Deploying NGINX Ingress Controller (NodePort) for Traffic Testing

This guide installs the NGINX Ingress Controller using Helm, configured to expose HTTP and HTTPS traffic via NodePort services.

Requirements

• Kubernetes cluster is already running and reachable.
• Helm is installed on your control machine (helm version).
• Nodes in your cluster expose ports 30080 (HTTP) and 30443 (HTTPS) to the outside (e.g., via HAProxy or direct access).

Step 1: Add the Ingress-NGINX Helm Repository

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm repo update

Step 2: Install the Ingress Controller using NodePort

helm upgrade --install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-nginx --create-namespace \
  --set controller.service.type=NodePort \
  --set controller.service.nodePorts.http=30080 \
  --set controller.service.nodePorts.https=30443 \
  --set controller.publishService.enabled=false

This will:

• Create the ingress-nginx namespace
• Deploy the controller
• Expose HTTP on NodePort 30080 and HTTPS on 30443

Step 3: Verify the Deployment

kubectl get all -n ingress-nginx

Check that the controller Pod is running and the service is correctly exposed:

kubectl get svc -n ingress-nginx ingress-nginx-controller

Expected output:

NAME                       TYPE       CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                      AGE
ingress-nginx-controller   NodePort   10.x.x.x       <none>        80:30080/TCP,443:30443/TCP   2m

Step 4: Deploy a Sample App with Ingress

Create a file ingress-demo.yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: httpd
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpd
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: httpd
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: httpd
        image: httpd:2.4
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: httpd
spec:
  selector:
    app: httpd
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 80

---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: httpd-ingress
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
  - host: httpd.local
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: httpd
            port:
              number: 80

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f ingress-demo.yaml

Step 5: Add Host Entry for Testing

On your local machine (host), add to /etc/hosts:

192.168.56.17 httpd.local

Replace 192.168.56.17 with the IP of the HAProxy node or any worker node exposing port 30080.

Step 6: Test HTTP Access

curl http://httpd.local

Expected result: It works! (Apache default page)

Or open in browser:

http://httpd.local

Summary

Purpose	Value
HTTP NodePort	30080
HTTPS NodePort	30443
Test Hostname	httpd.local
Controller Namespace	ingress-nginx
Access via	HAProxy or direct

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Would you like me to extend this with a TLS (HTTPS) example or add automated cleanup?