Container Networking Essentials
Container Networking Essentials Containers run in shared environments, so knowing how they talk to each other and to the outside world helps avoid surprises. Start with the basics: each container gets a network interface, an IP, and a way to reach other services. Most projects use a container runtime plus a networking layer called a CNI (Container Network Interface) to manage these connections. Key concepts to know Namespaces and isolation keep traffic separate between containers and processes. IP addressing and a CNI plugin decide how containers receive addresses and routes. Service discovery and DNS give stable names to dynamic containers, so apps can find each other. Port mapping and NAT let internal services reach the outside world, and vice versa. Pod networking in Kubernetes assigns each pod its own IP and defines how pods talk within the cluster. Overlay networks add network paths across hosts, useful in multi-host setups. Network policies control which workloads may talk to others and when, improving security. Observability helps you see traffic flow with simple metrics and logs. Practical takeaways ...