metallb controller
FIPS 140-3NetworkingMetalLB controller component manages IP address allocations for LoadBalancer services on bare metal Kubernetes clusters.
MetalLB controller component manages IP address allocations for LoadBalancer services on bare metal Kubernetes clusters.
Pull the latest version of this image from the Ghost registry. Pulling requires authentication — generate a token and run docker login first (see Authentication below).
The Ghost catalog is public to browse, but pulling images requires an account. Generate a pull token below (or from your Account → Tokens page) — you'll get a ready-to-paste docker login command, then docker pull works.
The username is generated automatically (it looks like robot$<project>+<auto-id>, not the name you typed) and is included in the docker login command above. The secret is shown only once when you create the token.
All Ghost images are signed with cosign. Verifying the signature before deployment ensures the image has not been tampered with.
Install cosign via brew install cosign or download from the Sigstore releases page.
Reference this image in your Dockerfile as a base layer:
This is a vendor-built FIPS-enabled image: its cryptography runs on FIPS 140-3 validated modules configured by the upstream vendor. You can inspect the image metadata:
| Standard | FIPS 140-3 |
| Crypto module | Vendor-configured validated modules |
| Cryptography | Validated modules only |
| Use case | Government, regulated industries, compliance workloads |
All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.
For example:
registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/<repository>:<tag><your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>For the examples, you must first use docker login registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.
The MetalLB controller component runs as a Deployment in your cluster and is responsible for managing IP address allocations for LoadBalancer services from configured pools.
Run the following command to deploy MetalLB with the controller component. Replace <your-namespace> with your
organization's namespace and <tag> with the image variant you want to run.
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/metallb/metallb/main/config/manifests/metallb-native.yaml
Or for BGP mode with FRR support:
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/metallb/metallb/main/config/manifests/metallb-frr.yaml
If you prefer to use the Ghost hardened image directly in your deployment, replace the controller image in your manifests:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: controller
namespace: metallb-system
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: metallb
component: controller
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: metallb
component: controller
spec:
nodeSelector:
kubernetes.io/os: linux
containers:
- name: controller
image: registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/metallb-controller:<tag>
args:
- --port=7472
- --log-level=info
ports:
- name: metrics
containerPort: 7472
securityContext:
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
capabilities:
drop:
- ALL
readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
resources:
requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 100Mi
Ghost hardened images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.
Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either
directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:
Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a
multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:
FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These
variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure
cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.
To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.
To migrate your application to a Ghost hardened image, you must update your Kubernetes manifests or Helm charts to use the new image. The following table outlines common migration considerations:
| Item | Migration note |
|---|---|
| Base image | Replace your controller image with the Ghost hardened image in your Deployment or Helm values. |
| Capabilities | The controller does not require elevated capabilities. Ensure capabilities are dropped for security. |
| Nonroot user | By default, the hardened controller image runs as a nonroot user. Verify that necessary files and directories are accessible to that user. |
| Service account | The controller requires appropriate RBAC permissions to watch and update services, endpoints, and MetalLB custom resources. |
| TLS certificates | Ghost hardened images contain standard TLS certificates by default. There is no need to install TLS certificates. |
| Volume mounts | Ensure any mounted configuration files or directories are accessible to the nonroot user running the controller. |
| Entry point | Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Inspect entry points for Ghost hardened images and update your manifests if necessary. |
| No shell | The hardened controller image doesn't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy artifacts to the runtime stage. |
The following steps outline the general migration process:
Find hardened images for your deployment.
Identify which MetalLB images you are using (controller, speaker) and select the corresponding Ghost hardened image variants. A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.
Update your image references.
Update the image references in your Kubernetes manifests, Helm values, or deployment tools to point to the Docker Hardened Images.
Review security contexts.
Ensure your pod security policies and security contexts are compatible with the hardened image's security requirements.
Test in a non-production environment.
Deploy to a test cluster first to verify that the hardened image works correctly with your IP pool configuration and service definitions.
Update documentation and runbooks.
Document the new image versions and any associated configuration changes in your deployment documentation.
The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.
The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Ghost hardened images is to use Docker Debug to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.
By default image variants intended for runtime, run as a nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to that user. You may need to adjust volume mount permissions or change directory ownership so the controller running as a nonroot user can access them.
To view the user for an image variant, select the Tags tab for this repository.
The MetalLB controller requires appropriate Kubernetes RBAC permissions to function properly. Ensure your service account has permissions to:
If RBAC permissions are missing, the controller will fail to allocate IP addresses or update service status.
If the controller cannot allocate IP addresses to services:
kubectl describe service to check for allocation errors in eventskubectl logs for detailed error messagesVerify that your MetalLB configuration resources are valid:
kubectl get ipaddresspool -n metallb-system
kubectl get l2advertisement -n metallb-system
kubectl get bgpadvertisement -n metallb-system
kubectl describe ipaddresspool -n metallb-system
By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell
commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers
with no shell. If you need to run diagnostic commands, create a temporary debug container in your cluster to investigate
issues.
To see if a shell is available in an image variant and which one, select the Tags tab for this repository.
Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images.
To view the Entrypoint or CMD defined for an image variant, select the Tags tab for this repository, select a tag, and then select the Specifications tab.