Multus CNI on Debian 13

Multus CNI is a Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin that allows pods to be connected to multiple networks simultaneously. It acts as a meta-plugin that works alongside existing CNI plugins such as Calico, Flannel, Cilium, or bridge-based CNIs.

Multus CNI is widely used in advanced networking scenarios including Network Function Virtualization (NFV), telecom workloads, service chaining, multi-homed applications, and high-performance network configurations. It enables fine-grained control over pod networking by attaching secondary interfaces using custom network definitions.

Features of Multus CNI:

• Attach multiple network interfaces to Kubernetes pods.
• Works alongside primary CNI plugins without disruption.
• Enables advanced networking use cases such as NFV and SR-IOV.
• Uses NetworkAttachmentDefinition CRDs for flexible network configuration.
• Supports bridge, macvlan, ipvlan, SR-IOV, and custom CNIs.
• Designed for cloud-native, edge, and telecom workloads.

To verify Multus CNI installation and status, use the following steps:

 Check Multus pods: $ kubectl get pods -n kube-system | grep multus

Describe Multus pod:
$ kubectl describe pod -n kube-system kube-multus-ds-

Verify CNI binary:
$ ls /opt/cni/bin | grep multus

Disclaimer: Multus CNI is provided under open-source licenses and requires a functional Kubernetes cluster. Users are responsible for configuring primary CNI plugins, network attachment definitions, and security policies. Proper testing is recommended before deploying Multus CNI in production environments, especially for multi-network and high-performance workloads.