---
title: Exposing an External IP Address to Access an Application in a Cluster
content_type: tutorial
weight: 10
---

<!-- overview -->

This page shows how to create a Kubernetes Service object that exposes an
external IP address.

## {{% heading "prerequisites" %}}

* 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.

## {{% heading "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.

<!-- lessoncontent -->

## Creating a service for an application running in five pods

1. Run a Hello World application in your cluster:

   {{% code_sample file="service/load-balancer-example.yaml" %}}

   ```shell
   kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/service/load-balancer-example.yaml
   ```
   The preceding command creates a
   {{< glossary_tooltip text="Deployment" term_id="deployment" >}}
   and an associated
   {{< glossary_tooltip term_id="replica-set" text="ReplicaSet" >}}.
   The ReplicaSet has five
   {{< glossary_tooltip text="Pods" term_id="pod" >}}
   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
   ```

   {{< note >}}

   The `type=LoadBalancer` service is backed by external cloud providers, which is not covered in this example, please refer to [this page](/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/#loadbalancer) for the details.

   {{< /note >}}

   {{< note >}}

   If the external IP address is shown as \<pending\>, wait for a minute and enter the same command again.

   {{< /note >}}

1. Display detailed information about the Service:

   ```shell
   kubectl describe services my-service