# kube-vip/kube-vip

Kubernetes Control Plane Virtual IP and Load-Balancer

Repository: https://github.com/kube-vip/kube-vip
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/kube-vip
Homepage: https://kube-vip.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: vip, kube-vip, load-balancer, kubernetes-cluster, raspberry-pi, edge, kubernetes, control-plane, service-loadbalancer, bgp, kubernetes-services, egress
Last push: 2026-08-26T10:54:28+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 97, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2404, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 23, "gap_med": 30.0, "n_releases_24m": 23}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2941, forks 318 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:31.038002+00:00)

## What it is
kube-vip is a self-contained Go-based virtual IP and load-balancer for Kubernetes, providing high availability for the control plane and LoadBalancer services without external hardware. It supports ARP (Layer 2), BGP (Layer 3), routing table, and WireGuard modes, with IPv4/IPv6 and egress capabilities.

## Use cases
- build a highly-available Kubernetes control plane on bare metal
- provide LoadBalancer service IPs without a cloud provider
- run HA Kubernetes on Raspberry Pi or edge devices
- advertise Kubernetes services via BGP to my network
- give pods an egress IP through a load balancer service
- set up a virtual IP for kubeadm clusters
- replace a hardware load balancer for my homelab cluster

## When to choose
- running Kubernetes on bare metal, edge, or virtualized environments without a cloud load balancer
- you need control plane HA with kubeadm static pods or K3s daemonsets
- you want Layer 2 ARP or Layer 3 BGP service load balancing with IPv4/IPv6

## When to avoid
- you are on a managed cloud Kubernetes with a native load balancer integration
- you need full Layer 7 (HTTP) load balancing features rather than VIP management
- your network does not permit gratuitous ARP or BGP advertisements

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: networking, load-testing, deployment, microservices, cloud
- domain: networking, infrastructure-as-code, self-hosted
- platform: go, self-hosted
- tags: virtual-ip, bgp, arp, control-plane-ha, service-loadbalancer, bare-metal, edge, egress, wireguard, leader-election, kubernetes, containers, linux, docker, arm

## Member repositories
- kube-vip/kube-vip (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:31.038002+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:32:57.072739+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kube-vip/kube-vip (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:31.038002+00:00, sha 584110c0455a)
  - homepage: https://kube-vip.io (fetched 2026-08-29T09:48:11.437587+00:00, sha 73b3a56e70e8)
  - site_page: https://kube-vip.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T09:48:11.446662+00:00, sha 0c6ceefe223a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.