---
layout: docs
page_title: Ingress Gateways - Kubernetes
description: Configuring Ingress Gateways on Kubernetes
---

# Ingress Gateways on Kubernetes

-> 1.9.0+: This feature is available in Consul versions 1.9.0 and higher

~> This topic requires familiarity with [Ingress Gateways](/docs/connect/ingress-gateway).

This page describes how to enable external access to Connect service mesh services running inside Kubernetes using Consul ingress gateways.
See [Ingress Gateways](/docs/connect/ingress-gateway) for more information on use-cases and how it works.

Adding an ingress gateway is a multi-step process that consists of the following steps:

- Setting the helm chart configuration
- Deploying the helm chart
- Configuring the gateway
- Defining an Intention (if ACLs are enabled)
- Deploying your application to Kubernetes
- Connecting to your application

## Setting the helm chart configuration

When deploying the helm chart you must provide helm with a custom yaml file that contains your environment configuration.

```yaml
global:
  name: consul
connectInject:
  enabled: true
controller:
  enabled: true
ingressGateways:
  enabled: true
  gateways:
    - name: ingress-gateway
      service:
        type: LoadBalancer
```

~> **Note:** this will create a public unauthenticated LoadBalancer in your cluster, please take appropriate security considerations.

The yaml snippet is the launching point for a valid configuration that must be supplied when installing using the [official consul-helm chart](https://hub.helm.sh/charts/hashicorp/consul).
Information on additional options can be found in the [Helm reference](/docs/k8s/helm). Configuration options for ingress gateways reside under the [ingressGateways](/docs/k8s/helm#v-ingressgateways) entry.

The gateways stanza is where you will define and configure the set of ingress gateways you want deployed to your environment.
The only required field for each entry is `name`, though entries may contain any of the fields found in the `defaults` stanza.
Values in this section override the values from the defaults stanza for the given ingress gateway with one exception:
the annotations from the defaults stanza will be _appended_ to any user-defined annotations defined in the gateways stanza rather than being overridden.
Please refer to the ingress gateway configuration [documentation](/docs/k8s/helm#v-ingressgateways-defaults) for a detailed explanation of each option.

## Deploying the helm chart

Ensure you have the latest consul-helm chart and install Consul via helm using the following
[guide](/docs/k8s/installation/install#installing-consul) while being sure to provide the yaml configuration
as previously discussed.

## Configuring the gateway

Now that Consul has been installed with ingress gateways enabled, you must configure the gateways via the [`IngressGateway`](/docs/connect/config-entries/ingress-gateway) custom resource.

Here is an example `IngressGateway` resource:

```yaml
apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1
kind: IngressGateway
metadata:
  name: ingress-gateway
spec:
  listeners:
    - port: 8080
      protocol: http
      services:
        - name: static-server
```

Apply the `IngressGateway` resource with `kubectl apply`:

```shell-session
$ kubectl apply -f ingress-gateway.yaml
ingressgateway.consul.hashicorp.com/ingress-gateway created
```

Since we're using `protocol: http`, we also need to set the protocol of our service
`static-server` to http. To do that, we create a [`ServiceDefaults`](/docs/connect/config-entries/service-defaults) custom resource:

```yaml
apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1
kind: ServiceDefaults
metadata:
  name: static-server
spec:
  protocol: http
```

Apply the `ServiceDefaults` resource with `kubectl apply`:

```shell-session
$ kubectl apply -f service-defaults.yaml
servicedefaults.consul.hashicorp.com/static-server created
```

Ensure both resources have synced to Consul successfully:

```shell-session
$ kubectl get servicedefaults
NAME            SYNCED   AGE
static-server   True     45s

$ kubectl get ingressgateway
NAME              SYNCED   AGE
ingress-gateway   True     13m
```

### Viewing the UI

You can confirm the ingress gateways have been configured as expected by viewing the ingress-gateway service instances
in the Consul UI.

To view the UI, use the `kubectl port-forward` command. See [Viewing The Consul UI](/docs/k8s/installation/install#viewing-the-consul-ui)
for full instructions.

Once you've port-forwarded to the UI, navigate to the Ingress Gateway instances: [http://localhost:8500/ui/dc1/services/ingress-gateway/instances](http://localhost:8500/ui/dc1/services/ingress-gateway/instances)

If TLS is enabled, use [https://localhost:8501/ui/dc1/services/ingress-gateway/instances](https://localhost:8501/ui/dc1/services/ingress-gateway/instances).

## Defining an Intention

If ACLs are enabled (via the `global.acls.manageSystemACLs` setting), you must define an [intention](/docs/connect/intentions)
to allow the ingress gateway to route to the upstream services defined in the `IngressGateway` resource (in the example above the upstream service is `static-server`).

To create an intention that allows the ingress gateway to route to the service `static-server`, create a [`ServiceIntentions`](/docs/connect/config-entries/service-intentions)
resource:

```yaml
apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1
kind: ServiceIntentions
metadata:
  name: static-server
spec:
  destination:
    name: static-server
  sources:
    - name: ingress-gateway
      action: allow
```

Apply the `ServiceIntentions` resource with `kubectl apply`:

```shell-session
$ kubectl apply -f service-intentions.yaml
serviceintentions.consul.hashicorp.com/ingress-gateway created
```

For detailed instructions on how to configure zero-trust networking with intentions please refer to this [guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/consul/service-mesh-zero-trust-network).

## Deploying your application to Kubernetes

Now you will deploy a sample application which echoes “hello world”

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: static-server
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: static-server
  annotations:
    'consul.hashicorp.com/connect-inject': 'true'
spec:
  containers:
    # This name will be the service name in Consul.
    - name: static-server
      image: hashicorp/http-echo:latest
      args:
        - -text="hello world"
        - -listen=:8080
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
          name: http
    # If ACLs are enabled, the serviceAccountName must match the Consul service name.
  serviceAccountName: static-server
```

```shell-session
$ kubectl apply -f static-server.yaml
```

## Connecting to your application

You can validate the service is running and registered in the Consul UI by navigating to
[http://localhost:8500/ui/dc1/services/static-server/instances](http://localhost:8500/ui/dc1/services/static-server/instances)

If TLS is enabled, use: [https://localhost:8501/ui/dc1/services/static-server/instances](https://localhost:8501/ui/dc1/services/static-server/instances)

You can also validate the connectivity of the application from the ingress gateway using `curl`:

```shell-session
$ EXTERNAL_IP=$(kubectl get services | grep ingress-gateway | awk ‘{print $4}’)
$ echo "Connecting to \"$EXTERNAL_IP\""
$ curl -H "Host: static-server.ingress.consul" "http://$EXTERNAL_IP:8080"
"hello world"
```

~> **Security Warning:** Please be sure to delete the application and services created here as they represent a security risk through
leaving an open and unauthenticated load balancer alive in your cluster.

To delete the ingress gateway, set enabled to false in your Helm configuration:

```yaml
global:
  name: consul
connectInject:
  enabled: true
controller:
  enabled: true
ingressGateways:
  enabled: false # Set to false
  gateways:
    - name: ingress-gateway
      service:
        type: LoadBalancer
```

And run Helm upgrade:

```shell-session
$ helm upgrade consul hashicorp/consul -f config.yaml
```
