website/content/en/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/enabling-endpointslices.md

reviewers	title	content_type
bowei freehan	Enabling EndpointSlices	task

This page provides an overview of enabling EndpointSlices in Kubernetes.

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Introduction

EndpointSlices provide a scalable and extensible alternative to Endpoints in Kubernetes. They build on top of the base of functionality provided by Endpoints and extend that in a scalable way. When Services have a large number (>100) of network endpoints, they will be split into multiple smaller EndpointSlice resources instead of a single large Endpoints resource.

Enabling EndpointSlices

{{< feature-state for_k8s_version="v1.17" state="beta" >}}

{{< note >}} Although EndpointSlices may eventually replace Endpoints, many Kubernetes components still rely on Endpoints. For now, enabling EndpointSlices should be seen as an addition to Endpoints in a cluster, not a replacement for them. {{< /note >}}

EndpointSlices are a beta feature. Both the API and the EndpointSlice {{< glossary_tooltip term_id="controller" >}} are enabled by default. {{< glossary_tooltip text="kube-proxy" term_id="kube-proxy" >}} uses Endpoints by default, not EndpointSlices.

For better scalability and performance, you can enable the EndpointSliceProxying feature gate on kube-proxy. That change switches the data source to be EndpointSlices, which reduces the amount of Kubernetes API traffic to and from kube-proxy.

Using EndpointSlices

With EndpointSlices fully enabled in your cluster, you should see corresponding EndpointSlice resources for each Endpoints resource. In addition to supporting existing Endpoints functionality, EndpointSlices include new bits of information such as topology. They will allow for greater scalability and extensibility of network endpoints in your cluster.

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• Read about EndpointSlices
• Read Connecting Applications with Services