website/content/en/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/connecting-frontend-backend.md

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---
title: Connect a Frontend to a Backend Using Services
content_type: tutorial
weight: 70
---
<!-- overview -->
This task shows how to create a _frontend_ and a _backend_ microservice. The backend
microservice is a hello greeter. The frontend exposes the backend using nginx and a
Kubernetes {{< glossary_tooltip term_id="service" >}} object.
## {{% heading "objectives" %}}
* Create and run a sample `hello` backend microservice using a
{{< glossary_tooltip term_id="deployment" >}} object.
* Use a Service object to send traffic to the backend microservice's multiple replicas.
* Create and run a `nginx` frontend microservice, also using a Deployment object.
* Configure the frontend microservice to send traffic to the backend microservice.
* Use a Service object of `type=LoadBalancer` to expose the frontend microservice
outside the cluster.
## {{% heading "prerequisites" %}}
{{< include "task-tutorial-prereqs.md" >}} {{< version-check >}}
This task uses
[Services with external load balancers](/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/create-external-load-balancer/), which
require a supported environment. If your environment does not support this, you can use a Service of type
[NodePort](/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/#nodeport) instead.
<!-- lessoncontent -->
## Creating the backend using a Deployment
The backend is a simple hello greeter microservice. Here is the configuration
file for the backend Deployment:
{{< codenew file="service/access/backend-deployment.yaml" >}}
Create the backend Deployment:
```shell
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/access/backend-deployment.yaml
```
View information about the backend Deployment:
```shell
kubectl describe deployment backend
```
The output is similar to this:
```
Name: backend
Namespace: default
CreationTimestamp: Mon, 24 Oct 2016 14:21:02 -0700
Labels: app=hello
tier=backend
track=stable
Annotations: deployment.kubernetes.io/revision=1
Selector: app=hello,tier=backend,track=stable
Replicas: 3 desired | 3 updated | 3 total | 3 available | 0 unavailable
StrategyType: RollingUpdate
MinReadySeconds: 0
RollingUpdateStrategy: 1 max unavailable, 1 max surge
Pod Template:
Labels: app=hello
tier=backend
track=stable
Containers:
hello:
Image: "gcr.io/google-samples/hello-go-gke:1.0"
Port: 80/TCP
Environment: <none>
Mounts: <none>
Volumes: <none>
Conditions:
Type Status Reason
---- ------ ------
Available True MinimumReplicasAvailable
Progressing True NewReplicaSetAvailable
OldReplicaSets: <none>
NewReplicaSet: hello-3621623197 (3/3 replicas created)
Events:
...
```
## Creating the `hello` Service object
The key to sending requests from a frontend to a backend is the backend
Service. A Service creates a persistent IP address and DNS name entry
so that the backend microservice can always be reached. A Service uses
{{< glossary_tooltip text="selectors" term_id="selector" >}} to find
the Pods that it routes traffic to.
First, explore the Service configuration file:
{{< codenew file="service/access/backend-service.yaml" >}}
In the configuration file, you can see that the Service, named `hello` routes
traffic to Pods that have the labels `app: hello` and `tier: backend`.
Create the backend Service:
```shell
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/access/backend-service.yaml
```
At this point, you have a `backend` Deployment running three replicas of your `hello`
application, and you have a Service that can route traffic to them. However, this
service is neither available nor resolvable outside the cluster.
## Creating the frontend
Now that you have your backend running, you can create a frontend that is accessible
outside the cluster, and connects to the backend by proxying requests to it.
The frontend sends requests to the backend worker Pods by using the DNS name
given to the backend Service. The DNS name is `hello`, which is the value
of the `name` field in the `examples/service/access/backend-service.yaml`
configuration file.
The Pods in the frontend Deployment run a nginx image that is configured
to proxy requests to the `hello` backend Service. Here is the nginx configuration file:
{{< codenew file="service/access/frontend-nginx.conf" >}}
Similar to the backend, the frontend has a Deployment and a Service. An important
difference to notice between the backend and frontend services, is that the
configuration for the frontend Service has `type: LoadBalancer`, which means that
the Service uses a load balancer provisioned by your cloud provider and will be
accessible from outside the cluster.
{{< codenew file="service/access/frontend-service.yaml" >}}
{{< codenew file="service/access/frontend-deployment.yaml" >}}
Create the frontend Deployment and Service:
```shell
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/access/frontend-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/access/frontend-service.yaml
```
The output verifies that both resources were created:
```
deployment.apps/frontend created
service/frontend created
```
{{< note >}}
The nginx configuration is baked into the
[container image](/examples/service/access/Dockerfile). A better way to do this would
be to use a
[ConfigMap](/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-pod-configmap/),
so that you can change the configuration more easily.
{{< /note >}}
## Interact with the frontend Service
Once you've created a Service of type LoadBalancer, you can use this
command to find the external IP:
```shell
kubectl get service frontend --watch
```
This displays the configuration for the `frontend` Service and watches for
changes. Initially, the external IP is listed as `<pending>`:
```
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
frontend LoadBalancer 10.51.252.116 <pending> 80/TCP 10s
```
As soon as an external IP is provisioned, however, the configuration updates
to include the new IP under the `EXTERNAL-IP` heading:
```
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
frontend LoadBalancer 10.51.252.116 XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX 80/TCP 1m
```
That IP can now be used to interact with the `frontend` service from outside the
cluster.
## Send traffic through the frontend
The frontend and backend are now connected. You can hit the endpoint
by using the curl command on the external IP of your frontend Service.
```shell
curl http://${EXTERNAL_IP} # replace this with the EXTERNAL-IP you saw earlier
```
The output shows the message generated by the backend:
```json
{"message":"Hello"}
```
## {{% heading "cleanup" %}}
To delete the Services, enter this command:
```shell
kubectl delete services frontend backend
```
To delete the Deployments, the ReplicaSets and the Pods that are running the backend and frontend applications, enter this command:
```shell
kubectl delete deployment frontend backend
```
## {{% heading "whatsnext" %}}
* Learn more about [Services](/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/)
* Learn more about [ConfigMaps](/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-pod-configmap/)
* Learn more about [DNS for Service and Pods](/docs/concepts/services-networking/dns-pod-service/)