Configure NGINX Ingress Controller in Kubernetes

How to Configure NGINX Ingress Controller in Kubernetes

The NGINX Ingress Controller is a robust tool for managing external access to services in a Kubernetes cluster. It provides load balancing, SSL termination, and name-based virtual hosting. This tutorial guides you through the configuration steps necessary to set up NGINX Ingress Controller in Kubernetes.

Prerequisites

A running Kubernetes cluster (version 1.14 or newer)
kubectl configured to communicate with your cluster
Basic understanding of Kubernetes Networking

Step 1: Install an Ingress Controller

Kubernetes does not automatically create Ingress controllers; they must be manually defined. For NGINX, this typically means installing it as a Deployment:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/main/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml

This command deploys the NGINX Ingress Controller to your cluster. It may take a few minutes to be fully available.

Step 2: Confirm Installation

To ensure that the NGINX Ingress Controller was successfully deployed, run:

kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx

Look for a pod with the name nginx-ingress-controller in the Running state.

Step 3: Configure Basic Authentication

To add basic authentication, you can create a Kubernetes secret that contains the usernames and passwords:

htpasswd -c auth admin

Encode the file and create a secret:

kubectl create secret generic basic-auth --from-file=auth

Step 4: Create an Ingress Resource

Define the routes for your application using Ingress resources. Below is an example of a simple Ingress resource:

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: example-ingress
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-type: basic
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret: basic-auth
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-realm: "Authentication Required - example.com"
spec:
  rules:
  - host: www.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: example-service
            port:
              number: 80

Apply the resource to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f example-ingress.yaml

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues accessing the service, check the logs of the NGINX Ingress controller:

kubectl logs <nginx-ingress-pod> -n ingress-nginx

Make sure your DNS service for the desired domain points to the IP address of your load balancer.

Summary

Installed NGINX Ingress Controller in your Kubernetes cluster
Configured basic authentication
Created a simple Ingress resource
Troubleshooting steps for common issues

Explore further by implementing additional NGINX annotations and features to tailor the setup to your specific needs. If you’re working with other ingress solutions, such as HAProxy Ingress Controller, you might want to compare their functionalities.