How to access app once deployed via Kubernetes? - kubernetes

Question

I have a very simple Python app that works fine when I execute uvicorn main:app --reload. When I go to http://127.0.0.1:8000 on my machine, I'm able to interact with the API. (My app has no frontend, it is just an API built with FastAPI). However, I am trying to deploy this via Kubernetes, but am not sure how I can access/interact with my API.
Here is my deployment.yaml.
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: my-deployment
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: nginx
replicas: 1
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
containers:
- name: nginx
image: nginx:1.16.1
ports:
- containerPort: 80
When I enter kubectl describe deployments my-deployment in the terminal, I get back a print out of the deployment, the namespace it is in, the pod template, a list of events, etc. So, I am pretty sure it is properly deployed.
How can I access the application? What would the url be? I have tried a variety of localhost + port combinations to no avail. I am new to kubernetes so I'm trying to understand how this works.
Update:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: app-deployment
namespace: default
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: web
replicas: 2
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: web
spec:
containers:
- name: site
image: nginx:1.16.1
ports:
- containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: app-entrypoint
namespace: default
spec:
type: NodePort
selector:
app: web
ports:
- port: 80
targetPort: 80
nodePort: 30001
Again, when I use the k8s CLI, I'm able to see my deployment, yet when I hit localhost:30001, I get an Unable to connect message.

Answer 1

You have given containerPort: 80 but if your app listens on port 8080 change it to 8080.
There are different ways to access an application deployed on kubernetes
Port Forward using kubectl port-forward deployment/my-deployment 8080:8080
Creare a NodePort service and use http://<NODEIP>:<NODEPORT>
Create a LoadBalanceer service. This works only in supported cloud environment such as AWS, GKE etc.
Use ingress controller such nginx to expose the application.

Answer 2

By Default k8s application are exposed only within the cluster, if you want to access it from outside of the cluster then you can select any of the below options:
Expose Deployment as a node port service (kubectl expose deployment my-deployment --name=my-deployment-service --type=NodePort), describe the service and get the node port assigned to it (kubectl describe svc my-deployment-service). Then try http://<node-IP:node-port>/
For production grade cluster the best practice is to use LoadBalancer type (kubectl expose deployment my-deployment --name=my-deployment-service --type=LoadBalancer --target-port=8080) as part of this service you get an external IP which can be used to access your service http://EXTERNAL-IP:8080/
You can also see the details about the endpoint using kubectl get ep
Thanks,