Kubernetes Services | Complete Guide

A Kubernetes Service is a stable networking abstraction that exposes a group of Pods as a single network endpoint. Pods in Kubernetes are ephemeral ; they can restart, crash, or move across nodes. Pod IP addresses are not permanent, which makes direct communication unreliable, applications in a cluster need a stable way to communicate with each other. Kubernetes Services solve this problem by providing:

• Stable virtual IP (ClusterIP).
• Built-in load balancing.
• Service discovery via DNS.
• Decoupling between clients and Pods.

Types of Services

There are four major types of services which are having their advantages in their perspective as explained following.

1. ClusterIP

• Stable Virtual IP: Provides a single, permanent IP address for a group of Pods, preventing communication breakdown when individual Pods are replaced.
• DNS Registration: Automatically maps the Service Name to the ClusterIP via CoreDNS, enabling Pods to find each other using hostnames.
• The "Brain" (kube-proxy): Runs on every node to manage network rules (iptables/IPVS), transforming the logical Service into functional traffic paths.
• Load Balancing: Intercepts requests sent to the ClusterIP and transparently redirects them to a healthy backend Pod's actual IP.
• Internal Access Only: Restricts connectivity to within the cluster boundaries, ensuring secure, private microservice communication.

Example:

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

Explanation:

• type: ClusterIP → Default Service type. Exposes the service only inside the cluster.
• selector: app: nginx → Routes traffic to Pods with the label app=nginx.
• port: 80 → The port on which the Service is exposed internally.
• targetPort: 80 → The container port inside the Pod where NGINX is running.

Now we can create this service by applying the following command:

$ kubectl apply -f [file-name]

2. NodePort Service (External Service)

• External Entry Point: Opens a specific port (range 30000–32767) on every Worker Node's IP address, allowing external traffic to reach the cluster without an Ingress controller.
• Layered Routing: Traffic follows a chain: External Client >> NodeIP:NodePort >> ClusterIP >> PodIP.
• Kube-proxy Coordination: Like ClusterIP, kube-proxy handles the heavy lifting by routing incoming traffic from the node's port to the appropriate backend Pods.
• Uniform Access: The service is accessible via the IP of any node in the cluster, regardless of whether the target Pod is actually running on that specific node.

Example: 

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: nginx-service
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: nginx
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
nodePort: 30000

Explanation:

• type: NodePort → Exposes the service on each Node’s IP at a static port (30000).
• port: 80 → Service port inside the cluster.
• targetPort: 80 → Container port inside the Pod.
• nodePort: 30000 → External port accessible via <NodeIP>:30000

Now we can create this service by applying the following command

$ kubectl apply -f [file-name]

3. LoadBalancer

• Cloud Integration: Automatically provisions a native load balancer (e.g., AWS ELB, GCP LB) provided by the cloud infrastructure to manage external traffic.
• Hierarchical Setup: Built on top of the other types; it automatically creates a NodePort and a ClusterIP to bridge the gap between the external world and the internal Pods.
• Single Entry Point: Provides a public IP address or DNS name that serves as the unique gateway for users, abstracting away the individual Node IPs.
• Managed Routing: The cloud provider's balancer monitors node health and distributes incoming traffic across the cluster's NodePorts before reaching the Pods.
• Bare-Metal Limitation: Without a cloud-provider plugin (like in minikube or kubeadm), the service will stay in a "Pending" state unless an external tool like MetalLB is installed.

Example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: javawebappsvc
spec:
type: LoadBalancer
selector:
app: javawebapp
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 8080

Explanation:

• type: LoadBalancer → Exposes the service externally using a cloud provider’s load balancer.
• port: 80 → Port exposed by the Service.
• targetPort: 8080 → Port on which the container inside the Pod is running.
• selector: app: javawebapp → Routes traffic to Pods with this label.

4. ExternalName

An ExternalName is a type of service in kubernetes that maps the service to a DNS name outside the cluster. It redirects the requests to the specified DNS name.

Example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: my-external-service
spec:
type: ExternalName
externalName: example.com

Explanation:

• type: ExternalName → Maps the Service to an external DNS name instead of routing to Pods.
• externalName: example.com → Redirects traffic to this external domain.
• No selector or ports are required because it does not forward traffic to Pods.
• Useful when you want to reference external services (like external APIs or databases) using internal Kubernetes DNS.

