Antrea vs HPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer
Antrea
antrea.ioHPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer
arubanetworking.hpe.comSide by side
| Figure | Antrea | HPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 6 |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Networking Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.3 (#11) |
| Integrations | The documentation lists integrations and guides for Prometheus, Octant, Multus, and Fluentd. | Supported integration packs include HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit, HPE iLO Amplifier, ODIM, HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Prism, Pensando PSM, VMware NSX-T, VMware vSphere and vSAN, and VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager. |
| Purpose | Antrea implements the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy to provide pod networking and security for Kubernetes workloads. | Fabric Composer is an intelligent, API-based, software-defined orchestration solution for day-to-day operations across rack-scale compute and storage infrastructure. |
Plans
HPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer
- Device Management Service Tier 3 Switch 1y Subscription E-STUPrice not published
- Device Management Service Tier 3 Switch 3y Subscription E-STUPrice not published
- Device Management Service Tier 3 Switch 5y Subscription E-STUPrice not published
- Device Management Service Tier 4 Switch 1y Subscription E-STUPrice not published
- Device Management Service Tier 4 Switch 3y Subscription E-STUPrice not published
- Device Management Service Tier 4 Switch 5y Subscription E-STUPrice 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.
HPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer
HPE Aruba Networking Fabric Composer is a paid, API-based orchestration solution for day-to-day operations across rack-scale compute and storage infrastructure. It provides unified network and security management for HPE Aruba Networking CX platforms, including switch configurations and firewall policies. Guided workflows automate discovery, leaf-spine deployment, VSX, BGP or OSPF underlay, BGP EVPN overlay, VLAN groups, VRF, EVPN, firmware services, and micro-segmentation. Version 7.4.0 supports up to 500 switches. Integration packs include NetEdit, HPE iLO Amplifier, ODIM, HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Prism, Pensando PSM, and VMware environments. Fabric Composer centrally orchestrates segmentation, stateless ACLs, and stateful distributed-firewall policies, with separate NetOps and SecOps roles for Aruba CX 10K switches. It is delivered as an ISO or virtual-machine OVA for virtual or physical hosts, running as one instance or a highly available three-node cluster. Audit logs record actions, users, roles, endpoints, and session details.