> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.kodekloud.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Demo Services
> Learn to expose Kubernetes application Pods by creating a NodePort Service for stable access and load balancing.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to expose your application Pods in Kubernetes by creating a Service of type `NodePort`. Services provide stable endpoints for accessing your workloads and enable load balancing across Pods.
## Prerequisites
Verify that your Deployment is running and has created Pods:
```bash theme={null}
kubectl get deployment
NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE
myapp-deployment 6/6 6 6 23m
```
You should see `6/6` READY, meaning six Pods are available.
## Step 1: Define the Service
Create a directory called `service` (optional) and add a file named `service-definition.yaml`:
```yaml theme={null}
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: myapp-service
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: myapp
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
nodePort: 30004
```
### Service Specification Breakdown
| Field | Description | Example |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| `type` | Service exposure method (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer) | `NodePort` |
| `selector` | Matches Pods by label | `app: myapp` |
| `ports.port` | Port exposed inside the cluster | `80` |
| `ports.targetPort` | Port on the Pod that receives traffic | `80` |
| `ports.nodePort` | Port on each Node for external access (30000–32767) | `30004` |
NodePort Services allocate a port between `30000` and `32767`. If you omit `nodePort`, Kubernetes assigns one automatically.
Save the file, then apply it:
```bash theme={null}
kubectl apply -f service/service-definition.yaml
```
## Step 2: Verify the Service
Run the following command to list Services in the current namespace:
```bash theme={null}
kubectl get svc
```
Example output:
```plaintext theme={null}
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
kubernetes ClusterIP 10.96.0.1 443/TCP 24h
myapp-service NodePort 10.101.76.121 80:30004/TCP 5s
```
* **CLUSTER-IP**: Internal IP of the Service.
* **80:30004/TCP**: Maps Service port `80` to NodePort `30004`.
## Step 3: Access the Application
There are two ways to reach your application:
1. Using your node’s IP address:
```bash theme={null}
minikube ip # If you're on Minikube
```
Then open your browser at
```text theme={null}
http://:30004
```
2. Using Minikube’s service tunnel:
```bash theme={null}
minikube service myapp-service --url
```
This outputs a URL such as:
```text theme={null}
http://192.168.99.101:30004
```
Exposing a Service via NodePort makes it accessible externally on the node’s network. Ensure your firewall rules and security groups are configured appropriately.
Open the URL in your browser. You should see the default NGINX welcome page:
***
## Next Steps
* Explore other Service types such as `ClusterIP` and `LoadBalancer`.
* Learn about Ingress resources for advanced HTTP routing.
* Consult the [Kubernetes Services documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/) for more details.
## Links and References
* [Kubernetes Services](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/)
* [Kubernetes Basics](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/)
* [Minikube — Quickstart](https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/)