How to migrate from nginx to traefik ingress

Installation

Kubeops supports deploying Traefik as a dynamic ingress controller and reverse proxy. This guide describes a concise, safe migration from an existing nginx-ingress controller to Traefik and explains how to install Traefik and replace a deprecated nginx-ingress deployment. The migration from nginx to Traefik is straightforward; the steps below show the process in order.

Prerequisites

A running Kubernetes cluster with an existing nginx-ingress controller.

1.Create Values file

values.yaml files are required for the Traefik installation:

# values.yaml
packages:
- name: traefik
  enabled: true
  values:
    standard:
      namespace: traefik
      externalIPs: []
    advanced: {}

Note: Update external IPs and other values as per user requirement.

2.Install Traefik

Once the values.yaml files have been created, install Traefik:

# get your desired version/s
kosi search --hub kubeops --ps traefik
# install traefik
kosi install --hub kubeops kubeops/traefik:<desired_version> -f values.yaml --dname traefik

kosi install --hub kubeops kubeops kubeops/traefik:2.1.0_Beta0 -f values.yaml --dname traefik

3.Verify Deployment

Check pods and services in the traefik namespace:

kubectl get pods -n traefik
kubectl get svc -n traefik

Note: Default NodePorts (e.g. 31080 / 31443) might not be reachable. If the default ports are not accessible, determine the ports used by ingress-nginx (e.g. 30080 / 30443) and update Traefik to use the same ports.

4.Remove old nginx-ingress deployment and service

# get version of installed nginx-ingress and its deployment name (--dname)
kosi list
# delete old nginx-ingress
kosi delete --hub kubeops kubeops/ingress-nginx:<installed_version> -f enterprise-values.yaml --dname <kosi_deployment_name>

Edit Traefik service

If nginx used specific NodePorts and you require those same ports, edit the Traefik Service:

kubectl edit svc traefik -n traefik

Update the ports:

Update the ports to match the previous nginx NodePorts if required.

ports:
- name: web
  nodePort: 30080
  port: 80
  targetPort: web
- name: websecure
  nodePort: 30443
  port: 443
  targetPort: websecure

Verify Port Change

kubectl get svc -n traefik

Note: Ensure the nginx Service is removed or its NodePorts are freed before reusing those NodePorts on the Traefik Service.