Ingress

Let's think about it this way for a second

On a cluster running 10 apps, if you create 10 LoadBalancer-type Services, you'd end up provisioning 10 separate cloud load balancers (and 10x the cost) — not exactly ideal. Ingress creates just one load balancer, and routes traffic to the correct Service based on domain (`api.example.com`, `app.example.com`) or path (`/api`, `/app`) — think of it like a 'hotel front desk,' pointing each guest to the right room. For Ingress to actually work, you need an Ingress Controller (like nginx-ingress or Traefik) installed on the cluster.

Let's connect this to a real scenario

You can set up Ingress rules like `api.example.com` → `api-service`, `app.example.com` → `frontend-service` — and you can even centralize your TLS/HTTPS certificate at the Ingress level too (no need to manage a cert per Service). On local minikube, you enable the Ingress Controller with `minikube addons enable ingress`.

Ingress = routes traffic to multiple Services based on domain/path
Only one load balancer is needed (no more LoadBalancer type per Service)
An Ingress Controller (nginx-ingress, Traefik) must be installed on the cluster

Let's look at it together

yaml

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: app-ingress
spec:
  rules:
    - host: app.example.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: web-service
                port:
                  number: 80
    - host: api.example.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: api-service
                port:
                  number: 8080

You should see

$ kubectl get ingress app-ingress
NAME           CLASS   HOSTS                             ADDRESS       PORTS
app-ingress    nginx   app.example.com,api.example.com  192.168.1.5   80

5-Minute Try-It

Run `minikube addons enable ingress`, then apply the Ingress rule above (swapping the host for a local testing domain).

A Quick Word of Caution

Annotation syntax differs across Ingress classes (nginx, traefik, etc.) — be sure to read the documentation for whichever Ingress Controller you're using.