Lab Solution Services optional

This lesson walks through the solution for the Services lab. You’ll inspect existing Services, interpret a Service’s configuration and Endpoints, confirm deployments and Pod images, and create a NodePort Service to expose an application.

Inspect Services

List Services in the cluster:

kubectl get svc

Example output:

NAME         TYPE        CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
kubernetes   ClusterIP   10.43.0.1     <none>        443/TCP    10m

Observation: There is only the default kubernetes Service.
Type: ClusterIP — created by the cluster to expose the API server within the cluster network.

To view details for the Kubernetes Service:

kubectl describe svc kubernetes

Truncated relevant output:

Name:              kubernetes
Namespace:         default
Labels:            component=apiserver
                   provider=kubernetes
Annotations:       <none>
Selector:          <none>
Type:              ClusterIP
IP:                10.43.0.1
Port:              https    443/TCP
TargetPort:        6443/TCP
Endpoints:         10.53.180.9:6443
Session Affinity:  None
Events:            <none>

Question: What is the targetPort configured on the Kubernetes Service?
Answer: 6443 (shown as TargetPort: 6443/TCP).

Labels on the Kubernetes Service

From the describe output:

Labels: component=apiserver
        provider=kubernetes

There are two labels: component=apiserver and provider=kubernetes. Note: This Service maps to the Kubernetes API server — the cluster control plane endpoint.

Endpoints attached to the Kubernetes Service

From the describe output:

Endpoints: 10.53.180.9:6443

This shows a single endpoint (one IP:port). So: one endpoint.

What are Endpoints?

Endpoints are the concrete Pod IPs and ports a Service routes to based on the Service selector. Quick flow:

Create Pods with labels (e.g., app=FE).
Create a Service with a selector that matches those labels.
Kubernetes finds Pods that match the selector and lists their IP:port under the Service’s Endpoints.
If a Pod matches the selector accidentally, it will also become an endpoint — always check labels/selectors when troubleshooting.

A blue hand-drawn diagram showing a triangular node at the top with three arrows pointing down to three circular nodes. Handwritten labels on the right read "app: FE" and "app: FC."

Endpoints list the actual Pod IPs and ports that a Service routes to; they are derived from Pod labels and the Service selector.

Deployments in the default namespace

List Deployments:

kubectl get deploy

Example output:

NAME                      READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
simple-webapp-deployment  4/4     4            4           15s

Answer: one deployment — simple-webapp-deployment. To inspect which image the deployment uses, describe it:

kubectl describe deploy simple-webapp-deployment

Relevant excerpt:

Pod Template:
  Labels:  name=simple-webapp
  Containers:
    simple-webapp:
      Image:        kodekloud/simple-webapp:red
      Port:         8080/TCP

Answer: The Pods use the image kodekloud/simple-webapp:red.

Accessing the web app UI

The UI returned a “Bad Gateway” error initially. Reason: the application Pods are running, but no Service exposes the app to the node network yet — so the UI is not reachable externally. To expose the app to nodes, create a NodePort Service. Use the provided template and save it (example: service-definition-1.yaml):

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: webapp-service
spec:
  type: NodePort
  ports:
  - targetPort: 8080
    port: 8080
    nodePort: 30080
  selector:
    name: simple-webapp

Create the Service:

kubectl create -f service-definition-1.yaml

Expected response:

service/webapp-service created

After creation, access the web app at: http://<node-ip>:30080

NodePort values must generally be within the default range 30000-32767 unless your cluster allows a different range. Choose nodePort carefully to avoid conflicts.

Helpful kubectl imperative commands (generate YAML with dry-run)

Use these to generate manifests for inspection or editing:

kubectl create service clusterip redis --tcp=6379:6379 --dry-run=client -o yaml

kubectl expose pod nginx --type=NodePort --port=80 --name=nginx-service --dry-run=client -o yaml

kubectl create service nodeport nginx --tcp=80:80 --node-port=30080 --dry-run=client -o yaml

kubectl expose pod redis --port=6379 --name=redis-service --dry-run=client -o yaml

These commands output YAML that you can save and apply with kubectl apply -f.

Quick reference

Topic	Command / Example
List Services	`kubectl get svc`
Describe a Service	`kubectl describe svc kubernetes`
List Deployments	`kubectl get deploy`
Describe Deployment	`kubectl describe deploy simple-webapp-deployment`
Create Service from file	`kubectl create -f service-definition-1.yaml`
Generate Service YAML (dry-run)	`kubectl create service nodeport nginx --tcp=80:80 --node-port=30080 --dry-run=client -o yaml`

Links and references

This completes the Services lab solution.

Introduction

Core Concepts

Scheduling

Logging & Monitoring

Application Lifecycle Management

Cluster Maintenance

Security

Storage

Networking

Design and Install a Kubernetes Cluster

Install "Kubernetes the kubeadm way"

Troubleshooting

Helm Basics (2025 Updates)

Kustomize Basics (2025 Updates)

Other Topics

Mock Exams

Lab Solution Services optional

Inspect Services

Labels on the Kubernetes Service

Endpoints attached to the Kubernetes Service

What are Endpoints?

Deployments in the default namespace

Accessing the web app UI

Helpful kubectl imperative commands (generate YAML with dry-run)

Quick reference

Links and references

Watch Video

​Inspect Services

​Labels on the Kubernetes Service

​Endpoints attached to the Kubernetes Service

​What are Endpoints?

​Deployments in the default namespace

​Accessing the web app UI

​Helpful kubectl imperative commands (generate YAML with dry-run)

​Quick reference

​Links and references

Watch Video

Inspect Services

Labels on the Kubernetes Service

Endpoints attached to the Kubernetes Service

What are Endpoints?

Deployments in the default namespace

Accessing the web app UI

Helpful kubectl imperative commands (generate YAML with dry-run)

Quick reference

Links and references