How to install, upgrade, and uninstall the ALB Ingress controller - Container Service for Kubernetes

The Application Load Balancer (ALB) Ingress controller is a fully managed component that directs traffic for Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) clusters based on Layer 7 forwarding rules provided by ALB. This topic describes how to install, upgrade, and uninstall the ALB Ingress controller in either an ACK managed cluster or an ACK dedicated cluster.

Install the ALB Ingress controller

Note

For more information about the regions that support the ALB Ingress controller, see Regions and zones in which ALB is available.

Install when creating a cluster

During the creation of an ACK managed cluster or an ACK dedicated cluster, select ALB Ingress in the Ingress section.

You can set Gateway Source to New, Existing, or None.

Instance source	Description	Result
New	Network Type: You can create an ALB instance for Internet or Intranet as needed. For billing details, see ALB billing rules. VPC: This value is the same as the virtual private cloud (VPC) in which the cluster resides and cannot be modified. vSwitch: The vSwitches corresponding to the zones supported by ALB under this VPC are displayed. You need to select two vSwitches in different zones. Otherwise, two available vSwitches will be automatically selected. You can also create a new vSwitch by clicking Create vSwitch.	The controller will automatically create an AlbConfig named `alb` and the corresponding IngressClass resource. In AlbConfig, a listener with port 80 and protocol HTTP is configured by default. For more information about listener extensions, see Create HTTPS listeners.


Existing	You can select an existing ALB instance from the drop-down menu for reuse. Basic ALB instances are not supported. For more information, see Reuse an existing ALB instance.
None	Only the ALB Ingress controller is installed. No ALB instance is created.	The controller will not create the corresponding resources. You must manually create an AlbConfig and create an IngressClass.

Install for an existing cluster

Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.
On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Operations > Add-ons.
On the Add-ons page, click the Networking tab. In the Networking section, find the ALB Ingress Controller card and click Install in the lower-right corner.

In the Install ALB Ingress Controller dialog box, select New, Existing, or None for the Gateway Source as appropriate, and click OK.

Instance source	Description	Result
New	Network Type: You can create an ALB instance for Internet or Intranet as needed. For billing details, see ALB billing rules. VPC: This value is the same as the VPC in which the cluster resides and cannot be modified. vSwitch: The vSwitches corresponding to the zones supported by ALB under this VPC are displayed. You need to select two vSwitches in different zones. Otherwise, two available vSwitches will be automatically selected. You can also create a new vSwitch by clicking Create vSwitch.	The controller will automatically create an AlbConfig named `alb` and the corresponding IngressClass resource. In AlbConfig, a listener with port 80 and HTTP is configured by default. For more information about listener extensions, see Create an HTTP listener.


Existing	You can select an existing ALB instance from the drop-down menu for reuse. Basic ALB instances are not supported. For more information, see Reuse an existing ALB instance.
None	Only the ALB Ingress controller is installed. No ALB instance is created.	The controller will not create the corresponding resources. You must manually create an AlbConfig and an IngressClass.

Upgrade the ALB Ingress controller

Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.
On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Operations > Add-ons.
On the Add-ons page, click the Networking tab, find ALB Ingress Controller, and click Upgrade.
Note
If the Upgrade button is not displayed for ALB Ingress Controller, this indicates that the latest version is already installed and no upgrade is required.
In the Upgrade message, click OK.

Uninstall the ALB Ingress controller

Important

Before uninstalling the component, ensure that you delete the AlbConfig in the cluster. The ALB Ingress controller component will automatically release the associated ALB instance.
After uninstalling the ALB Ingress controller component:
- If AlbConfig remains in the cluster, the corresponding ALB instance will not be released and will continue to incur charges.
- Manually deleting AlbConfig may prevent the ALB instance from being released. Without controller support, the tuning operation cannot be completed. In this case, we recommend that you reinstall the component, delete the AlbConfig to ensure the ALB instance is released, then uninstall the component.

Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.
On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Operations > Add-ons.
On the Add-ons page, click the Networking tab, find ALB Ingress Controller, and click Uninstall.
In the Uninstall message, click OK.

References

If you have an ACK dedicated cluster, you must grant the cluster permissions to access the ALB Ingress controller. For more information, see Authorize an ACK dedicated cluster to access the ALB Ingress controller.
For more information about how to create and use an ALB Ingress, see Create an ALB Ingress.