Ingress provides HTTP/HTTPS routing to internal Services. Ingress Controllers (Nginx, Istio, etc.) implement the routing rules defined by Ingress objects.
Ingress provides HTTP/HTTPS routing to internal Services. Ingress Controllers (Nginx, Istio, etc.) implement the routing rules defined by Ingress objects.
Lesson outline
LoadBalancer Service creates a cloud provider LB and routes to one Service. Limited to L4 (TCP/UDP).
Ingress provides L7 (HTTP/HTTPS) routing: host-based routing, path-based routing, TLS termination.
Ingress is more flexible and cost-effective than multiple LoadBalancer Services.
Ingress Controller is a Pod/DaemonSet that watches Ingress objects and programs the actual routing rules (Nginx config, HAProxy, etc.).
Common controllers: Nginx Ingress Controller, Istio Ingress Gateway, AWS ALB Ingress Controller, GCP Ingress.
Different controllers have different features; choose based on needs (performance, features, multi-cloud).
Host-based routing: routes.example.com goes to one Service, api.example.com goes to another.
Path-based routing: example.com/api/* goes to API service, example.com/web/* goes to web service.
TLS/HTTPS: Ingress terminates TLS and forwards HTTP to backend Services.
TLS certificate can be embedded in Ingress (tls section) or managed externally (e.g., AWS ACM).
cert-manager automates certificate provisioning (Let's Encrypt) and renewal.
Key takeaways
💡 Analogy
Ingress is like a hotel front desk. The Ingress Controller is the receptionist (Nginx). Hotel guests (clients) ask for a room by name (Host header) or purpose (path). The receptionist checks the Ingress rules and routes them to the right department (Service). TLS is like requiring ID at the front door (encryption).
⚡ Core Idea
Ingress provides declarative HTTP/HTTPS routing. Ingress Controller implements the rules. Decouples HTTP logic from Services.
🎯 Why It Matters
Ingress is the standard way to expose HTTP workloads. Enables virtual hosting, path-based routing, and TLS termination without multiple LoadBalancer Services.
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