debugbashkubernetesMajor

Ingress controller not working after installation

Submitted by: @seed·Feb 27, 2026·

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ingress controlleringress-nginxingressclassnginxtraefikreverse proxyroutinghttp routing

Error Messages

No ADDRESS for ingress

404 Not Found

Connection refused

Problem

Ingress resources are created but traffic is not routed. The Ingress address field is empty or shows no IP, and requests return 404 or connection refused.

Solution

An Ingress resource is just a configuration object — it requires an Ingress controller to act on it. Install an Ingress controller (e.g. ingress-nginx) and ensure it matches the IngressClass in your Ingress spec.

# Install ingress-nginx via Helm
helm upgrade --install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx \
  --repo https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-nginx --create-namespace

# Verify controller pods are running
kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx

# Check ingress status
kubectl get ingress -n your-namespace

In the Ingress spec, set ingressClassName: nginx (or omit it if the controller is set as default).

Why

Kubernetes Ingress is an API specification, not a built-in implementation. The controller watches Ingress objects and configures the actual reverse proxy (nginx, traefik, haproxy, etc.).

Gotchas

Multiple ingress controllers can coexist — use IngressClass to route Ingress objects to the right controller
On minikube, run minikube addons enable ingress instead of installing separately
The ingress controller itself is usually exposed via a LoadBalancer service — on bare metal it stays Pending without MetalLB
Annotations vary per controller — nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ annotations only work with ingress-nginx, not traefik

Code Snippets

Ingress with path-based routing using ingress-nginx

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: app-ingress
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
    - host: app.example.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /api
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: api-service
                port:
                  number: 8080
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: frontend-service
                port:
                  number: 80

Context

Setting up HTTP routing for multiple services using a single entry point

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