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Kubernetes Services and Networking

Services provide stable network access to dynamic sets of pods. Since pod IPs change on restart/scaling, Services offer persistent DNS names and IP addresses for reliable communication.

Service Types

Type Scope Use Case
ClusterIP (default) Internal cluster only Inter-service communication
NodePort External via node IP:port (30000-32767) Development/testing
LoadBalancer External via cloud LB Production external access
ExternalName CNAME to external DNS Connect to external services

Service YAML

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-app-svc
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  selector:
    app: my-app
  ports:
  - port: 80           # service port
    targetPort: 8080    # container port
    protocol: TCP

DNS Resolution

Format: <service-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local

Example: app1.dev.svc.cluster.local

Headless Service

clusterIP: None - no load balancing, DNS returns individual pod IPs. Required for StatefulSets:

<pod-name>.<service-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local

ExternalName Service

Maps to external DNS: 

spec:
  type: ExternalName
  externalName: mydb.mysql.database.azure.com

Application connects to service name, Kubernetes resolves to external DNS.

Ingress

Layer 7 HTTP/HTTPS routing. Requires an Ingress Controller (NGINX, Traefik, Kong, HAProxy).

Path-Based Routing

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: ingress-path-based
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - path: /app1
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: app1-svc
            port:
              number: 80
      - path: /app2
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: app2-svc
            port:
              number: 80

Host-Based Routing

spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
  - host: app1.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: app1-svc
            port:
              number: 80
  - host: app2.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: app2-svc
            port:
              number: 80

TLS/SSL with cert-manager

helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
  --set installCRDs=true

ClusterIssuer for Let's Encrypt: 

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: your-email@example.com
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          class: nginx

Ingress with TLS: 

metadata:
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt-prod"
spec:
  tls:
  - hosts:
    - app1.example.com
    secretName: app1-tls

Certificate auto-renewed 30 days before expiry.

NGINX Ingress Controller

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-basic --create-namespace

Traffic flow: Internet -> Cloud LB -> NGINX Ingress Controller pods -> Ingress rules -> Backend services -> Application pods.

AWS ALB Ingress Controller

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/certificate-arn: arn:aws:acm:...
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/listen-ports: '[{"HTTPS":443}]'
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "443"

Target type ip routes directly to pod IPs (bypasses NodePort).

ExternalDNS

Automatically creates DNS records when Ingress resources are created. Watches Ingress for host entries, creates/updates A records. Removes records on Ingress deletion.

Gotchas

  • NodePort range is fixed: 30000-32767
  • LoadBalancer type on bare metal requires MetalLB or similar
  • AWS creates Classic LB by default - use annotation service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-type: nlb for NLB
  • Internal load balancer (Azure): service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-internal: "true"
  • Ingress requires an Ingress Controller to be installed - it does nothing on its own
  • Name ports in services for clarity: name: http

See Also