Compiling and Installing the Kube-OVN FastPath Kernel Module for Enhanced Container Networking

The FastPath module bypasses Netfilter processing inside containers and on the host, reducing CPU usage, latency, and increasing throughput. This document details how to manually compile the FastPath module.

Download the source code

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/kubeovn/kube-ovn.git

Install dependencies (CentOS example)

yum install -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r) gcc elfutils-libelf-devel

Compile the module

For 3.x kernels:

cd kube-ovn/fastpath

make all

For 4.x kernels:

cd kube-ovn/fastpath/4.18

cp ../Makefile .

make all

Install the kernel module

Copy kube_ovn_fastpath.ko to each target node and run:

insmod kube_ovn_fastpath.ko

Verify the installation with:

# dmesg

[619631.323788] init_module,kube_ovn_fastpath_local_out

[619631.323798] init_module,kube_ovn_fastpath_post_routing

[619631.323800] init_module,kube_ovn_fastpath_pre_routing

[619631.323801] init_module,kube_ovn_fastpath_local_in

To remove the module, execute:

rmmod kube_ovn_fastpath.ko

Note: the module does not load automatically after a reboot; create appropriate startup scripts if needed.

For more features and the latest documentation, visit the Kube-OVN Chinese docs at https://kubeovn.github.io/docs/v1.10.x/ .