This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Cheulong Sear
This article will show you how to install MetalLB in K8s and expose a load balancer in your network.
Please refer to the official doc for more detail.
Preparation
If you’re using kube-proxy in IPVS mode, since Kubernetes v1.14.2 you have to enable strict ARP mode.
run
kubectl get configmap kube-proxy -n kube-system -o yaml | \
sed -e "s/strictARP: false/strictARP: true/" | \
kubectl diff -f - -n kube-system
if you see something like this
then run
kubectl get configmap kube-proxy -n kube-system -o yaml | \
sed -e "s/strictARP: false/strictARP: true/" | \
kubectl apply -f - -n kube-system
Installation with Helm
helm repo add metallb https://metallb.github.io/metallb
helm install metallb metallb/metallb --create-namespace -n metallb-system
L2 configuration
create metallb-config.yaml
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: IPAddressPool
metadata:
name: default-ip-pool
namespace: metallb-system
spec:
addresses:
- 192.168.186.241-192.168.186.250
---
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: L2Advertisement
metadata:
name: default
namespace: metallb-system
spec:
ipAddressPools:
- default-ip-pool
run kubectl apply -f metallb-config.yaml
Note: ip range need to be inside 192.168.186.0/24 range
Check if it works
kubectl get ipaddresspools -n metallb-system
kubectl get l2advertisement -n metallb-system
Deploy nginx
run kubectl create deploy nginx --image nginx:latest
Expose nginx with load balancer
run kubectl expose deploy nginx --port 80 --type LoadBalancer
cheulong-sear@cheulong-linux:~$ k get svc
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
kubernetes ClusterIP 10.96.0.1 <none> 443/TCP 16d
nginx LoadBalancer 10.106.24.222 192.168.186.242 80:32454/TCP 69s
test-nginx NodePort 10.99.173.211 <none> 80:32544/TCP 16d
go to 192.168.186.242
=== Done ===
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Leave a comment if you have any questions.
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This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Cheulong Sear
Cheulong Sear | Sciencx (2025-10-14T18:54:49+00:00) Expose the Kubernetes Load Balancer on Bare Metal using MetalLB. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/10/14/expose-the-kubernetes-load-balancer-on-bare-metal-using-metallb/
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