5. Headless Service

• No Virtual IP: Configured with clusterIP: None, it skips assigning a single stable Service IP.
• Direct DNS Resolution: A DNS lookup returns the list of individual Pod IPs instead of one Service IP.
• Individual Pod Identity: Allows clients to discover and connect directly to specific Pods, bypassing the internal load balancer.
• Peer-to-Peer Focus: Essential for stateful applications (like Kafka or MongoDB) where Pods must identify and talk to specific peers.
• Client-Side Control: Moves the logic of choosing which Pod to talk to from Kubernetes to the application itself.

Example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: my-headless-service
spec:
clusterIP: None
selector:
app: my-app
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 80
targetPort: 8080

Explanation:

• clusterIP: None → Creates a Headless Service (no load balancing, no virtual IP).
• Traffic is routed directly to individual Pod IPs.
• Useful for StatefulSets, databases, and applications needing direct Pod-to-Pod communication.
• Each Pod gets its own DNS record instead of a single Service IP.

Kubernetes Service Working

• A Kubernetes Service selects Pods using labels and selectors, creating a stable endpoint for a dynamic set of Pods.
• It provides a stable ClusterIP and DNS name, so applications communicate with the Service instead of changing Pod IPs.
• kube-proxy routes traffic to healthy Pods using iptables/IPVS rules, enabling automatic load balancing and high availability.
• As Pods scale or restart, the Service automatically updates its endpoints, ensuring reliable and seamless communication inside the cluster.

Defining a Kubernetes Service

In the kubernetes cluster, there are no of objects which are having there own use cases and individual advantages. Same way service is part of objects which are present in kubernetes. To create an object or operate an object you can use the kubectl tool.

Example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: deployment-service
spec:
 selector:
 Tomcat: deploymentapp
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 8080

In the above we are exposing the Tomcat application deployed in the kubernetes cluster with labels of Tomcat: deployment app port: 80 is the port exposed internally in the cluster and port 8080 is the port of the Tomcat application.

Port Definitions

Kubernetes Services define three important port fields:

• Port: Port exposed by the Service.
• targetport: port inside the container
• nodeport: External port on Node. (NodePort type only).

Using Named Ports

Instead of using numeric targetPort, you can use a named container port.

Example:

kind: Pod
metadata:
 name: tomcat
 labels:
 deployemnt: deployemnet-java
spec:
 containers:
 - name: tomcat
 image: tomact:latest
 ports:
 - containerPort: 8080
 name: http-deplyment-port

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name:tomcat-service
spec:
 selector:
 deployemnt: deployemnet-java
 ports:
 - name: name-of-service-port
 protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort:http-deplyment-port

For example, we can see that instead of using the "targetPortnumber" you can use the name of the container as mentioned below. The target port is the port number that the service or pod is forwarding requests to.

Services Without Selectors

This type of service will be exposed to all the pods in the kubernetes cluster. If the service is having selectors then that service will be exposed to only certain pods in the kubernetes cluster. We can use this special case of pods for different situations as the following:

Example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: tomcat-service
spec:
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 8080

You can map the service to the required object by using the network address and port with the help of the Endpoint slice object manually.

EndpointSlices

• Scalability: Replaces the monolithic "Endpoints" object by breaking Pod IP lists into multiple smaller chunks, preventing performance bottlenecks in large clusters.
• 100-Endpoint Limit: Each slice is capped at 100 endpoints; once full, Kubernetes automatically generates a new slice to accommodate additional Pods.
• Reduced Network Traffic: When a single Pod changes, Kubernetes only updates and syncs the specific affected slice rather than re-transmitting the entire list of every Pod IP to every node.
• Efficient Control Plane: Minimizes the CPU and memory load on the API server and kube-proxy by handling manageable data segments instead of massive, bloated objects.
• Enhanced Metadata: Supports extra information beyond just IPs, such as topology (location) and dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6) addresses, for smarter traffic routing.

Custom EndpointSlices

The custom name can be given to endpoint slices when you create a new endpoint slice. By using the following EndpointSlices you can create custom Endpoint Slices.

