ALB Ingress user guide - Server Load Balancer - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

In addition to Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) and ACK Serverless, Application Load Balancer (ALB) Ingresses can be used together with Enterprise Distributed Application Service (EDAS), Serverless App Engine (SAE), and self-managed Kubernetes clusters in the cloud to meet your business requirements. This topic describes the basic and advanced features of ALB Ingresses and provides references on how to use ALB Ingresses together with other services.

Basic features

An AlbConfig is a custom resource definition (CRD) object of ACK that is used by the ALB Ingress controller to configure ALB instances and listeners. The following table describes how to install and uninstall the ALB Ingress controller in ACK and ACK Serverless clusters, create and modify AlbConfigs, and enable Simple Log Service.

Item	Feature	Description	References for ACK	References for ACK Serverless
ALB Ingress Controller	Manage the ALB Ingress controller	ACK provides managed ALB Ingress controllers. You can install an ALB Ingress controller when you create a cluster or install the controller on the Components page after you create a cluster.	Manage the ALB Ingress controller	Manage the ALB Ingress controller
Instance management	Create an AlbConfig	An AlbConfig is a CRD object that is used by the ALB Ingress controller to configure ALB instances and listeners. An AlbConfig is used to configure a single ALB instance. If you want to configure multiple ALB instances, you must create multiple AlbConfigs.	Create an AlbConfig	Create an AlbConfig
	Associate an AlbConfig with an Ingress	You can associate an AlbConfig with an Ingress by using an IngressClass. To do this, you must first create an IngressClass.	Create and associate an IngressClass with an AlbConfig.	Use an IngressClass to associate an AlbConfig with an Ingress
	Modify an AlbConfig	You can modify the settings of an AlbConfig, such as the name and the vSwitches of the AlbConfig. The new settings take effect immediately after you save the settings.	Rename an ALB instance Configure an ALB instance by using an AlbConfig	Rename an ALB instance Configure an ALB instance by using an AlbConfig
	Enable Simple Log Service to collect access logs	If you want to collect the access logs of ALB Ingresses, configure the `logProject` and `logStore` parameters of an AlbConfig. Note Simple Log Service projects are not automatically created. You must manually create a Simple Log Service project. For more information, see Manage projects. Set the logStore parameter to a value that starts with `alb_`. If the specified Logstore does not exist, the system automatically creates one with the specified name.	Enable Simple Log Service to collect access logs	Enable Simple Log Service to collect access logs
	Use an existing ALB instance	If you want to use an existing ALB instance, specify the ID of the ALB instance when you create an AlbConfig.	Reuse an existing ALB instance	Reuse an existing ALB instance
	Use multiple ALB instances	If you want to use multiple ALB instances, specify multiple IngressClasses in the `spec.ingressClassName` field of the Ingress.	Create and use multiple ALB instances	Create and use multiple ALB instances
	Delete an ALB instance	An AlbConfig is used to configure an ALB instance. Therefore, you can delete an ALB instance by deleting the corresponding AlbConfig. Before you delete an AlbConfig, you must delete all Ingresses that are associated with the AlbConfig.	Delete an ALB instance	Delete an ALB instance
Listener management	Specify a certificate for HTTPS connections	You can specify a certificate for an ALB instance by specifying the certificate ID in the `listeners` parameter of the corresponding AlbConfig. The certificate is used for HTTPS connections.	Use an ALB Ingress to configure certificates for an HTTPS listener	Use an ALB Ingress to configure certificates for an HTTPS listener
Listener management	Specify a Transport Layer Security (TLS) security policy	When you use an AlbConfig to configure an HTTPS listener, you can specify a TLS security policy. Custom and default TLS security policies are supported. For more information, see TLS security policies.	Specify a custom TLS security policy	Specify a custom TLS security policy

Advanced features

An Ingress is an API object that you can use to implement Layer 7 load balancing and manage external access to Services in an ACK cluster. The following table describes how to use ALB Ingresses to forward requests to backend server groups based on domain names and URL paths, redirect requests from HTTP to HTTPS, and perform canary releases.

Integration with other services

Integration with Alibaba Cloud services

Alibaba Cloud service	Feature	Description	References
WAF	Enable Web Application Firewall (WAF) for an ALB Ingress	Web Application Firewall (WAF) is an all-in-one service that protects your websites and applications. You can use WAF to prevent data breaches, HTTP flood attacks, webshells, and web page tampering. WAF also provides virtual patches. After you enable WAF for an ALB Ingress, network traffic is filtered by WAF before it is routed to ALB listeners.	Enable WAF for an ALB Ingress
EDAS	Create an ALB Ingress for an application	EDAS supports ALB Ingresses. ALB Ingresses provide enhanced traffic management and are compatible with NGINX Ingresses. This enables ALB Ingresses to process complex routing and automatically discover certificates.	Create an ALB Ingress
SAE	Configure an end-to-end canary release based on Ingress gateways	You can use Ingress gateways to perform end-to-end canary releases for SAE applications.	Online scenario: Perform an end-to-end canary release by using Ingress gateways Configure an ALB instance as an ingress gateway to implement routing
ASM	Integrate Service Mesh (ASM) with ALB by configuring an ALB Ingress	You can configure an ALB Ingress to integrate ASM with ALB.	Integrate ASM with ALB
HPA	Integrate Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) with ALB by configuring an ALB Ingress	HPA is used to automatically scale out pods in Kubernetes clusters. You can integrate HPA with ALB by using ALB Ingresses and enable auto scaling based on queries per second (QPS).	Use ALB Ingresses to enable automatic application scaling based on QPS
Knative	Enable ACK and ACK Serverless clusters that have Knative installed to access services through ALB	Knative is a Kubernetes-based serverless framework. You can use Knative to expose your ALB Service and perform canary releases based on headers and cookies.	Use ALB Ingresses in Knative

Integration with open source services

Open source service	Feature	Description	References
Self-managed Kubernetes clusters in the cloud	Use ALB in self-managed Kubernetes clusters by configuring ALB Ingresses	If you use ECS instances to build a Kubernetes cluster, you can configure an ALB Ingress to route traffic. This enables the cluster to automatically discover the ALB Service and enable load balancing.	Use ALB Ingresses on self-managed Kubernetes clusters