In this guide, you’re going to, create a Kubernetes cluster, connect to your cluster using kubectl, deploy a sample app and expose it to public. For this dedicated cluster, you’ll pay about 3x lower than you would with AWS or Azure.

From the left menu on the console and select the Kubernetes option and click on the Create Kubernetes Cluster button. This will take you to a new page where you can select the cluster details.

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Configure the Cluster

  • Enter your desired cluster name.
  • Select the preferred location.
  • Choose the specifications for the control plane and worker node pools.

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Launch the Cluster

After completing the configuration, click the Create button. Your Kubernetes cluster will be up and running in a few minutes based on the specified size.

Create

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Download the kubeconfig

Once the Download button appears, click it to download the kubeconfig file. Then, run the following command to start using it:

export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/kubeconfig

Kubernetes clients like kubectl will automatically use this file to connect to your cluster. Check the connection with the following command:

kubectl get nodes

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Create an Nginx deployment

Use the following command to deploy the Nginx application

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx
EOF

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Expose the Application

Use the following command to expose your Nginx deployment via a LoadBalancer service

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: nginx
  ports:
  - port: 80
EOF

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Access Your Application

Run the following command to retrieve the external domain assigned to your LoadBalancer service

kubectl get service nginx

Look for the EXTERNAL-IP or the Service URL in the cluster’s panel. This URL sits behind a load balancer and it takes about a minute for it to become available. Once it does, you can access your application by opening up this URL in your browser