Example

apiVersion: discovery.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: EndpointSlice
metadata:
 name: my-custom-endpointslice
spec:
 endpoints:
 - addresses:
 - 10.1.2.3
 ports:
 - name: http
 protocol: TCP
 port: 80

This manually connects a Service to an external IP.

Application Protocol

The application protocol is the field where you can mention the type of protocol that a specific service is listening to. The protocol can be anything that depends upon our requirements here are the some of application protocols.

1. TCP
2. UDP
3. HTTP
4. HTTPS

Important clarification:

• Services operate at Layer 4 (Transport layer).
• HTTP/HTTPS routing is handled by Ingress (Layer 7).
• Service type does NOT change based on protocol.

Multi-Port Services

Multi-port Service allows you to expose different protocols to the same service or different applications on the same service. You can configure multiple ports using the object in kubernetes called to service.

Example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: tomcat-service
spec:
 ports:
 - name: http
 port: 8080
 protocol: TCP
 - name: https
 port: 43
 protocol: TCP

By using the yaml which is mentioned above you can expose multiple ports but the IP address and DNS name will be the only one with that you can use various services.

Choosing Your Own IP Address

• Kubernetes will assign the IP address from within the service-cluster-ip-range CIDR range or you can choose your own customized IP address.
• You can reuse the DNS or IP address already in the kubernetes cluster. For reusing, you need to request while creating the service itself.

Example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: tomcat-service
spec:
 clusterIP: 10.10.10.10
 ports:
 - name: http
 port: 8080
 protocol: TC

Once you applied the above specification after that you can access the Tomcat application from the internet by using the IP address you mentioned in the yaml file our case it will be 10.10.10.10. You can also try the above yaml file to create your own customized IP address.

Choosing Your Own Port

• While exposing the pod to the internet we will use service objects in the Kubernetes cluster.
• We will use mainly the nodePort service in Kubernetes while exposing the pod in Kubernetes.
• You can mention your own port in the yaml in the section which is called nodePort: <PortNumber>.
• On this port, the users can access the service from the internet and the service will listen on the port which you have mentioned.

Example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: tomcat-service
spec:
 type: NodePort
 selector:
 app: Webapp 
 ports:
 - port: 80
 targetPort: 8080
# Control Plane in kubernetes will allocates an default 
IPaddress which is in the range of various between 30000-32767.
 nodePort: 300023
Service type

Access A Kubernetes Service: A Step-By-Step Guide

• We can access the kubernetes service using the services such as ClusterIP, NodePort ot LoadBalancer IP along with defining the port number.
• Clients within the cluster uses the service name and port. And the clients who are outside the cluster uses the cluster's external IP or DNS name.
• The following are the step by step guide for accessing the kubernetes service.

Create A Pod:

• Firstly create a yaml file for defining a pod application with a file name my-pod.yaml
• The following is the pod yaml file code that is used here:

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

• After once the file has created, then apply the definitions for creating the pod resources using the following command:

kubectl apply -f my-pod.yaml

Accessing Service Using NodePort

Step 1: Create A Service With NodePort

• For accessing the pod application externally from the cluster, we have to expose the service using NodePort. For that we creating service yaml file with name my-service.yaml .The file code looks as follows:

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

• Apply the service yaml file definitions using the following command:

kubectl apply -f my-service.yaml

Step 2: Access The Service

• Now, get the NodePort that is assigned to the service:

kubectl get svc my-service

• Access the service using any node's IP and the NodePort as shown in below:

curl http://<node-IP>:<NodePort>

Accessing Application Using Service Type ClusterIP

Step 1: Create A Service Using ClusterIP

• For creating a ClusterIP kind service to communicate with the application within the cluster, create a yaml file with name "my-clusterIP-service.yaml" as shown in the below:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: my-service
spec:
 selector:
 app: my-app
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 80

• Once, the my-clusterIP-service.yaml file is defined, then apply the definition to create the service as per requirement with ClusterIP type using the following command to apply.

kubectl apply -f my-service.yaml

Step 2: Access the Service Using ClusterIP

• ClusterIP is the default Service type and is accessible only inside the cluster. Access the service within the cluster using the service name will looks as follows:

curl http://my-service:80

Accessing Service Using Load Balancer

Step 1: Create A Service With Load Balancer

• For creating a load balancer service, create a yaml file with name "my-loadbalancer-service.yaml" as shown in the below:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: my-loadbalancer-service
spec:
 selector:
 app: my-app
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 80
 type: LoadBalancer

