Common Ingress Errors in Kubernetes: Troubleshooting Guide

Common Ingress Errors in Kubernetes

Ingress is a powerful Kubernetes resource that manages external access to services within your cluster. However, it often becomes a source of confusion and frustration due to misconfigurations or overlooked details. This article outlines the most common Ingress errors and how to fix them.

1. Misconfigured Annotations

Annotations can control features like URL rewrites, authentication, and rate limiting. Incorrect annotations may silently break your setup.

Example Fix:

annotations:
  nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /$1

2. Incorrect Service Target Port

Ensure the port specified in the Ingress resource matches the targetPort in your Service definition.

Example Service:

spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 8080

3. TLS Misconfiguration

Missing or misconfigured TLS secrets can lead to HTTPS errors.

Fix:

tls:
  - hosts:
      - example.com
    secretName: example-tls-secret

Make sure the secret exists and contains the correct certificate and private key.

4. Ingress Controller Not Running

Without a running Ingress controller (e.g. NGINX, Traefik), your Ingress resources will do nothing.

Check:

kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx

5. DNS Not Resolving

Ensure your domain name is pointed to the external IP of your Ingress controller.

Check External IP:

kubectl get svc -n ingress-nginx

Conclusion

Ingress errors are common but usually easy to resolve with the right debugging steps. Always start by checking the controller logs and validating the YAML files.