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Overview

Cilium mode (bootstrap-full.sh) provides a lightweight cluster with Cilium CNI and Hubble observability, without the full Istio + ArgoCD stack. It’s designed for CNI testing and network policy validation.
Cold start: ~200s | Warm start: Not supported

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Key Features

  • Cilium + Hubble - Full CNI with network observability
  • 1 worker node - Control-plane + 1 worker
  • No warm cluster - Always performs full bootstrap
  • No Istio - CNI testing without service mesh
  • No ArgoCD - Manual deployment only

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Command Usage

# Direct invocation
bootstrap-full

# Or via bootstrap --full
bootstrap --full
The bootstrap --full flag delegates to bootstrap-full.sh automatically.

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Architecture

Cilium mode uses kind-config-lite.yaml with:
  • 1 control-plane node
  • 1 worker node (reduced from full-bootstrap’s 2 workers)
  • Cilium CNI with disableDefaultCNI: true
kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
name: microservice-infra
networking:
  disableDefaultCNI: true  # Cilium will be installed
nodes:
  - role: control-plane
    extraPortMappings:
      - containerPort: 30300  # Grafana
        hostPort: 30300
      - containerPort: 30081  # Traefik
        hostPort: 30081
      - containerPort: 31235  # Hubble UI
        hostPort: 31235
      - containerPort: 30090  # Prometheus
        hostPort: 30090
      - containerPort: 30093  # Alertmanager
        hostPort: 30093
  - role: worker

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4-Phase Execution

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Phase 1: Preparation (Parallel)

timed_step "phase1-prep" parallel_run \
  "kind-cluster:_step_kind_cluster" \
  "gen-manifests:bash ${SCRIPT_DIR}/gen-manifests.sh" \
  "otel-build:bash ${SCRIPT_DIR}/load-otel-collector-image.sh build" \
  "image-preload:_step_image_preload"
  • Create kind cluster
  • Generate manifests
  • Build OTel collector image (not cached)
  • Pull container images

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Phase 2: Network Setup (Sequential)

timed_step "phase2-network" _step_network_setup
1

Load Cilium image

Load quay.io/cilium/cilium:v${CILIUM_VERSION} into kind
2

Load OTel image

Load custom OTel collector image
3

Background image load

Start loading remaining images in background
4

Install Cilium

Run cilium-install.sh (overlaps with image loading)
5

Wait for images

Ensure all images loaded before Phase 3
6

PostgreSQL early start

Start PostgreSQL to overlap its startup time

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Phase 3: Deploy Services (Parallel)

timed_step "phase3-deploy" parallel_run \
  "garage:_step_garage_deploy" \
  "observability:_step_observability" \
  "traefik:_step_traefik" \
  "cloudflared:_step_cloudflared"
  • garage - S3-compatible storage
  • observability - Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Tempo, OTel
  • traefik - Ingress controller with auth patch
  • cloudflared - Cloudflare tunnel (optional)

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Phase 4: Wait for Pods

Wait for critical pods in parallel:
  • PostgreSQL
  • Grafana
  • Prometheus

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Network Features

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Cilium CNI

Cilium provides:
  • eBPF-based networking
  • Network policies
  • Load balancing
  • Service mesh capabilities (not used in this mode)

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Hubble Observability

Hubble UI available at http://localhost:31235 provides:
  • Network flow visualization
  • Service dependency mapping
  • Network policy validation
  • Traffic metrics

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Exposed Services

ServiceURLCredentials
Grafanahttp://localhost:30300admin/admin
Prometheushttp://localhost:30090-
Alertmanagerhttp://localhost:30093-
Hubble UIhttp://localhost:31235-
Traefikhttp://localhost:30081-

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Differences from Dev-Fast

CNI

Cilium + Hubble vs kindnetd

Nodes

1 worker vs single control-plane

Warm Cluster

Not supported vs hash-based caching

Speed

~200s vs ~120s

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Differences from Full-Bootstrap

Istio

No Istio vs ambient mode

ArgoCD

No ArgoCD vs automated GitOps

Workers

1 worker vs 2 workers

Speed

~200s vs ~250s

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Use Cases

CNI Testing

Validate Cilium network policies and features

Network Debugging

Use Hubble to visualize traffic flows

Middle Ground

More realistic than dev-fast, faster than full

Policy Validation

Test network security policies

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Next Steps

After bootstrap: 
cd microservice-app && tilt up
Access Hubble UI to monitor network traffic: 
open http://localhost:31235

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Comparison

See the Bootstrap Mode Comparison to choose the right mode for your needs.

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