GKE Dataplane V2 requires CNI 1.1.0 compatibility
GKE Dataplane V2 clusters running version 1.35.1-gke.1516000 and later now default to CNI version 1.1.0. This change impacts users of self-managed Istio or unmanaged Cloud Service Mesh, who must manually upgrade their CSM CNI version to 1.23 to maintain compatibility. Failure to update may result in nodes failing to reach a Ready state and displaying NetworkPluginNotReady errors.
Enhancements (1) ›
- Google Kubernetes Engine
GKE Dataplane V2 clusters running version 1.35.1-gke.1516000 or later now use CNI version 1.1.0 in the CNI configuration files. This change requires downstream CNI plugins to be compatible with CNI version 1.1.0. Customers using self-managed open-source Istio or in-cluster unmanaged Cloud Service Mesh (CSM) variant must manually upgrade their CSM CNI version to 1.23 to ensure compatibility. If you use an incompatible CNI version, nodes might fail to reach a Ready state and might show NetworkPluginNotReady errors.
https://docs.cloud.google.com/release-notes#July_14_2026
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