Ingress Controller
An Ingress Controller manages external HTTP/HTTPS access to services in a Kubernetes cluster through rule-based routing.
What Is an Ingress Controller?
An Ingress Controller is a Kubernetes component that routes incoming HTTP/HTTPS traffic from outside into the cluster. It evaluates Ingress resources – Kubernetes objects that define how external requests are routed to internal services. Without an Ingress Controller, Ingress resources have no effect.
How Does an Ingress Controller Work?
The Ingress Controller runs as a pod in the cluster and watches Ingress resources. It dynamically configures a reverse proxy (e.g., NGINX, Envoy, Traefik) that forwards incoming requests to the appropriate services based on host-based or path-based rules.
Routing Options
- Host-based routing: api.example.com → API service, shop.example.com → Shop service
- Path-based routing: /api/* → backend service, /static/* → frontend service
- TLS termination: Manage SSL/TLS certificates centrally at the ingress
- Traffic splitting: Weighted routing for canary deployments
Popular Ingress Controllers
NGINX Ingress Controller is the most widely used and maintained by the Kubernetes community. Traefik offers automatic Let's Encrypt integration and a dashboard. HAProxy and Envoy (as the basis for Istio) are alternatives for high-load scenarios.
TLS and Certificates
Combined with cert-manager, the Ingress Controller automates the issuance and renewal of TLS certificates via Let's Encrypt. Cert-manager automatically creates Certificate resources based on Ingress annotations – no more manual certificate management.
Ingress vs. Gateway API
The Kubernetes Gateway API is the successor to the Ingress resource and offers advanced features like traffic policies, cross-namespace routing, and more role differentiation. New projects should evaluate whether the Gateway API is the better choice. Many Ingress Controllers already support both approaches.
Best Practices
- Use rate limiting and request size limits to protect against overload
- Configure health checks and readiness probes for backend services
- Enable access logging for debugging and compliance
- Use annotations sparingly and document them
- Separate Ingress resources per team or namespace
Why devRocks?
We configure and operate Ingress Controllers that are secure, performant, and highly available. From selecting the right controller to TLS configuration to traffic management for canary deployments, we handle the complete routing setup for your cluster.
Frequently asked questions about Ingress Controller
NGINX Ingress Controller is the default choice for most scenarios. Traefik is suitable for simpler management with auto-TLS. For service mesh integration, we recommend Envoy-based controllers like Istio Gateway.
Yes, the Ingress Controller needs an upstream load balancer (Layer 4) that distributes traffic to the Ingress Controller pods. In cloud environments, this is automatically provisioned via Service type LoadBalancer.
Enable TLS termination, configure rate limiting, restrict allowed HTTP methods, use ModSecurity as a WAF, and regularly update to the latest version.
Service type LoadBalancer creates a separate cloud load balancer for each service (expensive). Ingress bundles traffic through a single load balancer and routes internally based on rules.
Related terms
Related services
Last updated: April 2026