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:

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

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

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

./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:

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

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

./scripts/check-status.sh poll

---

Status Checking

Purpose	Command
Single snapshot	./scripts/check-status.sh quick
Wait until complete (5min timeout)	./scripts/check-status.sh poll

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

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

Confirm with the user, then delete:

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

Verify cleanup:

./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:

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:

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:

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:

State	Meaning
Creating	First-time Helm install in progress
Updating	Helm upgrade in progress (spec changed)
Running	Fully operational (all replicas available)
Faulted	Deployment missing, stopped unexpectedly, or health probe timeout
Stopped	Scaled to zero replicas intentionally

---

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:

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

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

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

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:

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

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.