advanced 5h

Ingress + TLS with cert-manager

Auto-provision Let's Encrypt certs for cluster services.

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0 of 6 steps

What you will end up with

HTTPS for cluster services

Auto-renewing certificates

Host-based routing

Build steps

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Apply the NGINX Ingress Controller’s install manifest with kubectl apply -f. This is the receptionist who will route every incoming request to the right pod.

Apply cert-manager’s install YAML, then wait for its pods to go Ready. cert-manager is the automated clerk that requests and renews certificates so nobody has to do it by hand.

Create a ClusterIssuer resource pointing at Let’s Encrypt’s ACME server with your email address. This tells the clerk exactly which notary office to go request paperwork from.

In your Ingress YAML, add a tls block naming a secret and host, plus an annotation pointing at your ClusterIssuer. You are telling the receptionist this domain should always answer from behind a locked door.

Applying the Ingress with the right annotation automatically triggers cert-manager to request and store a certificate as a Secret. Nobody manually asks for the paperwork; the clerk notices the request and gets moving.

Check the Certificate resource and confirm its renewal time sits comfortably before expiry, roughly 30 days out for a 90 day certificate. It is like checking a subscription actually renews itself before the card would otherwise expire.

Before you start

Ingress & gatewaysHTTP & TLS