This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Latchu@DevOps
When running multiple applications in Kubernetes, exposing them through different LoadBalancers becomes costly and hard to manage.
This is where Ingress comes in – it allows path-based routing, so a single LoadBalancer can serve multiple applications.
In this guide, we’ll deploy 3 Nginx apps in GKE and configure Ingress so that:
- /app1/* → routes to app1 service
- /app2/* → routes to app2 service
- /* → routes to app3 service (default)
🟢 Step-01: Introduction
We will:
- Deploy App1, App2, App3 with Nginx containers.
- Expose them via NodePort services.
- Configure a single Ingress with path-based rules.
🟡 Step-02: Deploy App1, App2 & App3
🔹 app1-deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: app1-nginx-deployment
labels:
app: app1-nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: app1-nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: app1-nginx
spec:
containers:
- name: app1-nginx
image: ghcr.io/stacksimplify/kube-nginxapp1:1.0.0
ports:
- containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: app1-nginx-nodeport-service
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: app1-nginx
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
🔹 app2-deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: app2-nginx-deployment
labels:
app: app2-nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: app2-nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: app2-nginx
spec:
containers:
- name: app2-nginx
image: ghcr.io/stacksimplify/kube-nginxapp2:1.0.0
ports:
- containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: app2-nginx-nodeport-service
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: app2-nginx
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
🔹 app3-deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: app3-nginx-deployment
labels:
app: app3-nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: app3-nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: app3-nginx
spec:
containers:
- name: app3-nginx
image: ghcr.io/stacksimplify/kubenginx:1.0.0
ports:
- containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: app3-nginx-nodeport-service
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: app3-nginx
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
🔹 ingress-cpr.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: ingress-cpr
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "gce" # GKE Ingress Controller
spec:
defaultBackend:
service:
name: app3-nginx-nodeport-service
port:
number: 80
rules:
- http:
paths:
- path: /app1
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: app1-nginx-nodeport-service
port:
number: 80
- path: /app2
pathType: Prefix
backend:
service:
name: app2-nginx-nodeport-service
port:
number: 80
🟣 Step-04: Deploy & Verify
# Apply manifests
kubectl apply -f ingress/
# Check pods
kubectl get pods
# Check services
kubectl get svc
# Check Ingress
kubectl get ingress
kubectl describe ingress ingress-cpr
👉 Wait 3–5 minutes for the LoadBalancer to be created.
🔴 Step-05: Access the Applications
Once the LoadBalancer is ready, check the ADDRESS field in Ingress output.
http://<INGRESS-ADDRESS>/app1/index.html
http://<INGRESS-ADDRESS>/app2/index.html
http://<INGRESS-ADDRESS>/
🟠 Step-06: Verify in Google Cloud Console
Go to:
➡️ Load Balancing → Click on the LoadBalancer → Explore tabs:
- DETAILS: Frontend, Host/Path rules, Backend services, Health checks
- MONITORING: Traffic & Latency
- COMPONENTS: Forwarding rules, Target proxies, Certificates
🟤 Step-07: Clean Up
kubectl delete -f ingress/
✅ Summary
- We deployed 3 Nginx apps.
- Exposed them via NodePort Services.
- Configured Ingress for context path routing.
- Verified traffic routing through a single GKE LoadBalancer.
This is one of the most common real-world patterns for microservices routing in Kubernetes 🎯.
🌟 Thanks for reading! If this post added value, a like ❤️, follow, or share would encourage me to keep creating more content.
— Latchu | Senior DevOps & Cloud Engineer
☁️ AWS | GCP | ☸️ Kubernetes | 🔐 Security | ⚡ Automation
📌 Sharing hands-on guides, best practices & real-world cloud solutions
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Latchu@DevOps
Latchu@DevOps | Sciencx (2025-10-03T09:36:19+00:00) Part-108: 🚀Kubernetes Ingress – Context Path Based Routing in Google Kubernetes Engine. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/10/03/part-108-%f0%9f%9a%80kubernetes-ingress-context-path-based-routing-in-google-kubernetes-engine/
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