Technical specifications
This page describes the technical specifications for NGINX Gateway Fabric.
The information included covers version compatibility between NGINX Gateway Fabric and the Gateway API, as well as other NGINX products.
The following table lists the software versions NGINX Gateway Fabric supports. Only the latest patch release for each minor version is shown.
| NGINX Gateway Fabric | Gateway API | Kubernetes | NGINX OSS | NGINX Plus | NGINX Agent | F5 WAF for NGINX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edge | 1.5.1 | 1.31+ | 1.30.0 | R36 | v3.9.1 | 5.12.1 |
| 2.6.0 | 1.5.1 | 1.31+ | 1.30.0 | R36 | v3.9.1 | 5.12.1 |
| 2.5.1 | 1.5.1 | 1.31+ | 1.29.7 | R36 | v3.8.0 | — |
| 2.4.2 | 1.4.1 | 1.25+ | 1.29.5 | R36 | v3.7.1 | — |
| 2.3.0 | 1.4.1 | 1.25+ | 1.29.3 | R36 | v3.6.0 | — |
| 2.2.2 | 1.3.0 | 1.25+ | 1.29.2 | R35 | v3.6.0 | — |
| 2.1.4 | 1.3.0 | 1.25+ | 1.29.1 | R35 | v3.3.1 | — |
| 2.0.2 | 1.3.0 | 1.25+ | 1.28.0 | R34 | v3.0.1 | — |
| 1.6.2 | 1.2.1 | 1.25+ | 1.27.4 | R33 | — | — |
| 1.5.1 | 1.2.0 | 1.25+ | 1.27.2 | R33 | — | — |
| 1.4.0 | 1.1.0 | 1.25+ | 1.27.1 | R32 | — | — |
| 1.3.0 | 1.1.0 | 1.25+ | 1.27.0 | R32 | — | — |
| 1.2.0 | 1.0.0 | 1.23+ | 1.25.4 | R31 | — | — |
The following table lists the OpenShift versions and Operator versions compatible with NGINX Gateway Fabric.
| NGINX Gateway Fabric | Operator | Preferred Gateway API | Compatible Gateway API | OCP with Preferred GWAPI | Supported OCP Versions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.6.0 | v1.4.x | v1.5.x | v1.2.1-v1.5.x | — | 4.19 - 4.21 |
| 2.5.x | v1.3.x | v1.5.x | v1.2.1-v1.5.x | — | 4.19 - 4.21 |
| 2.4.x | v1.2.x | v1.4.x | v1.2.1-v1.4.x | 4.20 & 4.21 | 4.19 - 4.21 |
| 2.2.x | v1.0.x | v1.3.0 | v1.2.1 | — | 4.19 |
NGINX Gateway Fabric is conformant with the Gateway API version installed on supported OCP versions. The "OCP with Preferred GWAPI" column shows which OCP versions ship with the preferred Gateway API version. On OCP versions with an older Gateway API installed, NGF remains fully conformant with that installed version, but features from newer Gateway API versions that NGF supports will be unavailable.
NGINX Gateway Fabric provides container images for the control plane and the NGINX data plane. All images are available for amd64 and arm64 architectures unless otherwise noted.
The control plane image contains the NGINX Gateway Fabric binary.
| Name | Base image | Image | Architectures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default image | scratch |
ghcr.io/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric:2.6.0 |
amd64 arm64 |
| UBI-based image | redhat/ubi9-minimal |
ghcr.io/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric:2.6.0-ubi |
amd64 arm64 |
All images include NGINX 1.30.0.
| Name | Base image | Image | Architectures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default image | nginx:1.30.0-alpine-otel |
ghcr.io/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx:2.6.0 |
amd64 arm64 |
| UBI-based image | redhat/ubi9-minimal |
ghcr.io/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx:2.6.0-ubi |
amd64 arm64 |
NGINX Plus images are available through the F5 Container registry private-registry.nginx.com. For setup instructions and authentication details, see Install NGINX Gateway Fabric with NGINX Plus.
All images include NGINX Plus R36.
| Name | Base image | Image | Architectures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default image | alpine:3.22 |
private-registry.nginx.com/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx-plus:2.6.0 |
amd64 arm64 |
| UBI-based image | redhat/ubi9-minimal |
private-registry.nginx.com/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx-plus:2.6.0-ubi |
amd64 arm64 |
| Default image with F5 WAF for NGINX | alpine:3.22 |
private-registry.nginx.com/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx-plus-f5waf:2.6.0 |
amd64 |
| UBI-based image with F5 WAF for NGINX | redhat/ubi9-minimal |
private-registry.nginx.com/nginx-gateway-fabric/nginx-plus-f5waf:2.6.0-ubi |
amd64 |
When F5 WAF for NGINX is enabled, two additional sidecar containers are deployed alongside the NGINX container. These images are available from the F5 Container registry.
| Name | Image | Architectures |
|---|---|---|
| WAF Enforcer | private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:5.12.1 |
amd64 |
| WAF Config Manager | private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:5.12.1 |
amd64 |
For more information on WAF integration, see F5 WAF for NGINX overview.
You can build custom NGINX Gateway Fabric images from source. For instructions, see Build NGINX Gateway Fabric.
The following tables summarizes which Gateway API resources NGINX Gateway Fabric supports and to which level.
You can read more information by viewing the Gateway API compatibility topic, or by selecting the resource name to go directly to the full details.
ImportantYou can view the Milestone Roadmap in the NGINX Gateway Fabric GitHub project to see what API resources will be supported in upcoming releases.
| Resource | Core Support Level | Extended Support Level | Implementation-Specific Support Level | API Version | API Release Channel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GatewayClass | Supported | Not supported | Supported | v1 | Standard |
| Gateway | Supported | Partially supported | Not supported | v1 | Standard |
| HTTPRoute | Supported | Partially supported | Not supported | v1 | Standard |
| GRPCRoute | Supported | Partially supported | Not supported | v1 | Standard |
| ReferenceGrant | Supported | N/A | Not supported | v1 | Standard |
| TLSRoute | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | v1 | Standard |
| TCPRoute | Supported | Supported | Not supported | v1alpha2 | Experimental |
| UDPRoute | Supported | Supported | Not supported | v1alpha2 | Experimental |
| BackendTLSPolicy | Partially supported | Supported | Partially supported | v1 | Standard |
| Custom policies | N/A | N/A | Supported | N/A | N/A |