• "/docs/user-guide/quick-start/"
  • "/docs/user-guide/quick-start.html"

{% capture overview %}

This page shows how to create a Kubernetes Service object that external clients can use to access an application running in a cluster. The Service provides load balancing for an application that has two running instances.

{% endcapture %}

{% capture prerequisites %}

{% include task-tutorial-prereqs.md %}

{% endcapture %}

{% capture objectives %}

  • Run two instances of a Hello World application.
  • Create a Service object that exposes a node port.
  • Use the Service object to access the running application.

{% endcapture %}

{% capture lessoncontent %}

Creating a service for an application running in two pods

  1. Run a Hello World application in your cluster:

    kubectl run hello-world --replicas=2 --labels="run=load-balancer-example" --image=gcr.io/google-samples/node-hello:1.0  --port=8080
    

    The preceding command creates a Deployment object and an associated ReplicaSet object. The ReplicaSet has two Pods, each of which runs the Hello World application.

  2. Display information about the Deployment:

    kubectl get deployments hello-world
    kubectl describe deployments hello-world
    
  3. Display information about your ReplicaSet objects:

    kubectl get replicasets
    kubectl describe replicasets
    
  4. Create a Service object that exposes the deployment:

    kubectl expose deployment hello-world --type=NodePort --name=example-service
    
  5. Display information about the Service:

    kubectl describe services example-service
    

    The output is similar to this:

    Name:                   example-service
    Namespace:              default
    Labels:                 run=load-balancer-example
    Selector:               run=load-balancer-example
    Type:                   NodePort
    IP:                     10.32.0.16
    Port:                   <unset> 8080/TCP
    NodePort:               <unset> 31496/TCP
    Endpoints:              10.200.1.4:8080,10.200.2.5:8080
    Session Affinity:       None
    No events.
    

    Make a note of the NodePort value for the service. For example, in the preceding output, the NodePort value is 31496.

  6. List the pods that are running the Hello World application:

    kubectl get pods --selector="run=load-balancer-example" --output=wide
    

    The output is similar to this:

    NAME                           READY   STATUS    ...  IP           NODE
    hello-world-2895499144-bsbk5   1/1     Running   ...  10.200.1.4   worker1
    hello-world-2895499144-m1pwt   1/1     Running   ...  10.200.2.5   worker2
    
  7. Get the public IP address of one of your nodes that is running a Hello World pod. How you get this address depends on how you set up your cluster. For example, if you are using Minikube, you can see the node address by running kubectl cluster-info. If you are using Google Compute Engine instances, you can use the gcloud compute instances list command to see the public addresses of your nodes.

  8. On your chosen node, create a firewall rule that allows TCP traffic on your node port. For example, if your Service has a NodePort value of 31568, create a firewall rule that allows TCP traffic on port 31568.

  9. Use the node address and node port to access the Hello World application:

    curl http://<public-node-ip>:<node-port>
    

    where <public-node-ip> is the public IP address of your node, and <node-port> is the NodePort value for your service.

    The response to a successful request is a hello message:

    Hello Kubernetes!
    

Using a service configuration file

As an alternative to using kubectl expose, you can use a service configuration file to create a Service.

{% endcapture %}

{% capture cleanup %}

To delete the Service, enter this command:

kubectl delete services example-service

To delete the Deployment, the ReplicaSet, and the Pods that are running the Hello World application, enter this command:

kubectl delete deployment hello-world

{% endcapture %}

{% capture whatsnext %}

Learn more about connecting applications with services. {% endcapture %}

{% include templates/tutorial.md %}