# Exposing an External IP Address to Access an Application in a Cluster LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt) --- This page shows how to create a Kubernetes Service object that exposes an external IP address. ## Before you begin * Install [kubectl](/docs/tasks/tools/). * Use a cloud provider like Google Kubernetes Engine or Amazon Web Services to create a Kubernetes cluster. This tutorial creates an [external load balancer](/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/create-external-load-balancer/), which requires a cloud provider. * Configure `kubectl` to communicate with your Kubernetes API server. For instructions, see the documentation for your cloud provider. ## Objectives * Run five instances of a Hello World application. * Create a Service object that exposes an external IP address. * Use the Service object to access the running application. ## Creating a service for an application running in five pods 1. Run a Hello World application in your cluster:
service/load-balancer-example.yaml 
apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     labels:
       app.kubernetes.io/name: load-balancer-example
     name: hello-world
   spec:
     replicas: 5
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app.kubernetes.io/name: load-balancer-example
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           app.kubernetes.io/name: load-balancer-example
       spec:
         containers:
         - image: gcr.io/google-samples/hello-app:2.0
           name: hello-world
           ports:
           - containerPort: 8080
```shell kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/load-balancer-example.yaml ``` The preceding command creates a Deployment and an associated ReplicaSet. The ReplicaSet has five Pods each of which runs the Hello World application. 1. Display information about the Deployment: ```shell kubectl get deployments hello-world kubectl describe deployments hello-world ``` 1. Display information about your ReplicaSet objects: ```shell kubectl get replicasets kubectl describe replicasets ``` 1. Create a Service object that exposes the deployment: ```shell kubectl expose deployment hello-world --type=LoadBalancer --name=my-service ``` 1. Display information about the Service: ```shell kubectl get services my-service ``` The output is similar to: ```console NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE my-service LoadBalancer 10.3.245.137 104.198.205.71 8080/TCP 54s ``` 1. Display detailed information about the Service: ```shell kubectl describe services my-service ``` The output is similar to: ```console Name: my-service Namespace: default Labels: app.kubernetes.io/name=load-balancer-example Annotations: Selector: app.kubernetes.io/name=load-balancer-example Type: LoadBalancer IP: 10.3.245.137 LoadBalancer Ingress: 104.198.205.71 Port: 8080/TCP NodePort: 32377/TCP Endpoints: 10.0.0.6:8080,10.0.1.6:8080,10.0.1.7:8080 + 2 more... Session Affinity: None Events: ``` Make a note of the external IP address (`LoadBalancer Ingress`) exposed by your service. In this example, the external IP address is 104.198.205.71. Also note the value of `Port` and `NodePort`. In this example, the `Port` is 8080 and the `NodePort` is 32377. 1. In the preceding output, you can see that the service has several endpoints: 10.0.0.6:8080,10.0.1.6:8080,10.0.1.7:8080 + 2 more. These are internal addresses of the pods that are running the Hello World application. To verify these are pod addresses, enter this command: ```shell kubectl get pods --output=wide ``` The output is similar to: ```console NAME ... IP NODE hello-world-2895499144-1jaz9 ... 10.0.1.6 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc hello-world-2895499144-2e5uh ... 10.0.1.8 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc hello-world-2895499144-9m4h1 ... 10.0.0.6 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-5v7a hello-world-2895499144-o4z13 ... 10.0.1.7 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-1afc hello-world-2895499144-segjf ... 10.0.2.5 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-e0b8d269-cpuc ``` 1. Use the external IP address (`LoadBalancer Ingress`) to access the Hello World application: ```shell curl http://: ``` where `` is the external IP address (`LoadBalancer Ingress`) of your Service, and `` is the value of `Port` in your Service description. If you are using minikube, typing `minikube service my-service` will automatically open the Hello World application in a browser. The response to a successful request is a hello message: ```console Hello, world! Version: 2.0.0 Hostname: 0bd46b45f32f ``` ## Cleaning up To delete the Service, enter this command: ```shell kubectl delete services my-service ``` To delete the Deployment, the ReplicaSet, and the Pods that are running the Hello World application, enter this command: ```shell kubectl delete deployment hello-world ``` ## What's next Learn more about [connecting applications with services](/docs/tutorials/services/connect-applications-service/).