file. Content identical to 38fcfad.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Host OpenVPN split-tunnel on k3s-dev-3 validated 2026-08-24: tun0 up, VPN egress
158.173.241.36, node default unchanged (WAN), scoped nft kill-switch active. Wire the
CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy into the runtime kustomization so egress-class=vpn pods steer
to the node tun0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Add platform/vpn-egress/egress-steering.yaml — a CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy
that steers homelab.keithjackson.dev/egress-class=vpn pods out a gateway
node's host tun0 split-tunnel interface, per ADR-0015 (node-level tunnel +
Cilium Egress Gateway). Honors all four ADR-0015 invariants: only vpn-class
pods are selected (default/internet + node stay on the local/WAN path),
RFC1918 + cluster ranges are excludedCIDRs so only public internet is
tunneled and tun0 is never a default route, and the host nftables kill-switch
(Ansible) fails vpn-class CLOSED while internet-class fails OPEN.
Interface contract shared verbatim with the parallel Ansible host-tunnel role:
node label homelab.keithjackson.dev/egress-gateway=true, interface tun0,
client label homelab.keithjackson.dev/egress-class=vpn.
Cilium Egress Gateway prerequisites confirmed enabled (egressGateway.enabled,
bpf.masquerade, kubeProxyReplacement all true, [parity]) — no HelmRelease change.
Intentionally NOT added to platform/vpn-egress/kustomization.yaml: the datapath
stays out of the runtime until the live tunnel exists and the egress-class /
vpn-killswitch conformance tests pass (README rule; DoD). Gluetun is retained
as the validated fallback until then. Serves R-NET-05/06/07.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Author the internet/vpn egress-class fixture pods for the egress-class + vpn-killswitch
conformance tests. Record the datapath finding: ADR-0013's preferred steering (Cilium
egress gateway -> gluetun tun0) is NOT viable because gluetun must run hostNetwork to
put tun0 on the node, and gluetun then redirects the NODE's default route through the
VPN (breaks k3s/etcd). Escalated: remaining viable path is option 2 (gateway-pod
routing). No steering datapath committed until the mechanism is chosen + validated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Once the tunnel redirects the pod default route via tun0, the pod's response to the
kubelet's httpGet liveness probe egresses the tunnel and never returns → probe times
out → pod restarts ~every 2min despite the tunnel being up (PIA egress IP confirmed).
Switch to a local wget exec probe (stays on lo).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Operator provides a new .ovpn with an IP remote (gluetun's custom parser rejects
hostnames), so drop the resolve-remote initContainer/VPN_ENDPOINT_IP attempts and
mount the .ovpn directly (key pia.ovpn). Bump image to latest v3.41.3.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
gluetun's custom parser rejects the .ovpn's 'remote sweden.privacy.network' (needs
an IP). sweden.privacy.network LB pool = 158.173.241.{22,34,55,112,239}; pin .22
(verified to handshake) via VPN_ENDPOINT_IP/PORT while the .ovpn supplies cipher/CA.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Operator's kubectl create secret keyed the file by its name
(sweden-aes-128-cbc-udp-dns.ovpn); mount item now references that key -> pia.ovpn.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
PIA-provider server selection is flaky here (random dead IPs); the operator's .ovpn
uses sweden.privacy.network (load-balanced, reliable). Switch to custom mode
(VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=custom, OPENVPN_CUSTOM_CONFIG=/config/pia.ovpn), mount the
pia-custom-ovpn Secret, keep creds + kill-switch + tun-mtu 1300. Drops PIA-provider
server list/updater and native PF (Phase-6 concern). Pending the operator-provisioned
pia-custom-ovpn Secret (not merged until it exists).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
gluetun silently ignored PIA_ENCRYPTION_PRESET (renamed) and defaulted to strong
(RSA-4096) the whole time. The correct v3.x var is
PRIVATE_INTERNET_ACCESS_OPENVPN_ENCRYPTION_PRESET=normal → RSA-2048/AES-128-CBC/1198,
the smaller handshake that fits the 1450 pod MTU.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
RSA-4096 strong handshake wouldn't hold over the pod's 1450 MTU (Cilium VXLAN);
MTU tuning is exhausted (no --tls-mtu in OpenVPN 2.6, PIA rejects --fragment).
