K8s Internals Interactive Deep Dive

Ingress Traffic Flow

Follow an external HTTP request as it passes through the Cloud Load Balancer, Ingress Controller, Service resolution, and finally reaches a Pod—bypassing kube-proxy entirely at L7.

Ingress Traffic Flow

How external HTTP(S) reaches your Pods

CLUSTERInternetCloud LB(or NodePort)Ingress Controller(nginx/traefik)ServiceEndpointsPod 1Pod 2Pod 3Ingress Ruleshost: api.example.compath: /v1/*Direct to Pod IP!
Step 1/6

External Request Arrives

HTTP request hits cloud load balancer or node IP on port 80/443

Key Insight: Ingress Controller ≠ kube-proxy

Ingress Controller

L7 proxy (HTTP). Reads Ingress resources from API server. Routes by Host/Path headers. Connects directly to Pod IPs.

kube-proxy

L4 (TCP/UDP). Programs iptables/IPVS on every node. Routes ClusterIP → Pod IPs. No HTTP awareness.