--- title: MicroK8s gets powerful add-ons description: MicroK8s, the lightweight and reliable Kubernetes from Canonical gets even more powerful with exciting new Cilium and Helm add-ons. url: https://canonical.com/blog/microk8s-gets-powerful-add-ons?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [anaqvi](https://canonical.com/blog/author/anaqvi "More about anaqvi") on 23 August 2019 # MicroK8s gets powerful add-ons [Add-ons](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/add-ons) [kubernetes](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/kubernetes) [MicroK8s](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/microk8s) Share on:* [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.canonical.com/blog/microk8s-gets-powerful-add-ons "Share on Facebook") * [Twitter](https://twitter.com/share?text=MicroK8s%20gets%20powerful%20add-ons&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/microk8s-gets-powerful-add-ons&hashtags=ubuntu "Share on Twitter") * [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/microk8s-gets-powerful-add-ons&title=MicroK8s%20gets%20powerful%20add-ons "Share on LinkedIn") --- --- ## Newsletter signup Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy). Sign up We are excited to announce new Cilium and Helm add-ons, coming to MicroK8s! These add-ons add even more power to your Kubernetes environment built on MicroK8s. The Cilium CNI plugin brings enhanced networking features, including Kubernetes NetworkPolicy support, to MicroK8s. You’ll also get direct CLI access to Cilium within MicroK8s using the *microk8s.cilium* wrapper. If you do not already have a version of cilium installed you can alias microk8s.cilium to cilium using the following command: *snap alias microk8s.cilium cilium* Helm, the package manager for Kubernetes will allow even easier management of your MicroK8s environment. How hard is it going to be to use these add-ons in MicroK8s? For those of you familiar with MicroK8s, you guessed it, a simple one-liner! – **Cilium:** *microk8s.enable cilium* – **Helm:**  *microk8s.enable helm* Kudos to the Cilium team for making it happen – shout out to [Joe Stringer](https://github.com/joestringer) for submitting the PR for these add-ons! #### **About Cilium** Cilium is open source software that provides and secures the network and API connectivity between application services deployed using Linux container management platforms. Running Cilium in MicroK8s will enable powerful pod-to-pod connectivity management and service load balancing between pods. You will be able to reach specific pods in your K8s cluster as well as define network security policies for connectivity. Using the Kubernetes Services abstraction you can balance loads of network traffic between pods. For more details, check out the doc on [Cilium](https://docs.cilium.io/en/v1.6/kubernetes/intro/#introduction). **About Helm** Using Helm within Microk8s allows you to manage, update, share and rollback Kubernetes applications. Helm is maintained by the [**CNCF**](https://www.cncf.io/) – in collaboration with Microsoft, Google, Bitnami and the Helm contributor community. For more details, check out [Helm](https://helm.sh/). ## **What’s next?** We are incredibly proud of our community and the contributions you make! Canonical looks forward to keep working together and building the best experiences to empower innovation and the open-source ecosystem. We will continue working on improving the future with exciting additions to MicroK8s. If you’re working on an exciting project and have feature requests or suggestions please contribute or reach out to us on [Github](https://github.com/ubuntu/microk8s), [Kubernetes forum](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/tags/microk8s), [Slack](https://slack.k8s.io/#Microk8s) (#microk8s channel) or tag us [@canonical](https://twitter.com/Canonical), [@ubuntu](https://twitter.com/Ubuntu) on Twitter (#MicroK8s). #### Related posts --- [Jake Nabasny](https://canonical.com/blog/author/slapcat) 17 March 2026 ### [How to set up a micro lab: four principles for a reliable homelab](https://canonical.com/blog/how-to-set-up-a-reliable-homelab) MicroCloud Ubuntu tech blog After over a decade of running a homelab, I have learned a few difficult lessons. Although it begins as a “lab,” you inevitably end up with something you want to keep. If a service goes down for an extended period of time or you lose data, it can feel catastrophic. 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