Configure Ingress for load balancing

Learn how to configure Ingress settings for load balancing (layer-7)

Ingress is the name used to describe an API object that manages external access to the services in a cluster. Typically, an Ingress exposes HTTP and HTTPS routes from outside the cluster to services running within the cluster.

The object is called an Ingress because it acts as a gateway for inbound traffic. The Ingress receives inbound requests and routes them according to the rules you defined for the Ingress resource as part of your cluster configuration.

This tutorial demonstrates how to expose an application running on the Konvoy cluster by configuring an Ingress for load balancing (layer-7).

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must:

Have access to a Linux, macOS, or Windows computer with a supported operating system version.
Have a properly deployed and running cluster.

Expose a pod using an Ingress (L7)

Deploy two web application Pods on your Kubernetes cluster by running the following command:

CODE

kubectl run --restart=Never --image hashicorp/http-echo --labels app=http-echo-1 --port 80 http-echo-1 -- -listen=:80 --text="Hello from http-echo-1"
kubectl run --restart=Never --image hashicorp/http-echo --labels app=http-echo-2 --port 80 http-echo-2 -- -listen=:80 --text="Hello from http-echo-2"

Expose the Pods with a service type of ClusterIP by running the following commands:

CODE

kubectl expose pod http-echo-1 --port 80 --target-port 80 --name "http-echo-1"
kubectl expose pod http-echo-2 --port 80 --target-port 80 --name "http-echo-2"

Create the Ingress to expose the application to the outside world by running the following command:

CODE

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kommander-traefik
    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.tls: "true"
  generation: 7
  name: echo
  namespace: default
spec:
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          service:
            name: http-echo-1
            port:
              number: 80
        path: /echo1
        pathType: Prefix
  - http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          service:
            name: http-echo-2
            port:
              number: 80
        path: /echo2
        pathType: Prefix
EOF

The configuration settings in this example illustrates:

setting the kind to Ingress.
setting the service.name to be exposed as each backend.

Run the following command to get the URL of the load balancer created on AWS for the Traefik service:

CODE

kubectl get svc kommander-traefik -n kommander

This command displays the internal and external IP addresses for the exposed service. (Note that IP addresses and host names are for illustrative purposes. Always use the information from your own cluster)

CODE

NAME                 TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP                                                             PORT(S)                                     AGE
kommander-traefik    LoadBalancer   10.0.24.215   abf2e5bda6ca811e982140acb7ee21b7-37522315.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com   80:31169/TCP,443:32297/TCP,8080:31923/TCP   4h22m

Validate that you can access the web application Pods by running the following commands: (Note that IP addresses and host names are for illustrative purposes. Always use the information from your own cluster)
CODE
```
curl -k https://abf2e5bda6ca811e982140acb7ee21b7-37522315.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/echo1
curl -k https://abf2e5bda6ca811e982140acb7ee21b7-37522315.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/echo2
```