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Summary
Ingress and Services
Learn how to expose Kubernetes applications to your network using Services and Ingress controllers in K3s.
By Kevin McAleer, 3 Minutes
Page last updated May 24, 2025
By default, Kubernetes services are only accessible inside the cluster. To make apps available on your local network or the internet, you’ll need to use Services and optionally an Ingress controller.
K3s includes Traefik as its default ingress controller, which makes this easy to configure.
🌐 What Is a Service?
A Kubernetes Service is an abstraction that exposes a set of pods to other services or users.
| Type | Use Case |
|---|---|
| ClusterIP | Internal-only (default) |
| NodePort | Exposes app on a fixed port |
| LoadBalancer | Cloud environments (external IP) |
🚀 Exposing a Pod with a Service
Let’s say you have a deployment called hello-world (like from Lesson 8). You can expose it:
kubectl expose deployment hello-world --port=80 --type=NodePort
Check the assigned port:
kubectl get svc hello-world
Then open http://<node-ip>:<nodePort> in your browser.
🌍 What Is an Ingress?
Ingress is a more flexible way to expose multiple services using a reverse proxy and host/path routing.
Example:
http://pi.local/app1→ nginx apphttp://pi.local/app2→ another service
K3s ships with Traefik, a built-in Ingress controller.
🧱 Step 1: Define an Ingress Resource
Create a file called hello-ingress.yaml:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: hello-ingress
annotations:
traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: web
spec:
rules:
- host: hello.local
http:
paths:
- path: /
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: hello-world
port:
number: 80
Apply it:
kubectl apply -f hello-ingress.yaml
🛠 Step 2: Update Your Local DNS
On your workstation, edit /etc/hosts:
192.168.1.100 hello.local
Replace 192.168.1.100 with your master node IP.
Now try visiting:
http://hello.local
🧪 Verify Ingress
Check if the Ingress was created:
kubectl get ingress
Check Traefik logs (optional):
kubectl logs -n kube-system -l app=traefik
🔒 Optional: Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt
K3s and Traefik support automated HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt — but you’ll need a real domain and port 80/443 open.
If you’d like to add this, let me know and I can walk you through it.
✅ Summary
You now know how to:
- Use
NodePortto expose services to the LAN - Create an Ingress resource with path/host routing
- Use Traefik, the default Ingress controller in K3s
- Set up basic DNS for friendly URLs
Next up: Deploying Apps
You can use the arrows ← → on your keyboard to navigate between lessons.
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