website/docs/tutorials/stateless-application/expose-external-ip-address.md

---
title: Exposing an External IP Address to Access an Application in a Cluster
---

{% capture overview %}

This page shows how to create a Kubernetes Service object that exposes an
external IP address.

{% endcapture %}


{% capture prerequisites %}

 * Install [kubectl](http://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/kubectl/install/).

 * Use a cloud provider like Google Container Engine or Amazon Web Services to
 create a Kubernetes cluster. This tutorial creates an
 [external load balancer](/docs/user-guide/load-balancer/),
 which requires a cloud provider.

 * Configure `kubectl` to communicate with your Kubernetes API server. For
 instructions, see the documentation for your cloud provider.

{% endcapture %}


{% capture objectives %}

* Run five instances of a Hello World application.
* Create a Service object that exposes an external IP address.
* Use the Service object to access the running application.

{% endcapture %}


{% capture lessoncontent %}

## Creating a service for an application running in five pods

1. Run a Hello World application in your cluster:

        kubectl run hello-world --replicas=5 --labels="run=load-balancer-example" --image=gcr.io/google-samples/node-hello:1.0  --port=8080

    The preceding command creates a
    [Deployment](/docs/user-guide/deployments/)
    object and an associated
    [ReplicaSet](/docs/user-guide/replicasets/)
    object. The ReplicaSet has five
    [Pods](/docs/user-guide/pods/),
    each of which runs the Hello World application.

1. Display information about the Deployment:

        kubectl get deployments hello-world
        kubectl describe deployments hello-world

1. Display information about your ReplicaSet objects:

        kubectl get replicasets
        kubectl describe replicasets

1. Create a Service object that exposes the deployment:

        kubectl expose deployment hello-world --type=LoadBalancer --name=my-service

1. Display information about the Service:

        kubectl get services my-service

    The output is similar to this:

        NAME         CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)    AGE
        my-service   10.3.245.137   104.198.205.71   8080/TCP   54s

    Note: If the external IP address is shown as \<pending\>, wait for a minute
    and enter the same command again.

1. Display detailed information about the Service:

        kubectl describe services my-service

    The output is similar to this:

        Name:           my-service
        Namespace:      default
        Labels:         run=load-balancer-example
        Selector:       run=load-balancer-example
        Type:           LoadBalancer
        IP:             10.3.245.137
        LoadBalancer Ingress:   104.198.205.71
        Port:           <unset> 8080/TCP
        NodePort:       <unset> 32377/TCP
        Endpoints:      10.0.0.6:8080,10.0.1.6:8080,10.0.1.7:8080 + 2 more...
        Session Affinity:   None
        Events:

    Make a note of the external IP address exposed by your service. In this
    example, the external IP address is 104.198.205.71. Also note
    the value of Port. In this example, the port is 8080.

1. In the preceding output, you can see that the service has several endpoints:
   10.0.0.6:8080,10.0.1.6:8080,10.0.1.7:8080 + 2 more. These are internal
   addresses of the pods that are running the Hello World application. To
   verify these are pod addresses, enter this command:

        kubectl get pods --output=wide

    The output is similar to this:

        NAME                         ...  IP         NODE
        hello-world-2895499144-1jaz9 ...  10.0.1.6   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc
        hello-world-2895499144-2e5uh ...  0.0.1.8    gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc
        hello-world-2895499144-9m4h1 ...  10.0.0.6   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-5v7a
        hello-world-2895499144-o4z13 ...  10.0.1.7   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc
        hello-world-2895499144-segjf ...  10.0.2.5   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-cpuc

1. Use the external IP address to access the Hello World application:

        curl http://<external-ip>:<port>

    where `<external-ip>` is the external IP address of your Service,
    and `<port>` is the value of `Port` in your Service description.

    The response to a successful request is a hello message:

        Hello Kubernetes!

{% endcapture %}


{% capture cleanup %}

To delete the Service, enter this command:

    kubectl delete services my-service

To delete the Deployment, the ReplicaSet, and the Pods that are running
the Hello World application, enter this command:

    kubectl delete deployment hello-world

{% endcapture %}


{% capture whatsnext %}

Learn more about
[connecting applications with services](/docs/user-guide/connecting-applications/).
{% endcapture %}

{% include templates/tutorial.md %}