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Kong Ingress Controller

Kong Ingress Controller allows you to run Kong Gateway as a Kubernetes Ingress to handle inbound requests for a Kubernetes cluster.

Kong Ingress Controller takes Kubernetes resources such as Ingress and HTTPRoute and converts them into a valid Kong Gateway configuration. It enables you to use all the features of Kong Gateway.

Architecture

A Kubernetes ingress controller is an application that runs in a cluster and configures a load balancer based on Kubernetes resources (Ingress, HTTPRoute, TCPRoute and more). Kong Ingress Controller configures Kong Gateway as a software load balancer which runs in the cluster and is typically exposed as a LoadBalancer service.

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Deployment Methods

Kong recommends using the kong/ingress Helm chart to deploy Kong Ingress Controller. This chart supports both DB-less and DB-backed deployments. If you’re unsure which to choose, we recommend choosing DB-less, which treats the Kubernetes API server as the source of truth.

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Common Use Cases

Many Kong Ingress Controller users have the same questions when adding an ingress controller to their cluster:

• How do I expose my service on a specific path?
• How do I protect the service with rate limiting?
• How do I cache responses for a period of time to reduce load?
• How do I add authentication to my service?

To do all of these in under 10 minutes, follow our getting started guide which takes you through step-by-step. Each page contains copy/paste instructions and links to further information if you want to learn more.

Gateway API Support

Kong is proud to be a driving force behind the Kubernetes Gateway API standard. With multiple contributors in maintainer and reviewer roles, Kong is all-in on Gateway API as the future of Kubernetes networking.

Kong Ingress Controller was the first submitted conformance report, and is 100% compliant with the core conformance tests (in addition to many extended tests). Kong has implemented the Gateway API resources as first-class citizens, converting them directly in to Kong Gateway configuration rather than using intermediate CRDs. This makes the Gateway API CRDs a native language for Kong Ingress Controller.

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Troubleshooting

The following pages may help if Kong Ingress Controller is not working for you:

• Troubleshooting: Common issues that people encounter when running Kong Ingress Controller.
• FAQ: Specific questions about routing behavior, plugin compatibility and more.
• Feature Gates: If something isn’t working as expected, ensure that you have the correct feature gates enabled
• Create a GitHub issue: Report a bug or make a feature request for Kong Ingress Controller.
• Join the Kong Slack community: Get help from the team