Use an HTTP Proxy to Access the Kubernetes API
This page shows how to use an HTTP proxy to access the Kubernetes API.
Before you begin
You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:
To check the version, enter kubectl version.
If you do not already have an application running in your cluster, start a Hello world application by entering this command:
kubectl create deployment hello-app --image=gcr.io/google-samples/hello-app:2.0 --port=8080
Using kubectl to start a proxy server
This command starts a proxy to the Kubernetes API server:
kubectl proxy --port=8080
Exploring the Kubernetes API
When the proxy server is running, you can explore the API using curl, wget,
or a browser.
Get the API versions:
curl http://localhost:8080/api/
The output should look similar to this:
{
"kind": "APIVersions",
"versions": [
"v1"
],
"serverAddressByClientCIDRs": [
{
"clientCIDR": "0.0.0.0/0",
"serverAddress": "10.0.2.15:8443"
}
]
}
Get a list of pods:
curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/namespaces/default/pods
The output should look similar to this:
{
"kind": "PodList",
"apiVersion": "v1",
"metadata": {
"resourceVersion": "33074"
},
"items": [
{
"metadata": {
"name": "kubernetes-bootcamp-2321272333-ix8pt",
"generateName": "kubernetes-bootcamp-2321272333-",
"namespace": "default",
"uid": "ba21457c-6b1d-11e6-85f7-1ef9f1dab92b",
"resourceVersion": "33003",
"creationTimestamp": "2016-08-25T23:43:30Z",
"labels": {
"pod-template-hash": "2321272333",
"run": "kubernetes-bootcamp"
},
...
}
What's next
Learn more about kubectl proxy.