Kubernetes Gateway API v1: Modern Ingress Standard Production Ready

Introduction

Kubernetes Gateway API v1, released on December 22, 2023, is most relevant if you expose services on Kubernetes and need stable, debuggable traffic paths. The practical wins usually show up at the edge: clearer traffic behavior, fewer surprises during failover, and easier debugging when routes go weird.

Production Ready Features

• HTTPRoute v1 provides stable API for HTTP traffic routing and management.
• Gateway class enables consistent gateway configuration across implementations.
• TLS support provides comprehensive TLS termination and certificate management.
• Traffic splitting enables canary deployments and A/B testing.

Enhanced Capabilities

1. Cross-namespace routing enables routing across namespace boundaries.
2. Header matching provides sophisticated request routing based on headers.
3. Backend selection improvements enable better service and endpoint selection.
4. Policy attachment enables extensible policy configuration.

Security Enhancements

• TLS improvements provide better certificate management and automatic rotation.
• mTLS support enables mutual TLS for service-to-service communication.
• RBAC integration provides fine-grained permissions for gateway resources.
• Network policy integration enables better network isolation.

Ecosystem Support

• Ingress controller support expands with implementations from major vendors.
• Service mesh integration enables better integration with service meshes.
• Cloud provider support expands with native implementations from cloud providers.
• Developer tools improve support for Gateway API in development workflows.

Getting Started

Create a Gateway:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: production
spec:
  gatewayClassName: nginx
  listeners:
  - name: http
    protocol: HTTP
    port: 80
  - name: https
    protocol: HTTPS
    port: 443
    tls:
      mode: Terminate
      certificateRefs:
      - name: production-tls

Create an HTTPRoute:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: my-route
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: production
    sectionName: http
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /api
    backendRefs:
    - name: api-service
      port: 8080

Summary

Kubernetes Gateway API v1 establishes a new standard for ingress and traffic management, providing teams with powerful, extensible capabilities for managing traffic in Kubernetes.