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Ingress

Ingress provides HTTP and HTTPS routing into a Kubernetes cluster.

It allows external traffic to reach services based on rules such as:

  • hostnames
  • URL paths

Ingress Traffic Flow

flowchart TD Internet["Internet"] Ingress["Ingress Controller"] ServiceA["Service: API"] ServiceB["Service: Frontend"] PodA["API Pod"] PodB["Frontend Pod"] Internet --> Ingress Ingress --> ServiceA Ingress --> ServiceB ServiceA --> PodA ServiceB --> PodB

Why Ingress Exists

Without ingress, applications would typically be exposed using NodePort or LoadBalancer services.

Ingress allows:

  • centralized routing
  • SSL termination
  • virtual hosting

Ingress Components

Ingress networking involves two main parts.

Component Purpose
Ingress Resource Defines routing rules
Ingress Controller Implements the rules

Common controllers include:

  • NGINX Ingress
  • Traefik
  • HAProxy

Example Routing

Ingress can route traffic like this:

example.com/api → API service example.com/app → Frontend service


Key Takeaway

Ingress provides layer 7 routing for HTTP and HTTPS traffic entering the cluster.