Kubesphere Gateway

KubeSphere Gateway

Overview

Provides external access management (ingress) for KubeSphere using ingress-nginx. Supports three-tier gateway management:

| Tier | Scope | Name Pattern | Namespace | Label | |---|---|---|---| | Cluster | Entire cluster | kubesphere-router-cluster | kubesphere-controls-system | kubesphere.io/gateway-type=cluster | | Workspace | Single workspace | kubesphere-router-workspace-{workspace} | kubesphere-controls-system | kubesphere.io/gateway-type=workspace | | Project | Single project/namespace | kubesphere-router-{namespace} | kubesphere-controls-system | kubesphere.io/gateway-type=project |

Each gateway is a standalone Helm release of ingress-nginx. The gateway-controller-manager manages the lifecycle (install/upgrade/uninstall) via Helm.

Core CRDs

• Gateway (gateway.kubesphere.io/v2alpha2) — represents a single ingress-nginx deployment. Key fields:

  • spec.appVersion — the Helm chart version (e.g. kubesphere-nginx-ingress-<version>)
  • spec.values — Helm values for ingress-nginx (controller config, service type, resources, etc.)
  • status.state — Creating, Updating, Running, Faulted, Stopped
  • status.conditions[].type=GatewayReady — True when fully operational
  • status.loadBalancer — LB ingress IPs/hostnames
  • status.service — Service type, ports, external IPs

• UpgradePlan (gateway.kubesphere.io/v2alpha2) — batch gateway upgrade job. Key fields:

  • spec.gatewayReferences — list of {name, namespace} to upgrade
  • spec.targetAppVersion — target version
  • status.state — Pending, Running, Succeeded, Failed

Monitoring Integration

Gateway exposes NGINX metrics (requests, 4xx/5xx, latency P50/P90/P99) via Prometheus. Requires the whizard-monitoring extension (optional dependency).

Before You Start

Check if Gateway extension is already installed:

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kubectl get installplans.kubesphere.io gateway --ignore-not-found

If found, upgrading is supported — just select a newer version in Step 1.

Installation

Step 1: Detect and Select Version

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ALL_VERSIONS=$(kubectl get extensionversions.kubesphere.io \
  -l kubesphere.io/extension-ref=gateway \
  -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.spec.version}{"\n"}{end}' | sort -V)

LATEST_STABLE=$(echo "$ALL_VERSIONS" | grep -v -E 'alpha|beta|rc' | tail -1)
if [ -z "$LATEST_STABLE" ]; then
  LATEST_STABLE=$(echo "$ALL_VERSIONS" | tail -1)
fi

echo "Available versions:"
echo "$ALL_VERSIONS"
echo ""
echo "Latest stable: $LATEST_STABLE"

This sets ALL_VERSIONS and LATEST_STABLE. Use SELECTED_VERSION for the version chosen.

Use the question tool:

• $LATEST_STABLE (Recommended) — accept the auto-detected version
• (custom) — type a specific version; validate it against the printed list

Step 2: Detect and Select Clusters

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CLUSTER_DATA=$(kubectl get clusters.cluster.kubesphere.io \
  -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\t"}{.status.conditions[?(@.type=="Ready")].status}{"\n"}{end}')

READY_CLUSTERS=$(echo "$CLUSTER_DATA" | awk -F'\t' '$2 == "True" {print $1}')
CLUSTER_COUNT=$(echo "$READY_CLUSTERS" | wc -l)

HOST_CLUSTER=$(kubectl get clusters.cluster.kubesphere.io \
  -l 'cluster-role.kubesphere.io/host' \
  -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}' || echo "")

echo "Ready clusters:"
echo "$READY_CLUSTERS"
echo ""
echo "Cluster count: $CLUSTER_COUNT"
echo "Host cluster: $HOST_CLUSTER"

This sets READY_CLUSTERS, CLUSTER_COUNT, HOST_CLUSTER.

• 1 cluster → skip selection, auto-use it. Set TARGET_CLUSTERS="$HOST_CLUSTER"
• Multiple clusters → use question with multiple: true:
  • All clusters → TARGET_CLUSTERS="$READY_CLUSTERS"
  • Host cluster only → TARGET_CLUSTERS="$HOST_CLUSTER"
  • (custom) — validate each name against $READY_CLUSTERS

Step 3: Generate and Apply InstallPlan

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./scripts/generate-installplan.sh "$SELECTED_VERSION" "$TARGET_CLUSTERS"

This generates the YAML to /tmp/gateway-installplan.yaml, runs --dry-run=server, then prints the apply command.

For configurable extension values (ingress-nginx default settings, image registry, upgrade tool config, etc.), see references/extension-values.md.

Apply it:

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kubectl apply -f /tmp/gateway-installplan.yaml

Tell the user "Installing". Then ask if they want to check status. If yes:

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./scripts/check-status.sh poll

Status Checking

Logic:

• All Installed → ✓ success
• Any Failed → ✗ prints full status
• Timeout (300s) → ⚠ prints current status
• In progress → prints every 10s

Uninstallation

⚠ Always confirm with the user before proceeding.

