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An empty listing of kube-proxy iptables chains can be normal after a Cilium migration if Cilium is configured to replace kube-proxy and is handling Kubernetes Service traffic through its eBPF datapath. The empty listing by itself does not show whether networking is healthy. First confirm the replacement configuration and Cilium agent status, then check the affected Service’s endpoints and Cilium’s service/backend state.

Why can Kubernetes iptables be empty after a Cilium migration?

In a kube-proxy-free setup, Cilium can replace kube-proxy and handle Kubernetes Service load balancing in its eBPF datapath. In that configuration, the absence of kube-proxy’s KUBE chains is not, on its own, evidence of a failure. Cilium’s kube-proxy-free guide describes this mode; its troubleshooting guide recommends validating the kubeProxyReplacement setting and checking Cilium’s service and backend state.

The key distinction is whether replacement was intended and is working. An empty iptables listing cannot answer that, so diagnose the configuration and the specific traffic path rather than treating the listing as the verdict.

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How to troubleshoot in a useful order

  1. Confirm that kube-proxy replacement is enabled

    Check the Cilium configuration, including kubeProxyReplacement, and compare it with the mode you intended to deploy. If replacement was not intended, an empty KUBE chain listing needs a different explanation. Use the Cilium kube-proxy-free documentation for the relevant configuration context.

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  2. Verify agent health and migration completion

    Check Cilium agent status and whether the migration’s final configuration rollout completed. Cilium’s migration guide describes applying final values, restarting the Cilium DaemonSet, waiting for status, and then removing the previous network plugin. A partial rollout can make host-level observations difficult to interpret.

  3. Check the affected Service’s endpoints

    For a failing Service, first determine whether Kubernetes reports matching endpoints. If none are present, the immediate problem is distinct from a Cilium datapath issue: investigate why the Service has no backends. The official Kubernetes Service debugging guide uses missing endpoints as a key troubleshooting branch.

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  4. Inspect Cilium’s Service and backend state

    If the Service has endpoints, inspect Cilium’s reported Service and backend state, as recommended in the Cilium troubleshooting documentation. This helps distinguish a Service that lacks usable backends from one whose Kubernetes state looks populated but whose datapath behavior is still wrong.

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  5. Check node IP selection on multi-interface nodes

    Compare each node’s Kubernetes InternalIP with the address and device that Cilium should use. Cilium’s kube-proxy-free guide warns that kubelet’s --node-ip must be correct in multi-interface environments; a wrong node IP or device mapping can interfere with kube-proxy replacement.

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  6. Separate old plugin residue from current datapath health

    A previous network plugin may leave iptables rules or interfaces behind. Cilium’s migration guide says such resources are cleaned up when the node next reboots. Consider rebooting only through your cluster’s maintenance and availability procedures; cleanup is not a substitute for checking Cilium and Service state.

Which traffic path is actually failing?

The next diagnostic branch depends on the symptom. Establish whether the problem involves ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer, pod-to-pod traffic, DNS, or API-server access. These paths do not all test the same part of the network stack, so “networking is broken” is too broad to guide a fix. Also identify the Kubernetes distribution and version, Cilium version and Helm values, migration method, and whether kube-proxy was removed before choosing a distribution-specific remedy.

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When should you suspect the migration itself?

Migration residue and active Service handling are separate questions. Cilium’s migration guide notes that previous network plugins may leave resources such as iptables rules and interfaces, which are cleaned up on the node’s next reboot. That explains why old artifacts can persist; it does not establish whether Cilium currently handles a given Service correctly. Evaluate residue only after checking the replacement configuration, agent health, and affected Service state.

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