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Expose an ingress gateway using an external load balancer
Overview
With Cloud Service Mesh you can deploy and manage ingress gateways as part of your
service mesh. You can further configure load balancing for your cluster with
Cloud Service Mesh by using external load balancers (physical or software load
balancers outside of the cluster) to send traffic to the ingress gateway.
To complete the steps in this document you need the following resources:
A Kubernetes cluster with Cloud Service Mesh installed.
An external load balancer that can access the nodes where your cluster is
running. You will configure this external load balancer to front the ingress
gateway of your cluster via the External IP Address.
Set up your environment
Run the following commands from a workstation that can access the cluster you
intend to use. Make sure that the kubectl tool is configured to use the
cluster context specific to your cluster.
INGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_IP: is the node(s) in your Kubernetes
cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. Run this kubectl command for as
many ingress nodes you have.
Create the ingress gateway
Create the namespace. This namespace will be used to deploy the ingress
gateway.
Enable the namespace for injection. The steps depend on your Cloud Service Mesh type (either managed or in-cluster).
Managed
Use the following command to locate the available release channels:
kubectl -n istio-system get controlplanerevision
The output is similar to the following:
NAME AGE
asm-managed 6d7h
asm-managed-rapid 6d7h
In the output, the value under the NAME column is the revision label that corresponds to the available release channel for the Cloud Service Mesh version.
Use the following command to locate the revision label on istiod:
kubectl get deploy -n istio-system -l app=istiod -o \
jsonpath={.items[*].metadata.labels.'istio\.io\/rev'}'{"\n"}'
Apply the revision label to the namespace. In the following command,
REVISION is the value of the istiod revision
label that you noted in the previous step.
serviceaccount/asm-ingressgateway created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/asm-ingressgateway created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/asm-ingressgateway created
deployment.apps/asm-ingressgateway created
service/asm-ingressgateway created
poddisruptionbudget.policy/asm-ingressgateway created
horizontalpodautoscaler.autoscaling/asm-ingressgateway created
Patch the ingressgateway service with the external load balancer IP address.
CLUSTER_NODE_IP: is the IP address of the nodes in your
Kubernetes cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. This IP address must be
reachable from your external load balancer. You may have to set up this
configuration multiple times, once per cluster node.
STATUS_PORT: is the NodePort via which the ingress
gateway's health status API is exposed. You can copy this information from
the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.
Configure node pools in your load balancer for routing HTTP and HTTPS
traffic. Use the following IP:PORT configuration for traffic on port 80
(HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS).
CLUSTER_NODE_IP: is the IP address of the nodes in your
Kubernetes cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. This IP address must be
reachable from your external load balancer. You may have to set up this
configuration multiple times, once per cluster node.
HTTP_INGRESS_PORT: is the NodePort via which the
ingress gateway's HTTP traffic is exposed. You can copy this information
from the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.
HTTPS_INGRESS_PORT: is the NodePort via which the
ingress gateway's HTTPS traffic is exposed. You can copy this information
from the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.
To verify your set up, ensure that the health checks on your load balancer are
passing.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Expose an ingress gateway using an external load balancer\n=========================================================\n\nOverview\n--------\n\nWith Cloud Service Mesh you can deploy and manage ingress gateways as part of your\nservice mesh. You can further configure load balancing for your cluster with\nCloud Service Mesh by using external load balancers (physical or software load\nbalancers outside of the cluster) to send traffic to the ingress gateway.\n\nThis page shows you how to configure an external load balancer with Cloud Service Mesh.\nAlternatively, you can\n[set up ingress with multiple backend configs](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gke-networking-recipes/tree/main/ingress/single-cluster/ingress-asm-multi-backendconfig).\n\nBefore you begin\n----------------\n\nTo complete the steps in this document you need the following resources:\n\n- A Kubernetes cluster with Cloud Service Mesh installed.\n\n- An external load balancer that can access the nodes where your cluster is\n running. You will configure this external load balancer to front the ingress\n gateway of your cluster via the `External IP Address`.\n\nSet up your environment\n-----------------------\n\nRun the following commands from a workstation that can access the cluster you\nintend to use. Make sure that the `kubectl` tool is configured to use the\ncluster context specific to your cluster.\n\n1. Set the environment variables.\n\n export ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE=asm-ingressgateway\n export ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=asm-ingressgateway\n export ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_SERVICE_NAME=asm-ingressgateway\n export ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_LABEL=asm-ingressgateway\n\n2. Set the `IP address` of the external load balancer.\n\n export EXTERNAL_LB_IP_ADDRESS=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eEXTERNAL_LB_IP_ADDRESS\u003c/var\u003e\n\n3. \\[Optional\\] Label the ingress gateway nodes. This ensures that the gateway\n gets deployed to specific nodes in the cluster.\n\n kubectl label nodes \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_LABEL}=\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e: is the node(s) in your Kubernetes cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. Run this `kubectl` command for as many ingress nodes you have.\n\nCreate the ingress gateway\n--------------------------\n\n1. Create the namespace. This namespace will be used to deploy the ingress\n gateway.\n\n kubectl create namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE}\n\n2. Enable the namespace for injection. The steps depend on your Cloud Service Mesh type (either managed or in-cluster).