GKE Ingress with Load Balancer in GCP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

GKE Ingress with Load Balancer

📖 Scenario: You are managing a Kubernetes cluster on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You want to expose your application to the internet using a Load Balancer. To do this, you will create an Ingress resource in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) that automatically provisions a Google Cloud Load Balancer.This project will guide you step-by-step to create a simple web application deployment, configure a service, set up an Ingress resource, and verify the Load Balancer is working.

🎯 Goal: Build a GKE Ingress resource that exposes a web application through a Google Cloud Load Balancer. You will create a deployment, a service, and an ingress resource with the correct annotations and rules.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Kubernetes deployment named webapp with the image nginx:1.23 and 2 replicas

Create a service named webapp-service of type NodePort exposing port 80

Create an Ingress resource named webapp-ingress that routes HTTP traffic to webapp-service

Use the annotation kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce" to specify the GCP Load Balancer

Print the Ingress resource details to verify the Load Balancer IP

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

In real projects, exposing applications securely and reliably to the internet is essential. GKE Ingress with Load Balancer automates this process on Google Cloud.

💼 Career

Understanding how to configure GKE Ingress and Load Balancers is a key skill for cloud engineers and DevOps professionals working with Kubernetes on GCP.

1

Create the Deployment

Create a Kubernetes deployment named webapp with 2 replicas using the image nginx:1.23. Use the command kubectl create deployment webapp --image=nginx:1.23 --replicas=2.

GCP

# Create the deployment with 2 replicas and nginx:1.23 image
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use kubectl create deployment with the exact name webapp, image nginx:1.23, and replicas set to 2.

2

Create the Service

Create a service named webapp-service of type NodePort that exposes port 80 and targets the webapp deployment. Use the command kubectl expose deployment webapp --name=webapp-service --type=NodePort --port=80.

GCP

kubectl create deployment webapp --image=nginx:1.23 --replicas=2
# Create the NodePort service exposing port 80
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use kubectl expose deployment with the exact service name webapp-service, type NodePort, and port 80.

3

Create the Ingress Resource

Create an Ingress resource named webapp-ingress with the annotation kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce" that routes HTTP traffic to the webapp-service on port 80. Use the following YAML manifest and apply it with kubectl apply -f webapp-ingress.yaml.

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: webapp-ingress
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce"
spec:
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: webapp-service
            port:
              number: 80

GCP

kubectl create deployment webapp --image=nginx:1.23 --replicas=2
kubectl expose deployment webapp --name=webapp-service --type=NodePort --port=80
# Create the Ingress resource with annotation kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Create a YAML file named webapp-ingress.yaml with the exact Ingress resource content and apply it using kubectl apply -f webapp-ingress.yaml.

4

Verify the Load Balancer IP

Run kubectl get ingress webapp-ingress to display the Ingress resource details and print the external IP address of the Load Balancer.

GCP

kubectl create deployment webapp --image=nginx:1.23 --replicas=2
kubectl expose deployment webapp --name=webapp-service --type=NodePort --port=80

cat  webapp-ingress.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: webapp-ingress
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce"
spec:
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: webapp-service
            port:
              number: 80
EOF

kubectl apply -f webapp-ingress.yaml
# Run the command to get the ingress details and print the external IP
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use kubectl get ingress webapp-ingress to see the external IP address under the ADDRESS column.