Uninstall from all clusters

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if ! kubectl get installplans.kubesphere.io gateway &>/dev/null; then
  echo "Gateway is not installed."
  exit 0
fi

Confirm with the user, then delete:

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kubectl delete installplans.kubesphere.io gateway --ignore-not-found

Verify cleanup:

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./scripts/verify-uninstall.sh

Success criteria:

1. InstallPlan is deleted
2. No active pods remain in extension-gateway namespace

Uninstall from specific clusters

WARNING: Do NOT delete the InstallPlan. Only remove target clusters from the placement list.

Confirm which clusters to remove, compute remaining clusters, then patch:

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kubectl patch installplans.kubesphere.io gateway --type='json' \
  -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/clusterScheduling/placement/clusters", "value": ["<REMAINING_CLUSTER_1>", "<REMAINING_CLUSTER_2>"]}]'

Success: patch returns OK + removed clusters no longer in .status.clusterSchedulingStatuses.

Gateway Operations

List Gateways

Gateways are organized by tier (see Overview), with each tier identified by the label kubesphere.io/gateway-type. List them grouped by tier:

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echo "=== Cluster Gateway ==="
kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n kubesphere-controls-system \
  -l kubesphere.io/gateway-type=cluster

echo -e "\n=== Workspace Gateways ==="
kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n kubesphere-controls-system \
  -l kubesphere.io/gateway-type=workspace

echo -e "\n=== Project Gateways ==="
kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n kubesphere-controls-system \
  -l kubesphere.io/gateway-type=project

Check Gateway Status

Pick a gateway name from the List Gateways output and run:

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GW_NS="kubesphere-controls-system"
GW_NAME="<gateway-name-from-list>"

# app.kubernetes.io/instance uses the Helm release name if available, otherwise the Gateway name
GW_INSTANCE=$(kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o jsonpath='{.status.helmRelease.name}' 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$GW_INSTANCE" ]; then
  GW_INSTANCE="$GW_NAME"
fi

kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o wide
kubectl describe gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME
kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o yaml
kubectl get pods -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE"

Gateway states:

Troubleshooting

Set $GW_NAME according to the gateway tier being troubleshot (see naming rules in Overview):

• Cluster → GW_NAME=kubesphere-router-cluster
• Workspace → GW_NAME=kubesphere-router-workspace-${WORKSPACE}
• Project → GW_NAME=kubesphere-router-${NAMESPACE}

Common namespace: GW_NS=kubesphere-controls-system

$GW_INSTANCE is auto-resolved from status.helmRelease.name (falls back to $GW_NAME). If not yet set, run:

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GW_INSTANCE=$(kubectl get gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o jsonpath='{.status.helmRelease.name}' 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$GW_INSTANCE" ]; then
  GW_INSTANCE="$GW_NAME"
fi

Gateway stuck in Creating or Updating state

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kubectl describe gateways.gateway.kubesphere.io -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME

kubectl logs -n extension-gateway -l app=gateway-controller-manager --tail=200 | grep -iE "(error|helm|install|upgrade|reconcile)"

kubectl get deployment -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE,app.kubernetes.io/component=controller"

kubectl get configmap -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o yaml

Common causes: Chart ConfigMap missing/corrupted, Helm wrapper timeout, invalid spec.values.

Gateway shows Faulted state

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kubectl get deployment -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME -o wide
kubectl describe deployment -n $GW_NS $GW_NAME
kubectl get pods -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE" -o wide

POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl describe pod -n $GW_NS $POD_NAME
kubectl logs -n $GW_NS $POD_NAME --tail=100

Common causes: Image pull failure, resource constraints, port conflicts, missing ConfigMap/Secret.

Gateway pod crash-looping / CrashLoopBackOff

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kubectl logs -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE" --tail=100 --previous
kubectl get events -n $GW_NS --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20
kubectl exec -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE" -- cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf 2>/dev/null | head -50
kubectl get configmap -n $GW_NS -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=$GW_INSTANCE" -o yaml

Common causes: Misconfigured nginx config, port conflicts, resource limits (OOMKilled), missing dependencies (ConfigMap/Secret).

Log search not working

Gateway log search proxies to whizard-telemetry-apiserver:

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kubectl get configmap -n extension-gateway gateway-agent-backend-config -o yaml
kubectl get pods -n extension-whizard-telemetry
kubectl get svc -n extension-whizard-telemetry whizard-telemetry-apiserver
kubectl logs -n extension-gateway -l app=gateway-apiserver --tail=100 | grep -iE "(log|search|whizard|proxy)"

Common causes: Whizard-telemetry not installed or not running, misconfigured gateway-agent-backend-config, network policy blocking cross-namespace traffic.

Gateway controller not reconciling

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kubectl get pods -n extension-gateway -l app=gateway-controller-manager
kubectl logs -n extension-gateway -l app=gateway-controller-manager --tail=200
kubectl get validatingwebhookconfiguration -l "app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=Helm,kubesphere.io/extension-ref=gateway"
kubectl get deployment -n extension-gateway -l app=gateway-controller-manager -o yaml

Common causes: Controller pod not running, webhook configuration blocking updates, Helm release state mismatch, RBAC permission issues.

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