\n\n ### Managed\n\n 1. Use the following command to locate the available release channels:\n\n kubectl -n istio-system get controlplanerevision\n\n The output is similar to the following: \n\n NAME AGE\n asm-managed 6d7h\n asm-managed-rapid 6d7h\n\n In the output, the value under the `NAME` column is the revision label that corresponds to the available [release channel](/service-mesh/docs/managed/select-a-release-channel#anthos_service_mesh_versions_per_channel) for the Cloud Service Mesh version.\n 2. Apply the revision label to the namespace:\n\n kubectl label namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} \\\n istio-injection- istio.io/rev=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eREVISION_LABEL\u003c/var\u003e --overwrite\n\n ### In-cluster\n\n 1. Use the following command to locate the revision label on `istiod`:\n\n kubectl get deploy -n istio-system -l app=istiod -o \\\n jsonpath={.items[*].metadata.labels.'istio\\.io\\/rev'}'{\"\\n\"}'\n\n 2. Apply the revision label to the namespace. In the following command,\n \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eREVISION\u003c/var\u003e is the value of the `istiod` revision\n label that you noted in the previous step.\n\n kubectl label namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} \\\n istio-injection- istio.io/rev=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eREVISION\u003c/var\u003e --overwrite\n\n3. Apply the [ingress gateway manifest file](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/anthos-service-mesh-samples/blob/main/docs/ingress-gateway-external-lb/ingress-gateway.yaml).\n\n kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} apply --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/anthos-service-mesh-samples/main/docs/ingress-gateway-external-lb/ingress-gateway.yaml\n\n Expected output: \n\n serviceaccount/asm-ingressgateway created\n role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/asm-ingressgateway created\n rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/asm-ingressgateway created\n deployment.apps/asm-ingressgateway created\n service/asm-ingressgateway created\n poddisruptionbudget.policy/asm-ingressgateway created\n horizontalpodautoscaler.autoscaling/asm-ingressgateway created\n\n4. Patch the `ingressgateway` service with the external load balancer IP address.\n\n cat \u003c\u003cEOF \u003e asm-external-ip-patch.yaml\n spec:\n externalIPs:\n - ${EXTERNAL_LB_IP_ADDRESS}\n loadBalancerIP: ${EXTERNAL_LB_IP_ADDRESS}\n EOF\n\n kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} patch service/${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_SERVICE_NAME} --patch \"$(cat asm-external-ip-patch.yaml)\"\n\n5. \\[Optional\\] Patch the `ingressgateway` deployment for the ingress gateway\n nodes label affinity.\n\n cat \u003c\u003cEOF \u003e asm-ingress-node-label-patch.yaml\n spec:\n template:\n spec:\n affinity:\n nodeAffinity:\n requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:\n nodeSelectorTerms:\n - matchExpressions:\n - key: ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NODE_LABEL}\n operator: Exists\n EOF\n\n kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} patch deployment/${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_DEPLOYMENT_NAME} --patch \"$(cat asm-ingress-node-label-patch.yaml)\"\n\nSet up the external load balancer\n---------------------------------\n\nIn this section, you will configure the external load balancer to connect with\nthe ingress gateway from the cluster.\n\n### Fetch ingress gateway `Service` port information\n\n1. Get the `NodePorts`.\n\n export HTTP_INGRESS_PORT=$(kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} get service/${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_SERVICE_NAME} --output jsonpath='{.spec.ports[?(@.name==\"http2\")].nodePort}')\n export HTTPS_INGRESS_PORT=$(kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} get service/${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_SERVICE_NAME} --output jsonpath='{.spec.ports[?(@.name==\"https\")].nodePort}')\n export STATUS_PORT=$(kubectl --namespace ${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_NAMESPACE} get service/${ASM_INGRESSGATEWAY_SERVICE_NAME} --output jsonpath='{.spec.ports[?(@.name==\"status-port\")].nodePort}')\n\n2. Display the `NodePorts`.\n\n echo HTTP_INGRESS_PORT=${HTTP_INGRESS_PORT}\n echo HTTPS_INGRESS_PORT=${HTTPS_INGRESS_PORT}\n echo STATUS_PORT=${STATUS_PORT}\n\n### Configure the external load balancer\n\nUse the `NodePorts` displayed in the previous step to configure connectivity\nbetween the external load balancer and the ingress gateway.\n\n1. Configure the health check in your load balancer configuration.\n\n hosts: \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e\n Protocol: HTTP\n Port: \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eSTATUS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e\n Path: /healthz/ready\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e: is the IP address of the nodes in your\n Kubernetes cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. This IP address must be\n reachable from your external load balancer. You may have to set up this\n configuration multiple times, once per cluster node.\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eSTATUS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e: is the `NodePort` via which the ingress\n gateway's health status API is exposed. You can copy this information from\n the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.\n\n2. Configure node pools in your load balancer for routing `HTTP` and `HTTPS`\n traffic. Use the following `IP:PORT` configuration for traffic on port 80\n (`HTTP`) and port 443 (`HTTPS`).\n\n 80 -\u003e \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e:\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eHTTP_INGRESS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e\n 443 -\u003e \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e:\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eHTTPS_INGRESS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NODE_IP\u003c/var\u003e: is the IP address of the nodes in your\n Kubernetes cluster that hosts the ingress gateway. This IP address must be\n reachable from your external load balancer. You may have to set up this\n configuration multiple times, once per cluster node.\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eHTTP_INGRESS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e: is the `NodePort` via which the\n ingress gateway's HTTP traffic is exposed. You can copy this information\n from the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.\n\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eHTTPS_INGRESS_PORT\u003c/var\u003e: is the `NodePort` via which the\n ingress gateway's HTTPS traffic is exposed. You can copy this information\n from the previous step. It will be the same for every node in the cluster.\n\nTo verify your set up, ensure that the health checks on your load balancer are\npassing.\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- Read more about [Installing and upgrading gateways](/service-mesh/v1.20/docs/gateways)"]]