Kubernetes ingress to apps/APIs on clusters managed by Canonical MicroK8s

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What you’ll need

• MicroK8s installed locally.
• An ngrok account.
• kubectl and Helm 3.0.0+ installed on your local workstation.
• The ngrok Kubernetes Operator installed on your cluster.
• A reserved domain from the ngrok dashboard or API; this guide refers to it as <NGROK_DOMAIN>.

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Deploy a Kubernetes cluster with MicroK8s

• Follow the MicroK8s get-started tutorial to install the binary for your target system. Once MicroK8s is installed, it automatically deploys a single-node Kubernetes cluster.
• Run microk8s status --wait-ready to check on the state of your MicroK8s cluster.
  microk8s status --wait-ready
  
  microk8s is running
  high-availability: no
    datastore master nodes: 127.0.0.1:19001
    datastore standby nodes: none
  ...
  
  If you see microk8s is ready, your new cluster is ready.

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Install an example app

• If you don’t have an ngrok static domain, create one. Navigate to the Domains section of the ngrok dashboard and click Create Domain or New Domain. This static domain, which will look like example.ngrok.app, will be your NGROK_DOMAIN for the remainder of this guide. Creating a subdomain on the ngrok network provides a public route to accept HTTP, HTTPS, and TLS traffic.
• Create a new Kubernetes manifest (tinyllama.yaml) with the YAML below. This manifest defines the tinyllama demo LLM application from ngrok-samples/tinyllama (service and deployment), then configures the ngrok Kubernetes Operator to connect the tinyllama service to the ngrok network via your NGROK_DOMAIN.
  showLineNumbers

  apiVersion: v1
  kind: Service
  metadata:
    name: tinyllama
    namespace: default
  spec:
    ports:
      - name: http
        port: 80
        targetPort: 8080
    selector:
      app: tinyllama
  ---
  apiVersion: apps/v1
  kind: Deployment
  metadata:
    name: tinyllama
    namespace: default
  spec:
    replicas: 1
    selector:
      matchLabels:
        app: tinyllama
    template:
      metadata:
        labels:
          app: tinyllama
      spec:
        containers:
          - name: tinyllama
            image: ghcr.io/ngrok-samples/tinyllama:main
            ports:
              - name: http
                containerPort: 8080
  
• Apply the tinyllama.yaml manifest to your MicroK8s cluster.
  kubectl apply -f tinyllama.yaml
  

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Configure the ngrok Kubernetes Operator

• Create a new file called gatewayclass.yaml on your workstation with the below YAML:
  apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
  kind: GatewayClass
  metadata:
    name: ngrok
  spec:
    controllerName: ngrok.com/gateway-controller
  
• Install the GatewayClass:
  kubectl apply -f gatewayclass.yaml
  
• Create a new file named tinyllama-gateway.yaml on your workstation with the below YAML, replacing <YOUR_NGROK_DOMAIN>:
  showLineNumbers

  apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
  kind: Gateway
  metadata:
    name: tinyllama-gateway
    namespace: default
  spec:
    gatewayClassName: ngrok
    listeners:
      - name: tinyllama-web
        protocol: HTTPS
        port: 80
        hostname: "<YOUR_NGROK_DOMAIN>"
        allowedRoutes:
          namespaces:
            from: Same
  ---
  apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
  kind: HTTPRoute
  metadata:
    name: tinyllama-route
    namespace: default
  spec:
    parentRefs:
      - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
        kind: Gateway
        name: tinyllama-gateway
        namespace: default
    hostnames:
      - "<YOUR_NGROK_DOMAIN>"
    rules:
      - matches:
          - path:
              type: PathPrefix
              value: /
        backendRefs:
          - name: tinyllama
            kind: Service
            port: 80
  
  This YAML uses the Gateway API to first define a Gateway that allows north/south traffic to enter the cluster from external requests, then uses an HTTPRoute to terminate the connection at the pod running the tinyllama service.
• Access your tinyllama demo app by navigating to your ngrok domain, for example, https://<YOUR_NGROK_DOMAIN>. ngrok’s network and the ngrok Kubernetes Operator route traffic to your app from any device or external network.

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What’s next?