• After once created the my-loadbalancer-service.yaml file then apply the definition changes with the following command:

kubectl apply -f my-loadbalancer-service.yaml

Step 2: Access The Load Balancer

• Fristly in this get the external IP address of the Load balancer with the following command:

kubectl get svc my-loadbalancer-service

• Access the application using the service using the LoadBalancer's External IP:

curl http://<LoadBalancer-External-IP>:80

Accessing Service Using External IP

Step 1: Create A Service External IP

• For creating a External IP service, create a yaml file with name "external-service.yaml" as shown in the below assuming that the IP is already available:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: my-external-service
spec:
 selector:
 app: my-app
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 80
 externalIPs:
 - <External-IP>

• After once created the external-service.yaml file then apply the definition changes with the following command:

kubectl apply -f external-service.yaml

Step 2: Access The Service using External IP

• Access the service using the External IP as shown in the following:

curl http://<External-IP>:80

Accessing Service using Headless Service

Step 1: Create A Service of Headless Type

• For creating a Headless service, create a yaml file with name "my-headless-service.yaml" as shown in the below assuming that the IP is already available:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: my-headless-service
spec:
 selector:
 app: my-app
 clusterIP: None
 ports:
 - protocol: TCP
 port: 80
 targetPort: 80

• After once created the my-headless-service.yaml file then apply the definition changes with the following command:

kubectl apply -f my-headless-service.yaml

Step 2: Access Pods Directly via Headless Service

• Now, get the IPs of the pods that are managed by headless service with the following command:

kubectl get pods -o wide

• Use the Pod IPs to access the pods directly. The URL looks as follows:

curl http://<pod-IP>:80

Create and Use A Kubernetes Service to Expose Your Application: A Step-By-Step Guide

The following are the steps that guides on how to use a service to expose your application:

Step 1: Deploy your Application

Deploy your application using a Deployment or Pod yaml file. Here we are taking deployment yaml configure file that is provided as follows:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
 name: my-app
spec:
 replicas: 3
 selector:
 matchLabels:
 app: my-app
 template:
 metadata:
 labels:
 app: my-app
 spec:
 containers:
 - name: my-app-container
 image: nginx
 ports:
 - containerPort: 80

• Apply the defined yaml configuration file with the following command:

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml 

Step 2: Create A Kubernetes Service

Create a yaml file for defining the service to the created deployment and making the application be exposed. The service configured yaml file is given as follows:

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

• Apply the service resource configuration containing yaml file using the following command:

kubectl apply -f service.yaml

Step 3: Access Your Application

• Findout the NodePort that is exposed to the created service for the application with the following command:

 kubectl get svc my-app-service

• Now access your application using any node's IP and the NodePort.

 curl http://<node-IP>:<NodePort>

Step 4: Optional: Use Ingress

• If you want to provide the more advanced routing and external access control to the cluster. Consider on using the ingress resource along with the your service.

Kubernetes Service Vs pod

The following are the differences between Kubernetes Service and Kubernetes Pod:

Discovering services

The kubernetes service can be discovered by using two methods as follows.

1. DNS discovery
2. Environmental Variables

DNS discovery

When you first create a service kubernetes will automatically create DNS records for the service. The application finds the service in kubernetes with the help of DNS discovery which will point to the IP address of the service.

All the cluster services will be stored in the cluster-wide domain which is svc. cluster. local. The format of the DNS record is as follows.

<service-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local

DNS in Kubernetes assigns the domain and sub-domain name to the pods and for service. By which other objects or resources in the Kubernetes cluster can discover services by the domain names.

Environmental Variables

Environmental variables will be helpful for the DNS discovery to discover the service in the Kubernetes cluster. You need to mention the environmental variables in the service yaml file as follows then only DNS discovery will discover the service which is available in the Kubernetes cluster;

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
 name: tomcat-service
spec:
 selector:
 app: my-app
 ports:
 - name: http
 port: 8080
 protocol: TCP
 env:
 - name: SERVICE_IP
 value: "127.0.0.1"
 - name: SERVICE_PORT
 value: "80"