Kubernetes: create service vs expose deployment

Question

I am new to Kubernetes. I was going through some tutorials related to Kubernetes deployment. I am seeing two different commands which looks like doing similar things.

1. The below command is from google code lab (URL: https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/cloud-springboot-kubernetes/index.html?index=..%2F..index#7 )

   $ kubectl create service loadbalancer hello-java --tcp=8080:8080

2. Another command is being seen in a different place along with the Kubernetes site (https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/stateless-application/expose-external-ip-address/)

$ kubectl expose deployment hello-world --type=LoadBalancer --name=my-service

Now as per my understanding both the command are creating services from deployments with loadbalancer and exposing them to the outer world.

I don't think there will be two separate commands for the same task. There should be some difference that I am not able to understand.

Would anyone please clarify this to me?

Answer 1

There are cases where the expose command is not sufficient & your only practical option is to use create service.

Overall there are 4 different types of Kubernetes services, for some it really doesn't matter if you use expose or create, while for others it maters very much.

The types of Kubernetes services are:

• ClusterIP
• NodePort
• LoadBalancer
• ExternalName

So for example in the case of the NodePort type service let's say we wanted to set a node port with value 31888 :

• Example 1: In the following command there is no argument for the node port value, the expose command creates it automatically:

  kubectl expose deployment demo --name=demo --type=NodePort --port=8080 --target-port=80

The only way to set the node port value is after being created using the edit command to update the node port value: kubectl edit service demo

• Example 2: In this example the create service nodeport is dedicated to creating the NodePort type and has arguments to enable us to control the node port value:

  kubectl create service nodeport demo --tcp=8080:80 --node-port=31888

In this Example 2 the node port value is set with the command line and there is no need to manually edit the value as in case of Example 1.

Important :

The create service [service-name] does not have an option to set the service's selector , so the service wont automatically connect to existing pods.

To set the selector labels to target specific pods you will need to follow up the create service [service-name] with the set selector command :

kubectl set selector service [NAME] [key1]=[value1]

So for above case 2 example, if you want the service to work with a deployment with pods labeled myapp: hello then this is the follow-up command needed:

kubectl set selector service demo myapp=hello

Answer 2

From my understanding, approach 1 (using create service) just creates service object and as label selector is not specified it does not have any underlying target pods. But in approach 2 (using expose deployment) the service load balances all the pods which are created using deployment as the service is attached with required labels automatically.

Answer 3

I hope this helps a little : Here the key would be to understand the difference between services and deployments. As per this link [1] you will notice that a deployment deals with the mortality of Pods automatically. However , if a Pod is terminated and then another is spun up how do the Pods continue to communicate when their IPs change? They use Services : “a Service is an abstraction which defines a logical set of Pods and a policy by which to access them”. Additionally, it may be of interest to view this link [2] as it describes that the kubectl expose command creates a service which in turn creates an external IP and a Load Balancer. As a beginner it may be of help to review the command language used with Kubernetes, this link [3] describes (as mentioned in another answer) that the kubectl create command is used to be more specific about the objects it creates. As well using the create command you can create a larger variety of objects.

[1]:Service :https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/ [2]:Deploying a containerized web application :https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/tutorials/hello-app#step_6_expose_your_application_to_the_internet [3]:How to create objects: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/manage-kubernetes-objects/imperative-command/#how-to-create-objects

Answer 4

The main differences can be seen from the docs.

1.- kubectl create command

Create a resource from a file or from stdin.

JSON and YAML formats are accepted.

2.- kubectl expose command

Expose a resource as a new Kubernetes service.

Looks up a deployment, service, replica set, replication controller or pod by name and uses the selector for that resource as the selector for a new service on the specified port. [...]

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Even though both achieve the same thing in the examples you provided, the create command is kind of a more global one, with it you can create all resources by using the command line or a yaml/json file. However, the expose command will only create a service resource, and it's mainly used to expose other already existing resources.

Source: K8s Docs