Antrea vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller
Antrea
antrea.ioCisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller
cisco.comSide by side
| Figure | Antrea | Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Networking Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.4 (#9) |
| Purpose | Antrea implements the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy to provide pod networking and security for Kubernetes workloads. | Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller provides complete lifecycle management and automation for Cisco MDS and Cisco Nexus deployments across SAN, LAN, and IP fabric for media networking. |
| Support | The project directs users to its Kubernetes Slack channel, mailing lists, community meetings, and office hours. | Cisco Solution Support with Software Support Service is included in Cisco Data Center Networking subscriptions and legacy NDFC Smart Licenses, providing Cisco TAC support, knowledge-base access, and software downloads. |
Plans
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller
- Cisco DCN Advantage subscriptionPrice not published
- Cisco DCN Essentials subscriptionPrice not published
- Cisco DCN Premier subscriptionPrice not published
In their own words
Antrea
Antrea provides networking and security for Kubernetes workloads by implementing the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy. It uses Open vSwitch as its data plane, including for Kubernetes Service load balancing. Depending on infrastructure and use case, clusters can use VXLAN or Geneve overlays or run without an overlay. Antrea extends Kubernetes policy controls with tiers, rule priorities, cluster-level policies, and Node policies. It can federate clusters with a unified data plane, multi-cluster Services, and security posture. Diagnostics include command-line and UI tools for packet tracing, policy analysis, and flow inspection; metrics can be exported to Prometheus. Pod traffic encryption with IPsec or WireGuard is supported between Linux nodes, but not on Windows nodes. Deployment guides cover Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, and Google GKE, with GKE marked Alpha. The project requires a Kubernetes cluster and the Open vSwitch kernel module on every node, and its overview says it has been tested with Kubernetes 1.23 or later. Antrea is an open-source CNCF sandbox project under Apache License 2.0.
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.