Kubernetes

Services Commands

Expose and load balance your applications. Learn about Service types (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer), service discovery, and how to connect applications within the cluster.

9 commands

Pro Tips

Use ClusterIP for internal services, NodePort for testing, and LoadBalancer for production external access.

Services provide DNS names: 'servicename.namespace.svc.cluster.local' for cross-namespace communication.

Use 'kubectl port-forward svc/myservice 8080:80' for quick local access without exposing the service.

Common Mistakes

LoadBalancer services may incur cloud provider costs. Use Ingress for HTTP/HTTPS traffic to reduce costs.

Ensure pod selectors match your deployment labels - mismatched labels mean no traffic reaches pods.

Commands

List services

$ kubectl get services

List all services in namespace.

Describe service

$ kubectl describe service <name>

Show detailed service information.

Create ClusterIP service

$ kubectl create service clusterip <name> --tcp=80:8080

Create internal ClusterIP service.

Create NodePort service

$ kubectl create service nodeport <name> --tcp=80:8080

Create NodePort service for external access.

Create LoadBalancer service

$ kubectl create service loadbalancer <name> --tcp=80:8080

Create LoadBalancer service.

Expose deployment

$ kubectl expose deployment <name> --port=80 --target-port=8080

Create service to expose a deployment.

Get service endpoints

$ kubectl get endpoints <service>

Show pod IPs backing a service.

Port forward to pod

$ kubectl port-forward pod/<pod> 8080:80

Forward local port to pod port.

Port forward to service

$ kubectl port-forward svc/<service> 8080:80

Forward local port to service port.