NetBrain R12.1 Adds Native Kubernetes Support

by Nigel Hickey Apr 16, 2025

As modern infrastructure becomes increasingly containerized, Kubernetes has emerged as the de facto standard for orchestrating cloud-native applications. But while Kubernetes streamlines deployment and scaling, it also introduces significant complexity to network operations. That complexity—dynamic networking, ephemeral services, multi-cluster routing—often leaves NetOps and SecOps teams struggling for visibility, context, and control.

With NetBrain Next-Gen R12.1, that changes.

NetBrain now offers native support for Kubernetes, bringing no-code automation, observability, and intelligent troubleshooting into containerized environments—just as it has long done for traditional and hybrid-cloud networks.

Why Kubernetes Needs Better Network Automation

While Kubernetes excels at agility and scale, it also can create new challenges for operational teams:

• Networking is abstracted, making it hard to trace service-to-service traffic.
• Issues like ingress failures or policy misconfigurations often lack clear diagnostics.
• Changes in pods, nodes, or service configurations happen frequently, introducing drift and compliance risks.
• Legacy tooling lacks the ability to observe or automate within Kubernetes clusters.

NetBrain’s approach doesn’t just surface the Kubernetes topology—it enables actionable insights and automated resolution through its platform’s core strengths: Dynamic Mapping, Intent-Based Automation, and the Golden Engineering Studio.

What’s New: Native Kubernetes Support in R12.1

Kubernetes support in R12.1 introduces compatibility with Kubernetes v1.xx APIs, as part of a strategic multi-phase rollout to expand container network automation and observability.

Discovery & Visibility

• Auto-discovery of Kubernetes clusters, nodes, pods, services, and ingress resources.
• Full integration with NetBrain’s Digital Twin, enabling hybrid network views that include both container-based and traditional infrastructure.
• Hierarchical topology views to visualize the relationships between Kubernetes objects and external devices (e.g., routers, firewalls, F5s).

Clarifying CNI and Community Tool Compatibility
NetBrain does not directly integrate with specific CNIs like Flannel, Weave, or Cilium, nor with kernel-level tools like eBPF. Instead, NetBrain retrieves and interprets Kubernetes network behavior via the control plane. When tools like Flannel or Cilium configure overlays such as VXLAN or routing technologies like eBGP, NetBrain discovers and models those behaviors through the Kubernetes API. This allows us to provide deep observability into Kubernetes network paths and policies—without requiring direct integration with underlying data plane technologies.

Topology & Path Awareness

NetBrain visualizes Kubernetes networking as part of its Digital Twin, capturing how services and workloads connect across the cluster. This includes:

• Live topology for:

  • Pod ↔ Pod
  • Pod ↔ Node
  • Service ↔ Pod
  • Ingress ↔ Service

It also models VXLAN overlays used by CNIs such as Flannel, as observed through the Kubernetes control plane.

• End-to-end path calculations between:

  • Pods on the same or different nodes
  • Pods to services
  • External clients to cluster services via NodePort or LoadBalancer

This visibility enables teams that troubleshoot application communication issues by tracing live traffic paths across the container infrastructure.

Dynamic Data Views

To support rapid diagnostics, NetBrain provides Kubernetes-specific data tables and real-time overlays:

• NodePort tables
• Virtual route and VXLAN peer tables
• Ingress rule mappings
• Backend service-pod associations

These insights are embedded in contextual maps and dashboards, offering immediate access to health, routing, and service status.

No-Code Automation & Intent-Based Checks

NetBrain’s Golden Engineering Studio and Intent-based Automation features are fully extendable to Kubernetes environments:

• Automatically detect configuration drift across pods, services, and ingress rules.

• Build diagnostic automations for service availability, route changes, and network policy validation.

• Use AI Bot to investigate service issues through natural language queries tied to automation workflows.

Use Cases in Focus: Kubernetes Observability

NetBrain empowers both NetOps and SecOps teams with real-time observability and automated validation:

Kubernetes Configuration Monitoring

• Continuously observe changes to critical objects like pods, services, ingress, and nodes.

• Alert and document any unexpected or unauthorized changes via Golden Config checks.

Health Checks Across the Stack

• Service Health: Alert if a service is not responding as expected.

• Backend Pod Health: Monitor the pods supporting services and alert on failures.

• Node Health: Validate the infrastructure hosting container workloads.

Routing & Performance Validation

• Calculate and visualize pod-to-pod and service-to-service communication paths.

• Verify routing logic and network path integrity within the Kubernetes overlay.

SecOps Spotlight: CVE Detection for Ingress-NGINX Controllers

As part of growing Kubernetes capabilities, NetBrain provides a CVE detection automation package (available via Customer Support) focused on high-risk Ingress-nginx vulnerabilities. This further complements our R12.1 Kubernetes support.

• Detects CVEs such as CVE-2025-24513, CVE-2025-1974, and others using live API data.

• Visual dashboards show which ingress controllers are affected and where they’re deployed.

• Creates exportable ADT-based reports to support cross-team response and documentation.

Example dashboard: Kubernetes CVE Security Advisory

Kubernetes Just Got a Lot Easier to Manage

NetBrain R12.1 marks a pivotal step in network automation: unifying container-based environments with the same automation, observability, and compliance framework used across physical and cloud networks. With native Kubernetes support now live, operational teams can:

• Visualize hybrid app paths across pods, services, and traditional devices

• Detect and auto-remediate config drift in real time

• Monitor service health and infrastructure availability with no-code automation

• Maintain compliance against evolving security threats like Kubernetes CVEs

Start Automating Kubernetes Operations Today

Whether you’re just starting to scale Kubernetes or managing a sprawling multi-cluster environment, NetBrain can simplify your operations with visibility, automation, and control—all without writing a single line of code.

Schedule a Demo Today!