Challenge, Easy,  on  Kubernetes, Networking

Kubernetes Ingress: Expose Multiple HTTP Backends the Imperative Way

Three teams share the same Kubernetes cluster, each running their service in a separate namespace. Your job is to expose each service at its own hostname using Ingress resources, with Traefik as the ingress controller.

Verify what is already running:

kubectl get pods -A | grep app

kubectl get svc -A | grep app-svc

kubectl get ingressclass

Step 1 - Create an Ingress for Each Team

Create an Ingress named app-ingress in each team namespace.

Requirements:

  • ingressClassName: traefik
  • team-v1/app-ingress: host app-v1.local, path / - backend app-svc:5678 (pathType: Prefix)
  • team-v2/app-ingress: host app-v2.local, path / - backend app-svc:5678 (pathType: Prefix)
  • team-v3/app-ingress: host app-v3.local, path / - backend app-svc:5678 (pathType: Prefix)
Hint: Creating an Ingress imperatively

Personally, I find imperative commands much easier to memorize than YAML file structure and I use them whenever I can. kubectl create ingress covers all the fields you need. Run kubectl create ingress --help to see all flags. The --rule format is host/path=service:port — append * to the path to get pathType: Prefix.

Step 2 - Verify Traffic

Test each team's service by sending a request to Traefik on port 80 with the correct Host header:

curl -H "Host: app-v1.local" http://localhost/

curl -H "Host: app-v2.local" http://localhost/

curl -H "Host: app-v3.local" http://localhost/

Step 3 - Path-Based Ingress with a Catch-All Rule

The platform namespace has three services: api, admin, and frontend. Create a single Ingress named path-ingress in platform that routes by path instead of hostname.

Unlike the host-based Ingresses above, all backends are in the same namespace so one Ingress can reference all three.

Requirements:

  • ingressClassName: traefik
  • host app.local, path /api - backend api:5678 (pathType: Prefix)
  • host app.local, path /admin - backend admin:5678 (pathType: Prefix)
  • host app.local, path / - backend frontend:5678 (pathType: Prefix, catch-all)

Step 4 - Verify Path Routing

curl -H "Host: app.local" http://localhost/api

curl -H "Host: app.local" http://localhost/admin

curl -H "Host: app.local" http://localhost/unknown

How to Author Challenges on iximiuz Labs

Instead of providing a subpar online editing experience, iximiuz Labs offers a helper CLI tool called labctl, allowing you to use your favorite text editor (or a full-featured IDE) to write content from the comfort of your local machine.

Install labctl CLI

curl -sf https://labs.iximiuz.com/cli/install.sh | sh

This will download and install the latest version of the labctl CLI. You only need to do this once per workstation.

Authorize labctl

labctl auth login

This will open a browser window asking you to authorize labctl to access your account. You need to do it after a fresh install of labctl and repeat it whenever the auth session expires.

Pull challenge content

labctl content pull challenge ingress-traefik-setup-e7396fc3

This will create a local copy of the challenge content in a directory named ingress-traefik-setup-e7396fc3. You only need to do this once per challenge.

Stream your changes

labctl content push -fw challenge ingress-traefik-setup-e7396fc3

Run this command in a separate terminal to continuously upload your changes to the server while editing the challenge in your favorite text editor or IDE.

You can also use labctl to create, list, and delete your content. Learn more about the available commands: labctl content --help

Start challenge