Service

Each pod in the Kubernetes cluster is assigned an internal IP address. Since pods are created and deleted and their IP addresses change, it doesn't make sense to use IP addresses for pods directly. Use a service to get permanent access to the pods and stop using internal IP addresses.

A service is a Kubernetes API object (Service) designed to provide access to an app running as a set of pods in a Kubernetes cluster.

If you use a service, you get a permanent IP address that exists throughout the service lifecycle, even if pods change their IP addresses. It also provides load balancing. Clients send requests to a single IP address, and their requests are balanced between the pods belonging to the service.

The set of pods belonging to the service is defined by a selector. The selector is defined by the user when creating the pod and allows them to filter the list of resources based on labels (key-value pairs assigned to the resource). The pod belongs to the service if it has all the labels specified in the selector.

Depending on your task, you can use different types of services.

Service types

You can use various types of services in your Kubernetes clusters, including:

• ClusterIP
  • The service is accessible only within the Kubernetes cluster network via an internal IP address.
  • It doesn't require any additional cloud resources.
• NodePort is a ClusterIP extensions.
  • It provides access to the service via internal or public Kubernetes cluster node IP addresses.
  • It doesn't require any additional cloud resources.
• LoadBalancer is a NodePort extension.
  • It provides access to the service via the created cloud load balancer.
  • It requires an additional cloud resource (load balancer).

Learn more about service types in the Kubernetes documentation.

Managed Service for Kubernetes lets you use LoadBalancer services based on a network load balancer created in Yandex Load Balancer with a public or internal IP address.

See also

• Granting access to an app running in a cluster Kubernetes.