Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications. It helps developers and DevOps teams manage clusters of hosts running Linux containers efficiently.

What is an Ingress Controller in Kubernetes?

An Ingress Controller is a specialised load balancer for Kubernetes that manages external access to services within a cluster, typically via HTTP/HTTPS routes. It watches for changes to Ingress resources and configures the underlying load balancer or proxy (like NGINX or HAProxy) accordingly.

How is Ingress different from a Service in Kubernetes?

While a Service exposes a set of pods to the network (within or outside the cluster), Ingress provides advanced routing rules to manage how traffic from outside the cluster is directed to Services. Ingress can handle things like path-based routing, SSL termination, and virtual hosting.

Do I need an Ingress Controller for every Ingress resource?

No. You typically deploy one Ingress Controller per cluster, which can handle multiple Ingress resources. The controller watches all Ingress definitions and dynamically updates its configuration to route traffic accordingly.

What are some popular Ingress Controllers?

Some widely used Ingress Controllers include NGINX Ingress Controller, HAProxy Ingress, Traefik, Kong Ingress Controller and AWS ALB Ingress Controller (specific to Amazon EKS).