Highly scalable container network interface operation to reduce startup overhead of functions

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processing device operatively coupled to the memory, the processing device to:
• in response to receiving a request to initiate a function, determine whether the function is to be reused or replicated;
• in response to determining that the function is to be reused, call a container network interface (CNI) plugin comprising a set of operations for reusing and replicating network configurations with a first operation of the set of operations to:
• create a network configuration for the function;
• and
• persist the network configuration in a database for reuse;
• and
• in response to determining that the function is to be replicated, call the CNI plugin with a second operation of the set of operations to:
• create the network configuration for the function;
• generate a template of the network configuration;
• and
• store the template in the database.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

• provide a container network interface (CNI) specification comprising a set of operations for use by a CNI plugin to reuse and replicate network configurations;
• and
• in response to receiving a request to initiate a function, call the CNI plugin with an operation of the set of operations, the operation selected based on whether the function is to be reused or replicated, and wherein the set of operations comprises:
• a first operation to decouple persisting of network configurations in a database from implementation of network configurations on a compute node;
• and
• a second operation to generate templates based on network configurations.