Route internet traffic with AWS Load Balancer Controller - Amazon EKS
Install the controllerMigrate from deprecated controller versionsLegacy cloud provider

Route internet traffic with AWS Load Balancer Controller

The AWS Load Balancer Controller manages AWS Elastic Load Balancers for a Kubernetes cluster. You can use the controller to expose your cluster apps to the internet. The controller provisions AWS load balancers that point to cluster Service or Ingress resources. In other words, the controller creates a single IP address or DNS name that points to multiple pods in your cluster.

Architecture diagram. Illustration of traffic coming from internet users, to Amazon Load Balancer. Amazon Load Balancer distributes traffic to pods in the cluster.

The controller watches for Kubernetes Ingress or Service resources. In response, it creates the appropriate AWS Elastic Load Balancing resources. You can configure the specific behavior of the load balancers by applying annotations to the Kubernetes resources. For example, you can attach AWS security groups to load balancers using annotations.

The controller provisions the following resources:

Kubernetes Ingress

The LBC creates an AWS Application Load Balancer (ALB) when you create a Kubernetes Ingress. Review the annotations you can apply to an Ingress resource.

Kubernetes service of the LoadBalancer type

The LBC creates an AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB)when you create a Kubernetes service of type LoadBalancer. Review the annotations you can apply to a Service resource.

In the past, the Kubernetes network load balancer was used for instance targets, but the LBC was used for IP targets. With the AWS Load Balancer Controller version 2.3.0 or later, you can create NLBs using either target type. For more information about NLB target types, see Target type in the User Guide for Network Load Balancers.

The controller is an open-source project managed on GitHub.

Before deploying the controller, we recommend that you review the prerequisites and considerations in Route application and HTTP traffic with Application Load Balancers and Route TCP and UDP traffic with Network Load Balancers. In those topics, you will deploy a sample app that includes an AWS load balancer.

Install the controller

You can use one of the following procedures to install the AWS Load Balancer Controller:

Migrate from deprecated controller versions

  • If you have deprecated versions of the AWS Load Balancer Controller installed, see Migrate apps from deprecated ALB Ingress Controller.

  • Deprecated versions cannot be upgraded. They must be removed and a current version of the AWS Load Balancer Controller installed.

  • Deprecated versions include:

    • AWS ALB Ingress Controller for Kubernetes ("Ingress Controller"), a predecessor to the AWS Load Balancer Controller.

    • Any 0.1.x version of the AWS Load Balancer Controller

Legacy cloud provider

Kubernetes includes a legacy cloud provider for AWS. The legacy cloud provider is capable of provisioning AWS load balancers, similar to the AWS Load Balancer Controller. The legacy cloud provider creates Classic Load Balancers. If you do not install the AWS Load Balancer Controller, Kubernetes will default to using the legacy cloud provider. You should install the AWS Load Balancer Controller and avoid using the legacy cloud provider.

Important

In versions 2.5 and newer, the AWS Load Balancer Controller becomes the default controller for Kubernetes service resources with the type: LoadBalancer and makes an AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB) for each service. It does this by making a mutating webhook for services, which sets the spec.loadBalancerClass field to service.k8s.aws/nlb for new services of type: LoadBalancer. You can turn off this feature and revert to using the legacy Cloud Provider as the default controller, by setting the helm chart value enableServiceMutatorWebhook to false. The cluster won’t provision new Classic Load Balancers for your services unless you turn off this feature. Existing Classic Load Balancers will continue to work.