OpenShift Networking & Routes: Exposing Services Securely

Introduction

Networking in OpenShift is built on Kubernetes fundamentals but extends them with Routes and integrated HAProxy-based ingress. This enables secure, scalable service exposure for applications running inside the cluster.

🌐 OpenShift Networking Basics

• Services: Abstract pods and provide stable endpoints.

• ClusterIP: Internal-only access.

• NodePort: Exposes services on each node’s IP.

• LoadBalancer: Integrates with cloud providers.

🚪 Routes in OpenShift

Routes are OpenShift’s native way to expose services externally.

Key Features:

• DNS hostname mapping

• TLS termination (edge, passthrough, re-encrypt)

• Integrated HAProxy router

Example YAML:

yaml

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1

kind: Route

metadata:

  name: my-secure-app

spec:

  host: app.rshnetwork.com

  to:

    kind: Service

    name: my-secure-service

  tls:

    termination: edge

    insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy: Redirect

🔐 Securing Routes

• Use TLS termination for HTTPS traffic.

• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.

• Apply wildcard certificates for multi-app domains.

🧪 Troubleshooting Tips

• Check router pods: oc get pods -n openshift-ingress.

• Inspect route details: oc describe route my-secure-app.

• Validate DNS resolution with dig app.rshnetwork.com.

✅ Best Practices

• Prefer Routes over NodePort for production.

• Use re-encrypt termination for end-to-end TLS.

• Monitor ingress traffic with Prometheus metrics.

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