Mastering Kubernetes Services: Types, Use-cases, and Security Practices

What is a Kubernetes Service?

Edited by the Author

One of the core features of Kubernetes is its Service concept, which provides a way to expose applications running in a cluster to other services or users.

In this article, we will dive deeper into Kubernetes Services and their types, use cases, examples, and security practices.

What is a Kubernetes Service?

A Kubernetes Service is an abstraction that defines a logical set of pods and a policy by which to access them. Services enable a loose coupling between dependent applications by providing a stable IP address and DNS name for a set of pods, even if the pods are dynamically scaled or replaced.

A Service consists of a selector and a set of endpoints. The selector is used to match a set of pods, and the endpoints are the IP addresses of the pods that match the selector.

Types of Kubernetes Services:

Kubernetes Services come in four types: ClusterIP, LoadBalancer, and NodePort

ClusterIP

A ClusterIP Service provides a stable IP address and DNS name for pods within a cluster. This type of Service is the default, and it is used for internal communication between services in a cluster. Only pods within the cluster can access a ClusterIP Service. The Service is not accessible from outside the cluster.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: sample-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: sample-app
  ports:
    - name: http
      protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

Use-case: It is commonly used for microservices that communicate with each other within a cluster.

LoadBalancer

A LoadBalancer Service provides a public IP address and DNS name for a set of pods.

This type of Service is used to expose a service to the internet. The Service can be used to balance the load between multiple pods and route traffic to the appropriate pod.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: sample-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: sample-app
  ports:
    - name: http…