Operator downloaded the lower-encryption PIA config (port 1198, RSA-2048,
AES-128-CBC, SHA1) = gluetun's 'normal' preset. Smaller handshake fits 1450.
Dropped the strong-handshake band-aid flags; kept OPENVPN_MTU 1300 for the data channel.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
RSA-4096 strong-preset handshake is marginal over the 1450 pod MTU (Cilium VXLAN).
--mtu-disc no clears DF so oversized control packets fragment through instead of
being silently dropped. Last MTU-path lever (OpenVPN 2.6 has no --tls-mtu).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
OpenVPN 2.6.16 rejects --tls-mtu (not a real option) and PIA doesn't support
--fragment, so control-channel packets can't be shrunk. Keep --hand-window 120 to
give the RSA-4096 handshake more time over a lossy/marginal path, plus tun-mtu 1300.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
RSA-4096 strong-preset handshake is marginal over the pod's 1450 MTU (Cilium VXLAN).
Lower tun-mtu to 1300 and add --tls-mtu 1200 (smaller control packets) + --hand-window
120 (more time to complete the handshake over a lossy path). Empirical test of the
MTU-tuning path (operator's choice over Cilium native routing).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Operator's working config is sweden.privacy.network:1197 with RSA-4096, AES-256-CBC,
SHA256 = PIA's 'strong' preset. gluetun defaults PIA to 'normal' (AES-128-GCM), a
cipher mismatch against the 1197 (strong) endpoint, so the handshake never completed
(silent after UDP link). PIA_ENCRYPTION_PRESET=strong matches it and selects 1197.
Reverts the 8080 port red herring.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
UPDATER_PERIOD only refreshes AFTER the tunnel is ready (chicken-and-egg: can't
connect with stale servers), and gluetun's bundled PIA Sweden list is retired
46.246.x (current is 158.173.x). Add an `update-servers` initContainer running
`gluetun update -providers "private internet access"` into a shared /gluetun
emptyDir the main container reads, so it dials current servers. UPDATER_PERIOD
raised to 720h (docs-compliant) for ongoing in-pod refresh.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
CORRECTION: the connection failures were gluetun dialing RETIRED PIA IPs (46.246.x
= dead → timeouts, which I mis-read as a network block). A fresh PIA .ovpn connects
from the same host, and PIA's current SE Stockholm servers (158.173.x) are reachable.
Cilium was independently cleared (default-allow, host-fw off, Hubble FORWARDED).
Fix: UPDATER_PERIOD=24h so gluetun fetches PIA's current servers; keep
OPENVPN_MTU/MSSFIX=1350 for the real Cilium-VXLAN 1450 pod MTU (data channel);
PIA default UDP port. Re-enable vpn-egress. Full correction in DECISIONS-LOG.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Decisive diagnosis: OpenVPN's outbound init packets are 14 bytes with zero
replies (so MTU was never the blocker), pod UDP egress is healthy (NTP replies),
but TCP 501/443 to PIA IPs time out while Google/Cloudflare are OPEN — across many
PIA servers. This 192.168.2.x WiFi segment blackholes PIA's IP ranges (and
intercepts DNS). Not code-fixable. Reverted the port/MTU red-herring env to PIA
defaults; disabled vpn-egress pending an operator network fix (move to the
unfiltered 192.168.1.x LAN, or unblock PIA on the router). Full trace in
DECISIONS-LOG.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Actual root cause (operator-directed layered MTU check): Cilium runs VXLAN
(routing-mode tunnel) so pods get MTU 1450 (1500-50 encap) while node, hypervisor,
and the Google Fiber WAN are all 1500. OpenVPN's ~1500-byte handshake packets
exceed 1450 and are dropped (PMTUD broken). The ports were a red herring.
