Ingress controller

An Ingress resource is a popular way to expose Kubernetes services to the Internet. In order to use Ingress resources, you need to install an ingress controller. Emissary can function as a fully-fledged Ingress controller, making it easy to work with other Ingress-oriented tools within the Kubernetes ecosystem.

When and how to use the Ingress resource

If you’re new to Emissary and to Kubernetes, we’d recommend you start with our quickstart instead of this Ingress guide. If you’re a power user and need to integrate with other software that leverages the Ingress resource, read on. The Ingress specification is very basic and does not support many of the features of Emissary, so you’ll be using both the Ingress resource and Emissary’s Mapping resource to manage your Kubernetes services.

What is required to use the Ingress resource?

Know what version of Kubernetes you are using.
- In Kubernetes 1.13 and below, the Ingress was only included in the extensions API.
- Starting in Kubernetes 1.14, the Ingress was added to the new networking.k8s.io API.
- Kubernetes 1.18 introduced the IngressClass resource to the existing networking.k8s.io/v1beta1 API.
If you are using 1.14 and above, it is recommended to use apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1 when defining an Ingress. Since both are still supported in all 1.14+ versions of Kubernetes, this document will use extensions/v1beta1 for compatibility reasons. If you are using 1.18 and above, sample usage of the IngressClass resource and pathType field are available on our blog.
You will need RBAC permissions to create Ingress resources in either the extensions apiGroup (present in all supported versions of Kubernetes) or the networking.k8s.io apiGroup (introduced in Kubernetes 1.14).

Emissary will need RBAC permissions to get, list, watch, and update Ingress resources.

You can see this in the aes-crds.yaml file, but this is the critical rule to add to Emissary’s Role or ClusterRole:

- apiGroups: ['extensions', 'networking.k8s.io']
  resources: ['ingresses', 'ingressclasses']
  verbs: ['get', 'list', 'watch']
- apiGroups: ['extensions', 'networking.k8s.io']
  resources: ['ingresses/status']
  verbs: ['update']

This is included by default in all Emissary installations.

You must create your Ingress resource with the correct ingress.class.
Emissary will automatically read Ingress resources with the annotation kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador.
You may need to set your Ingress resource’s ambassador-id.
If you are using amabssador-id on your Module, you’ll need to add the getambassador.io/ambassador-id annotation to your Ingress. See the examples below.

You must create a Service resource with the correct app.kubernetes.io/component label.

Emissary will automatically load balance Ingress resources using the endpoint exposed from the Service with the annotation app.kubernetes.io/component: ambassador-service.

---
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: ingress-ambassador
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: ambassador-service
spec:
  externalTrafficPolicy: Local
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    service: ambassador
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 80
      targetPort: http
    - name: https
      port: 443
      targetPort: https

When to use an Ingress instead of annotations or CRDs

We recommend that Emissary be configured using CRDs. The Ingress resource is available to users who need it for integration with other ecosystem tools, or who feel that it more closely matches their workflows. However, it is important to recognize that the Ingress resource is rather more limited than the Emissary Mapping is (for example, the Ingress spec has no support for rewriting or for TLS origination). When in doubt, use CRDs.

Ingress support

Emissary supports basic core functionality of the Ingress resource, as defined by the Ingress resource itself:

Basic routing is supported, including the route specification and the default backend functionality. It’s particularly easy to use a minimal Ingress to the Emissary diagnostic UI.
TLS termination is supported. You can use multiple Ingress resources for SNI.
Using the Ingress resource in concert with Emissary CRDs or annotations is supported. This includes Emissary annotations on the Ingress resource itself.

Emissary does not extend the basic Ingress specification with the following exceptions:

The getambassador.io/ambassador-id annotation allows you to set the Ambassador ID for the Ingress itself.
The getambassador.io/config annotation can be provided on the Ingress resource, just as on a Service.

Note that if you need to set getambassador.io/ambassador-id on the Ingress, you will also need to set ambassador-id on resources within the annotation.

Examples of Ingress configs vs Mapping configs

Ingress routes and Mappings

Emissary actually creates Mapping objects from the Ingress route rules. These Mapping objects interact with Mappings defined in CRDs exactly as they would if the Ingress route rules had been specified with CRDs originally.

For example, this Ingress resource routes traffic to /foo/ to service1:

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador
  name: test-ingress
spec:
  rules:
    - http:
        paths:
          - path: /foo/
            backend:
              serviceName: service1
              servicePort: 80

This is the equivalent configuration using a Mapping instead:

---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: test-ingress-0-0
spec:
  hostname: '*'
  prefix: /foo/
  service: service1:80

This YAML will set up Emissary to do canary routing where 50% of the traffic will go to service1 and 50% will go to service2.

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador
  name: test-ingress
spec:
  rules:
    - http:
        paths:
          - path: /foo/
            backend:
              serviceName: service1
              servicePort: 80
---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: my-mapping
spec:
  hostname: '*'
  prefix: /foo/
  service: service2

The minimal Ingress

An Ingress resource must provide at least some routes or a default backend. The default backend provides for a simple way to direct all traffic to some upstream service:

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador
  name: test-ingress
spec:
  backend:
    serviceName: exampleservice
    servicePort: 8080

This is the equivalent configuration using a Mapping instead:

---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: test-ingress
spec:
  hostname: '*'
  prefix: /
  service: exampleservice:8080

Name based virtual hosting with an Ambassador ID

This Ingress resource will result in all requests to foo.bar.com going to service1, and requests to bar.foo.com going to service2:

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador
    getambassador.io/ambassador-id: externalid
  name: name-virtual-host-ingress
spec:
  rules:
  - host: foo.bar.com
    http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          serviceName: service1
          servicePort: 80
   - host: bar.foo.com
     http:
       paths:
       - backend:
           serviceName: service2
           servicePort: 80

This is the equivalent configuration using a Mapping instead:

---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: host-foo-mapping
spec:
  ambassador_id: ['externalid']
  prefix: /
  host: foo.bar.com
  service: service1
---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: host-bar-mapping
spec:
  ambassador_id: ['externalid']
  prefix: /
  host: bar.foo.com
  service: service2

TLS termination

---
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: ambassador
  name: tls-example-ingress
spec:
  tls:
    - hosts:
        - sslexample.foo.com
      secretName: testsecret-tls
  rules:
    - host: sslexample.foo.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            backend:
              serviceName: service1
              servicePort: 80

This is the equivalent configuration using a Mapping instead:

---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: TLSContext
metadata:
  name: sslexample-termination-context
spec:
  hosts:
    - sslexample.foo.com
  secret: testsecret-tls
---
apiVersion: getambassador.io/v3alpha1
kind: Mapping
metadata:
  name: sslexample-mapping
spec:
  host: sslexample.foo.com
  prefix: /
  service: service1

Note that this shows TLS termination, not origination: the Ingress spec does not support origination. Read more on the Kubernetes docs on TLS termination.

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Last modified July 4, 2024: Fix all metadata for 3.8 for navigation (7c97b54)

Ingress controller

Contents

When and how to use the Ingress resource

What is required to use the Ingress resource?

When to use an Ingress instead of annotations or CRDs

Ingress support

Examples of Ingress configs vs Mapping configs

Ingress routes and Mappings

The minimal Ingress

Name based virtual hosting with an Ambassador ID

TLS termination

Feedback