How to Setup Nginx Ingress Controller On Kubernetes

Setting up an Nginx Ingress Controller on Kubernetes is a crucial step in managing and routing external traffic to your applications efficiently. Nginx Ingress Controller acts as a layer between your Kubernetes services and the external world, providing features like load balancing, SSL termination, and more. In this article, we'll guide you through the process of setting up Nginx Ingress Controller on Kubernetes, ensuring a smooth and secure traffic flow to your applications.

Prerequisites:

Before we start, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. Kubernetes Cluster: Ensure you have a running Kubernetes cluster. You can use tools like Minikube, Kind, or any managed Kubernetes service.

2. kubectl: Make sure you have kubectl installed and configured to communicate with your Kubernetes cluster.

Step 1: Install Nginx Ingress Controller using Helm:

Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies the deployment process. If you don't have Helm installed, follow the official Helm installation guide.

# Add the Nginx Ingress Helm repository
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx

# Update the Helm repositories
helm repo update

# Install Nginx Ingress Controller
helm install nginx-ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx

Step 2: Verify Installation:

After the installation is complete, check if the Nginx Ingress Controller pods are running:

kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx

Ensure that all pods are in the Running state.

Step 3: Expose Services using Ingress Resources:

Now that the Ingress Controller is up and running, you can expose your services using Ingress resources. Create an example Ingress resource:

# Example Ingress Resource
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: example-ingress
spec:
  rules:
    - host: example.com
      http:
        paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: example-service
              port:
                number: 80

Apply the Ingress resource to expose your service:

kubectl apply -f example-ingress.yaml

Step 4: Verify Ingress Configuration:

Check if the Ingress resource has been created and if the Nginx Ingress Controller has picked it up:

kubectl get ingress example-ingress
kubectl describe ingress example-ingress

Step 5: Access Your Application:

Now that everything is set up, access your application through the Nginx Ingress Controller. Update your system's hosts file or use a DNS provider to map the Ingress IP to your desired domain.

Congratulations! You have successfully set up Nginx Ingress Controller on Kubernetes. This will streamline the management of external traffic to your applications, providing scalability and ease of configuration. Feel free to explore additional Nginx Ingress features and customize your Ingress resources according to your application's requirements.