To expose applications from our Kubernetes cluster we need different service types.

Service Types

ClusterIP

The ClusterIP service type is the default and only provides access internally - within the cluster.
If you need to expose a service to the external world, you might consider other service types such as NodePort or LoadBalancer.

The kubectl proxy command creates a local service to access a ClusterIP. This can be useful for troubleshooting or development work.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: internal-cluster-ip-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: your-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80 #exposes this port internally
      targetPort: 8080 # directs traffic to pods on that port

NodePort

The NodePort type is great for debugging, or when a static IP address is necessary, such as opening a particular address through a firewall. The NodePort range is defined in the cluster configuration.

kind: Service
metadata:
  name: your-nodeport-service
spec:
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    app: your-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 8080
      targetPort: 80
      nodePort: 30080 # port 8080 is exposed on all nodes, and reachable from their ip on port 30080

Create a service via kubectl:
kubectl expose deployment/nginx --port=80 --type=NodePort
This service creates a service for the nginx deployment.
kubectl get svc
kubectl get svc nginx -o yaml

LoadBalancer

LoadBalancer is a type of service that automatically provides external access to services within a cluster by distributing incoming network traffic across multiple nodes.

Using a LoadBalancer service is a convenient way to expose services externally, especially in production environments, where load balancing and high availability are crucial.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: your-loadbalancer-service
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: your-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 8080

ExternalName

With this service you can map a Kubernetes service to a DNS Name. Use of the service returns a CNAME record.
Working with the ExternalName service is handy when using a resource external to the cluster, perhaps prior to full integration.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: geiler-service
spec:
  type: ExternalName
  externalName: geil.example.com

Ingress

Ingress Resource

An ingress resource is an API object containing a list of rules matched against all incoming requests.

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: your-app-ingress
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
  rules:
  - host: your-app.example.com  # Replace with your desired domain or IP
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: your-app-service
            port:
              number: 80

kubectl apply -f ingress.yaml

Ingress Controller

An ingress controller manages all the ingress rules to route traffic to existing services.
This is important if the number of services gets high.

Service Mesh

If you need service discovery, rate limiting, traffic management and advanced metrics you can implement a service mesh.

Further reading:
Kubernetes Ingress
What is a service mesh