How To Deploy Nginx In Kubernetes ?

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration tool used to deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications. On the other hand, NGINX is a web service used for proxying and load balancing. Here in this article, I have first discussed what is Kubernetes and its features. Then I have discussed what is NGINX. After this, I have walked you through the different steps to deploy NGINX on Kubernetes and connect it through the web browser.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetesis a container orchestration tool that is used to deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications. Kubernetes follows a master-slave architecture. The master node manages all the cluster operations while the worker node deploys and runs the containers. The master node consists of 4 main components, API Server which helps in interacting and giving commands to the Kubernetes cluster, Scheduler schedules the pod on a particular node for running, etc. to stores the Kubernetes cluster data and control managers for managing the different controllers like deployment, replica sets and many more. On the other hand, in the worker node, there is Kubelet which helps in managing the pod lifecycle, container runtime which helps in running the containers and Kube proxy which manages all the networking rules in the pods.

What is Nginx?

NGINX is an open-source web service tool used mainly for reverse proxying, caching, and load balancing. Using NGINX reduces the loading time of a website. NGINX improves the overall user experience. It can also handle concurrent requests. NGINX provides better performance and scalability. NGINX can be used in microservice, where it can be used as a reverse proxy to protect the backend servers from direct exposure to the outside world. This results in reducing any potential attack. NGINX consumes fewer resources compared to other server software and is compatible with a variety of web applications which makes it a better cost-effective solution. In summary, we can say NGINX is a powerful tool that is used by various organizations for faster loading of web applications and also to handle a large number of requests.

What is Deployment In Kubernetes?

In kubernetes, Deployment is a kind of resource for management process for rollout and scaling of application instances. It facilitates to run the application smoothly, efficiently and consistently across a cluster of servers. The following are some of its main concepts:

1. Rollout Management: Kubernetes manages the deployment of your application by update or changes smoothly without disrupting the service.

2. Scaling: It provides scaling of your application instances up or down automatically on demand.

3. Health Monitoring and Self-Healing: It continuous monitors the health of your application instances. If any instance fails or becomes unhealthy it automatically replaces it with new one.

Kubernetes Deployment Example

• The following is the example of Kubernetes deployment from command line using kubectl:

kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx

• After the executing the above view its status, to verify whether the deployment has created or not with the following command:

kubectl get deployments

To known more about Kubernetes Deployment refer this - Article

How to Deploy Nginx In Kubernetes? A Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Start the minikube

• Firstly ensure the minikube software has downloaded in your system and configured its path in system environment.
• Use the following command to start the minikube server:

minikube start

👁 start-minikube

Note: Apart from minikube, you can also use other kubernetes cluster to perform these steps

Step 2 : Create Kubernetes Deployment Yaml File Example

• Create a deployment YAML configuration file . Here mention the NGINX image and container port. The following is the Deployment.yaml file.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
 name: nginx
 labels:
 app: nginx
spec:
 replicas: 1
 selector:
 matchLabels:
 app: nginx
 template:
 metadata:
 labels:
 app: nginx
 spec:
 containers:
 - name: nginx
 image: nginx:latest
 ports:
 - containerPort: 80

👁 deployment yaml file

Step 3 : Create Kubernetes Service Yaml File Example

• Create a service YAML configuration file . This will expose the NGINX at port 80 . The following is the Service.yaml file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: nginx-service
spec:
 type: NodePort
 selector:
 app: nginx
 ports:
 - port: 80
 targetPort: 80

👁 Service Yaml File

Step 4: Deploying Kubernetes Ngnix Deployment and Service Yaml Files

• Apply all the YAML configuration file using kubectl

kubectl apply -f Deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f Service.yaml

👁 Deploying Depoyment Yaml File

• Here if you have used docker to run minikube then you have to write this additional command to access the service from your browser .

minikube service nginx-service

👁 minikube-service

Step 5: Successful Deployment of Ngnix Service

• Now to connect host IP with container port to see whether the NGINX service is deployed or not .

👁 successful-deployment of Nginx Service

How to Deploy Nginx Pod in Kubernetes? A Step-By-Step Guide

The following are steps to deploy nginx pod in kubernetes:

Step 1: Create Nginx Pod Yaml File

Create a file with name nginx-pod.yaml and configure it, for reference use the following code:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
 name: nginx-pod
spec:
 containers:
 - name: nginx-container
 image: nginx:latest
 ports:
 - containerPort: 80

Step 2: Deploy Pod Yaml File

• After save the pod configuration yaml file with nignx-pod.yaml then deploy the pod yaml file with the following command:

kubectl apply -f nginx-pod.yaml

Step 3: Verify the Pod

• Check whether the pod has created successfully or not with the following command:

kubectl get pods

Step 4: Access Nginx Pod

• If you want to access the pod from outside of the cluster, try on exposing it using the service or port forwarding. The following is the command for performing port-forwarding:

kubectl port-forward nginx-pod 8080:80

• After exposing the pod, try on accessing it with the following command from your browser:

kubectl port-forward nginx-pod 8080:80

Kubernetes run Nginx Example

• We can run the the pod with Nginx Image without any deployment using Kubernetes run. The command for this looks as follows:

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --port=80

• After once executing we can check the pods and deployments with the following commands:

kubectl get pods
kubectl get deployments

• After running the above commands, you can clearly understands that kubernetes run command creates the pods without having deployment.

Scaling the Application By Increasing the Replica Count

Scaling the application by increasing the replica Count, creates more application replicas until matching the current state to desired state. Increasing scaling helps in managing the workloads by distributing traffic to more pod applications. The following command helps in scaling the application with replica Count.

 kubectl scale deployment <deployment_name> --replicas=<desired_replica_count>

• After executing verify the scaling with the following command:

kubectl get deployment <deployment_name>

Features of Kubernetes

Kubernetes provides different features such as :

• Autoscaling : Kubernetes has both horizontal and vertical autoscaler . Horizontal pod autoscaler automatically scales up or scales down the number of pods on the amount of traffic the application receives. On the other hand vertical pod autoscaler automatically adjusts the CPU and memory usage of a pod to handle all the requests.
• Autohealing: In Kubernetes, there are many pods running . If any of the pod nodes nodesnodes is deleted by mistake or it is unhealthy then Kubernetes automatically schedules a new pod for running on any of the nodes.
• High Availability: Kubernetes has a controller called replica set controller pods pods nodes. This controller helps in maintaining the desired number of pods always running. Even if someone tries to delete one of pods, then also Kubernetes automatically runs another pod to maintain the desired number of pods running in the cluster.
• Deployment Process: Kubernetes helps in rolling out new updates of a software application with zero downtime.

Conclusion

Here in this article you have first learned what is Kubernetes and some of its key features . Then you have learned about what is NGINX . After this you have followed the steps to deploy a NGINX using Kubernetes. Here you have first created a deployment YAML configurational file and then created a service YAML configuration file which helps in exposing the NGINX service at particular port . Finally you have accessed the NGINX web page from the web browser to check whether your entire Kubernetes cluster setup for NGINX is working or not .