MetalLB 0.13: Bare Metal Load Balancing Evolution

Introduction

MetalLB 0.13, released on September 18, 2022, continues to evolve bare metal load balancing for Kubernetes. This release improves BGP support, enhances L2 mode capabilities, and delivers better integration with Kubernetes networking for on-premises and edge deployments.

For teams running Kubernetes outside the “managed load balancer” comfort zone, MetalLB is often the difference between “Service type=LoadBalancer works” and “we’re hand-rolling NodePorts again.” The improvements in 0.13 are especially relevant when you need predictable failover and clean operations (BGP sessions, L2 announcements, and the inevitable troubleshooting moments on real networks).

BGP Improvements

• BGP peer management enhancements simplify configuration and monitoring of BGP sessions.
• Route advertisement improvements provide better control over IP address distribution.
• Multi-protocol support enables BGP for both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing.
• Failover enhancements provide automatic failover during BGP peer failures.

L2 Mode Enhancements

1. ARP/NDP improvements provide more reliable address resolution in L2 mode.
2. Leader election enhancements ensure reliable failover for L2 announcements.
3. Network interface support expansion enables more deployment scenarios.
4. Performance optimizations reduce latency for service IP assignment.

Kubernetes Integration

• Service integration improvements provide better alignment with Kubernetes Service resources.
• IP pool management enhancements enable more flexible IP address allocation.
• Multi-cluster support enables sharing IP pools across cluster boundaries.
• Metrics expansion provides detailed metrics for load balancer operations.

Operational Features

• Configuration improvements simplify setup and management of MetalLB.
• Monitoring enhancements provide better visibility into load balancer health.
• Troubleshooting tools improve debugging of BGP and L2 issues.
• Documentation expansion includes comprehensive guides for common scenarios.

Getting Started

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/metallb/metallb/v0.13.0/config/manifests/metallb-native.yaml

Configure IP pool:

apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: IPAddressPool
metadata:
  name: default-pool
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  addresses:
  - 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.200

Summary

MetalLB 0.13 continues to evolve as the standard solution for load balancing in bare metal Kubernetes deployments.