Fix: OPENVPN_MTU=1350 + OPENVPN_MSSFIX=1350 so encrypted packets (~1402) fit under
1450. Keeps OpenVPN + VXLAN unchanged. Re-enable vpn-egress. Full layered trace
(pod/node/host) in DECISIONS-LOG.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Port 53 also got no PIA replies: this network transparently intercepts outbound
:53, so dig works but OpenVPN-over-53 is swallowed. An NTP/123 probe from the host
returned fine, proving arbitrary non-53 UDP works bidirectionally (so it's
port-specific: 1197 conflict + 53 DNS-intercept, not a UDP block). Move to 8080
(community-verified for PIA, non-DNS, non-1197).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Wiring the port via "${PIA_OPENVPN_PORT}" made Flux/kustomize emit an unquoted
53 (int) after substitution, which k8s rejects for an env value ("expected
string, got 53"). Same gotcha as the Longhorn numberOfReplicas fix. Hardcode the
quoted string; cluster-var removed with a NOTE explaining why.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Operator identified the block: the home network NATs its own OpenVPN server on
WAN:1197, colliding with the cluster's outbound PIA-on-1197 flow (port-specific,
not a general UDP block — UDP/53 worked in tcpdump). PIA accepts OpenVPN on
53/1194/1197/1198/8080/9201; chose 53 (empirically proven to traverse this net).
- cluster-vars: add PIA_OPENVPN_PORT="53"
- gluetun: OPENVPN_ENDPOINT_PORT=${PIA_OPENVPN_PORT}
- re-enable vpn-egress; DECISIONS-LOG resolution noted
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
Gluetun cannot do PIA over WireGuard (upstream unsupported; live "provider name
is not valid for Wireguard"). Operator approved OpenVPN-UDP and ADR-0013 was
amended in the spec. This aligns the impl:
- platform/kustomization.yaml: re-enable `- vpn-egress` (Phase 3, OpenVPN-UDP)
- gluetun-gateway.yaml: clean stale WireGuard comments (header, image note,
VPN_TYPE/creds comments); config already VPN_TYPE=openvpn
- README.md: PIA-over-OpenVPN, status=enabled, steering iface wg0 -> tun0
- DECISIONS-LOG.md: disk/drive incident (k3s -> NVMe; failing Seagate) + Phase-3
OpenVPN resolution
Stale WireGuard comments inside the operator's encrypted pia-credentials.sops.yaml
header left untouched (editing breaks the SOPS MAC; cosmetic).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
The deployed v3.40.0 rejected PIA+WireGuard ('private internet access is not valid for
Wireguard'). Verified v3.41.0 accepts the PIA+WireGuard provider/protocol (passes config
validation; ADR-0013's model holds — v3.40.0 was just too old). Bump the pin.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <[email protected]>
gluetun-gateway.yaml referenced ${PIA_REGION}/${CLUSTER_POD_CIDR} but they were never defined
in cluster-vars, and the README didn't say where to set them. Add both to
clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml (ConfigMap data:, string values, Flux postBuild substitution).
CLUSTER_POD_CIDR is 10.0.0.0/8 (Cilium cluster-pool — pods get 10.x, confirmed live), NOT the
k3s 10.42.0.0/16 I'd assumed. README now names the file + format + per-env override + PF-region note.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <[email protected]>
Per ADR-0013: platform/vpn-egress/ = a single shared Gluetun gateway (PIA over WireGuard,
built-in kill-switch FIREWALL=on, native port forwarding), namespace (non-app, NET_ADMIN +
/dev/net/tun), control-API Service, and a pre-wired (commented) pia-credentials SOPS line.
Defined the PIA secret location (platform/vpn-egress, keys username/password → OPENVPN_USER/
OPENVPN_PASSWORD) and updated the SOPS template accordingly.
NOT wired into platform/kustomization.yaml (Phase 3, author-first) — deploy needs PIA creds +
validation of the egress-steering mechanism (Cilium Egress Gateway → the Gluetun node's wg0;
documented in README with options + a fail-closed rationale, deliberately NOT committed as an
untested CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy). WireGuard chosen (UDP, protocol != TCP); PIA supports it on
all regions and the secret stays username/password.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <[email protected]>
