Services inaccessible on port 32131 when using userspace networking

[elondres-mim]

General information

I've got a deployment + service that works ok on crc+openshift local running on Ubuntu 24.04, but the same setup on macOS results in an inaccessible service. I notice that CRC has modified my /etc/hosts file to point api.crc.testing to 127.0.0.1, which is unlike what it does on Ubuntu, maybe this is related.

Operating System

macOS

Hypervisor

KVM

Did you run crc setup before crc start?

yes

Running on

Laptop

Steps to reproduce

Install crc, eval crc oc-env, apply a deployment and service. Try to access the port listed in oc get services via any network client, notice there is an error message.

CRC version

CRC version: 2.46.0+8f40e8
OpenShift version: 4.17.10
MicroShift version: 4.17.10

CRC status

CRC VM:          Running
OpenShift:       Running (v4.17.10)
RAM Usage:       29.51GB of 68.11GB
Disk Usage:      6.842GB of 10.95GB (Inside the CRC VM)
Cache Usage:     78.31GB
Cache Directory: /Users/user/.crc/cache

CRC config

- consent-telemetry                     : yes
- disk-size                             : 64

Host Operating System

ProductName:		macOS
ProductVersion:		15.2
BuildVersion:		24C101

Expected behavior

Services are accessible via the port listed in oc get services, as they are on Linux hosts

Actual behavior

connect to 127.0.0.1 port <port listed in oc get services> failed: Connection refused

CRC Logs

Additional context

No response

[elondres-mim]

For demonstration, this is the official kubernetes.io service modified to use a LoadBalancer:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nginx
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: proxy
spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx:stable
    ports:
      - containerPort: 80
        name: http-web-svc

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx-service
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: proxy
  ports:
  - name: name-of-service-port
    protocol: TCP
    port: 80
    targetPort: http-web-svc

I saved this to example.yaml and ran it with oc apply -f example.yaml.

Then after a minute or so, oc get pods shows:

nginx                              1/1     Running   0          3m11s

and oc get services shows:

nginx-service       LoadBalancer   10.217.5.127   <pending>                              80:32131/TCP

then curl -v api.crc.testing:32131 prints out:

* Host api.crc.testing:32131 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 127.0.0.1
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:32131...
* connect to 127.0.0.1 port 32131 from 127.0.0.1 port 51181 failed: Connection refused
* Failed to connect to api.crc.testing port 32131 after 2 ms: Could not connect to server
* closing connection #0
curl: (7) Failed to connect to api.crc.testing port 32131 after 2 ms: Could not connect to server

Just on macOS. On Ubuntu, that last command would succeed though notably with a different IP than 127.0.0.1.

[gbraad]

MacOS uses Userspace networking mode, which binds to localhost. Ubuntu does not do this yet, but will with the next release. This is to allow use while connected on a route-all VPN connection for Work-from-home users.

At the moment, we only forward application traffic via the web port. Haven't touched this part in a while, so will have to ask @anjannath or @praveenkumar.

It is not recommended, but the behavior can be changed:

$ crc config view
- network-mode                          : user

and change this value.

---

The only ports we expose/rebind are:

https://github.com/crc-org/crc/blob/ab8cf0bebe03dfca59600973979b0ffe6cb51991/pkg/crc/machine/vsock.go#L77-L85

---

Reaching the node IP would in an actual cluster might not be possible.

[praveenkumar]

Instead of LoadBalancer service type can you use cluster type and then create route on that service? This route should be accessible from the host.

[elondres-mim]

Instead of LoadBalancer service type can you use cluster type and then create route on that service? This route should be accessible from the host.

This worked, thanks.

Is there no way to get LoadBalancer to work as-is in OpenShift Local then?

[praveenkumar]

Is there no way to get LoadBalancer to work as-is in OpenShift Local then?

OpenShift Local doesn't run any external loadbalancer so it will not work until you deploy manually something like https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.17/hosted_control_planes/hcp-manage/hcp-manage-non-bm.html#hcp-bm-ingress_hcp-manage-non-bm one . Please close the issue if it is resolved for you.