difference VIP vs KubePrism (or other)

[Simon-CR]

Greetings

So I've configured the control node to use that documented feature:
https://www.talos.dev/v1.8/talos-guides/network/vip/

I'd like to understand the differences between using that option over using something like kubeprism or if they overlap ?

thanks!

[smira]

These features are different and they do not overlap.

KubePrism is only about internal (in-cluster) access to the Kubernetes API. It doesn't solve external access to the cluster. Example: worker node kubelet accessing Kubernetes API.

Talos controlplane VIP works for both in-cluster and external access. Example: a user doing kubectl commands.

We would recommend to always have KubePrism enabled, as it automatically falls back to external controlplane endpoint if direct access to control plane machines is not available. But if KubePrism is up, it provides more robust in-cluster access, ensuring cluster health.

For external access, one still needs a controlplane endpoint, which might be implemented multiple ways, and Talos VIP is one of them.