Install nginx Ingress controller

Installing the nginx Ingress Controller automatically creates a Load Balancer that acts as an entry point for incoming traffic. The Load Balancer forwards requests to the Ingress Controller, which routes them to the appropriate services based on Ingress manifest rules.

Step 1. Install Helm

Helm is a package manager that simplifies deploying and managing applications on Kubernetes.

The following tabs cover installation on the most common operating systems. For other platforms, the Helm installation guide lists additional methods.

On Linux

1. In the terminal, run the official Helm installation script:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash

This downloads and installs the latest version of Helm to /usr/local/bin/helm.

2. Verify the installation: helm version

On macOS

With Homebrew installed, run:

brew install helm

Without Homebrew, use the Linux installation method.

Verify the installation: helm version

On Windows

Download the latest Helm release from the Helm GitHub releases page and extract the ZIP file to a local directory.

Add the directory containing helm.exe to the system PATH:

1. Open Start and search for Edit the system environment variables.

2. In the System properties window, click Environment variables.

3. Under System variables, select Path and click Edit.

4. Click New and enter the full path to the directory containing helm.exe.

5. Click OK to save.

Verify the installation by running helm version in the terminal.

Step 2. Deploy the nginx Ingress Controller

The following commands create a dedicated namespace, register the Helm repository, and install the controller.

1. Create a namespace for the controller:

kubectl create namespace ingress-nginx

2. Add the nginx Ingress Controller Helm repository:

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

3. Update the repository index:

helm repo update

4. Install the nginx Ingress Controller:

helm install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
\--namespace ingress-nginx \
\--set controller.ingressClassResource.name=nginx

Once installed, the controller provisions a Load Balancer automatically.

Step 3. Get the Load Balancer IP address

Run the following command to watch the service until an external IP is assigned:

watch kubectl -n ingress-nginx get svc

Wait until the EXTERNAL-IP column changes from <pending> to an IP address.

The Load Balancer also appears in the Gcore Customer Portal under Networking > Load Balancers, where it routes all incoming traffic to the nginx Ingress Controller.