Configuring Static IP address with Ingress Nginx Sticky Session on Azure Kubernetes

Question

I am trying to configure an additional layer of Sticky Session to my current Kubernetes architecture. Instead of routing every request through the main LoadBalancer service, I want to route the requests through an upper layer of nginx sticky session. I am following the guide on https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/examples/affinity/cookie/

I am using Azure Cloud for my cluster deployment. Previously, using a Service with LoadBalancer type would automatically generate an external IP address for users to connect to my cluster. Now I need to configure the static IP address for my users to connect to, with the nginx ingress in place. How can I do so? I followed the guide here - https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/tree/master/docs/examples/static-ip but the external address of the Ingress is still empty!!

What did I do wrongly?

# nginx-sticky-service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx-ingress-lb
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
spec:
  externalTrafficPolicy: Local
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
  - port: 80
    name: http
    targetPort: 80
  - port: 443
    name: https
    targetPort: 443
  selector:
    # Selects nginx-ingress-controller pods
    app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx

# nginx-sticky-controller.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-ingress-controller
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
      app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
        app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
    spec:
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 60
      containers:
      - image: quay.io/kubernetes-ingress-controller/nginx-ingress-controller:0.31.0
        name: nginx-ingress-controller
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
          hostPort: 80
        - containerPort: 443
          hostPort: 443
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu: 0.5
            memory: "0.5Gi"
          requests:
            cpu: 0.5
            memory: "0.5Gi"
        env:
          - name: POD_NAME
            valueFrom:
              fieldRef:
                fieldPath: metadata.name
          - name: POD_NAMESPACE
            valueFrom:
              fieldRef:
                fieldPath: metadata.namespace
        args:
        - /nginx-ingress-controller
        - --publish-service=$(POD_NAMESPACE)/nginx-ingress-lb

# nginx-sticky-server.yaml

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: ingress-nginx
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "nginx"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity: "cookie"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-name: "nginx-sticky-server"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-expires: "172800"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-max-age: "172800"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "false"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity-mode: persistent
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-hash: sha1
spec:
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          # This assumes http-svc exists and routes to healthy endpoints.
          serviceName: my-own-service-master
          servicePort: http

Seng Wee Seng Wee · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-27T12:55:42

Ok I got it working. I think the difference lies in the cloud provider you are using, and for Azure Cloud, you should follow their documentation and their way of implementing ingress controller in the Kubernetes cluster.

Link over here for deploying the ingress controller. Their way of creating the public IP address within the Kubernetes cluster and linking it up with the ingress controller works. I can confirm as of now, the time of writing.

Once I am done deploying the steps in the link above, I can apply the ingress .yaml file as usual i.e. kubectl apply -f nginx-sticky-server.yaml to set up the nginx sticky session. IF the service name and service port stated in your ingress .yaml file is correct, the nginx ingress controller should redirect your user requests to the correct service.

Configuring Static IP address with Ingress Nginx Sticky Session on Azure Kubernetes

1 Answers