DevOps Glossary

Kubernetes IngressClass is a Kubernetes resource that tells the cluster which Ingress controller should process a given Ingress. An Ingress defines HTTP or HTTPS routing rules, such as sending traffic for api.example.com to an API Service, while the IngressClass points those rules to a controller such as NGINX Ingress Controller, Traefik, HAProxy, AWS Load Balancer Controller, or an Azure Kubernetes Service ingress option. This matters when a cluster runs more than one controller, because each Ingress can set spec.ingressClassName to choose the right routing implementation. Platform teams often use IngressClass to separate public and internal traffic, test a new controller safely, or apply different load balancer behavior for different applications. It does not route traffic by itself; it only links an Ingress object to the controller that creates and manages the actual proxy, load balancer, or gateway configuration.