---
title: Networking Mesos Tasks with Calico-CNI
---

## Prerequisites
This guide assumes you have a running Mesos Cluster whereby each Agent has
CNI enabled, and Calico services and binaries are installed. See [Adding Calico-CNI to an existing Mesos Cluster]({{site.baseurl}}/{{page.version}}/getting-started/mesos/installation/unified), or use the [Docker-Compose Demo Cluster]({{site.baseurl}}/{{page.version}}/getting-started/mesos/demos/cni/) to meet these requirements.

## Getting started

#### 1. Configure a Calico CNI Network

Before we can start launching tasks, we must first define our CNI network definition in the configured  `--network_cni_config_dir`:

```shell
cat <<EOF > $NETWORK_CNI_CONFIG_DIR/calico-net-1.conf
{
    "name": "calico-net-1",
    "type": "calico",
    "ipam": {
        "type": "calico-ipam"
    },
    "etcd_authority": "<etcd-ip:port>:2379"
}
EOF
```

> Note: If you have used the Docker-Compose demo to launch a cluster, this network configuration has already been created for you.

Mesos-Agent loads these network configurations into memory at launch, so you will need to restart the Agent process for your new configuration to take effect.

## 2. Launch a Calico-Networked Task
With your CNI network configured, you are now ready to launch tasks on it. There are several common methods you can use to do so.

#### a.) Using Mesos-Execute
To quickly test that Calico's network is functioning correctly, use `mesos-execute` and set `--networks` to launch a task on your Calico-CNI network:

```shell
mesos-execute --containerizer=mesos \
              --name=calico-cni-base-test \
              --master=172.17.0.4:5050 \
              --networks=calico-net-1 \
              --command="ifconfig"
```

The task will have been successfully networked by Calico if its return code is `0`. Additionally, the task's `stdout` log should show an IP address from the default Calico pool: `192.168.0.0/16`

#### b.) Using Marathon
In Marathon v1.2.0+, set the task's `ipAddress.networkName` to the name of the CNI network:

```shell
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:8080/v2/apps -d '
{
    "id": "calico-cni-marathon-test",
    "cmd": "ifconfig && sleep 1000",
    "cpus": 0.1,
    "mem": 64.0,
    "ipAddress": {
        "networkName": "calico-net-1",
        "labels": {
          "app": "test",
          "group": "development"
        }
    }
}'
```
Again, this task should show a Calico IP in the Marathon UI.

#### c.) Using Marathon - Unified Containerizer

With the release of Mesos-1.0, the Unified Containerizer can now launch Docker Images using the Mesos Containerizer. Calico can perform networking for these tasks.

> To make use of this feature, ensure you are using Mesos 1.0.0+ with agents [configured to use the Unified Containerizer](http://mesos.apache.org/documentation/latest/container-image/). Also ensure you are using Marathon v1.3.0+.

Our `app.json` looks similar to the one above, but with a few extra settings (and some more practical use):

```shell
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:8080/v2/apps -d '
{
    "id": "frontend",
    "container": {
      "type": "MESOS",
      "docker": {
        "image": "nginx"
      }
    },
    "cpus": 0.1,
    "mem": 64.0,
    "ipAddress": {
        "networkName": "calico-net-1",
        "labels": {
          "app": "frontend",
          "group": "production"
        }
    }
}'
```

The application will show its Calico IP when viewed using the Marathon UI, however it will be unreachable until Calico policy is configured to allow traffic.

## 3. Configuring Policy

Calico-CNI v1.4.1+ supports label-based policy for Mesos v1.0.0+.

The above Marathon Application Definition has assigned the labels `app=frontend` and `group=production` to the task's NetworkInfo. Calico-CNI automatically reads these labels and assign them to the endpoint, allowing us to enforce policy based on them.

The following YAML policy spec describes rules based on these labels:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: policy
metadata:
  name: frontend-policy
spec:
  order: 50
  selector: app == 'frontend'
  ingress:
  - action: allow
    protocol: tcp
    destination:
      ports:
      - 80
  egress:
  - action: allow
    protocol: tcp
    destination:
      selector: app == 'database'
      ports:
      - 6379
```

[This alpha version of calicoctl](https://github.com/tigera/libcalico-go/releases/tag/v1.0.0-alpha.1) can be used to register this policy spec:

```shell
calicoctl create -f frontend-policy.yaml
```

**Note: The above link to the new resource-based calicoctl is neither the permanent nor future home for the binary. Expect the golang source for calicoctl to move. The linked release may also be deleted.**

[calico-slack]: https://slack.projectcalico.org/
[marathon-ip-per-task-doc]: https://github.com/mesosphere/marathon/blob/v0.14.0/docs/ip-per-task.md
