NGINX Modern Apps > Class 17 - Integrating NGINX Ingress Controller with F5 BIG-IP Source | Edit on

Module 5 - Traffic Splitting¶

This module configures traffic splitting for a sample application with two services: coffee-v1-svc and coffee-v2-svc. 90% of the coffee application traffic is sent to coffee-v1-svc and the remaining 10% to coffee-v2-svc.

This feature is useful for canary deployments and A/B testing scenarios.

Setup Environment Variables¶

Confirm environment variables are still set to point to the IngressLink virtual server and define HTTP and HTTPS ports:

echo -e "NIC address: $NIC_IP\nHTTP port  : $HTTP_PORT\nHTTPS port : $HTTPS_PORT"

Output

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ echo -e "NIC address: $NIC_IP\nHTTP port  : $HTTP_PORT\nHTTPS port : $HTTPS_PORT"
NIC address: 10.1.1.9
HTTP port  : 80
HTTPS port : 443

Change to Lab Directory¶

cd ~/NGINX-Ingress-Controller-Lab/labs/4.traffic-splitting

Deploy Sample Applications¶

Deploy the sample web applications:

kubectl apply -f 0.cafe.yaml

Publish Application with Traffic Splitting¶

Publish the application through NGINX Ingress Controller applying the traffic splitting rule:

kubectl apply -f 1.virtual-server.yaml

Check the newly created VirtualServer resource:

kubectl get virtualservers.k8s.nginx.org -o wide

Output should be similar to:

NAME   STATE   HOST               IP         EXTERNALHOSTNAME   PORTS      AGE
cafe   Valid   cafe.example.com   10.1.1.9                      [80,443]   10s

Describe the cafe VirtualServer:

kubectl describe virtualservers.k8s.nginx.org cafe

Output should be similar to:

Name:         cafe
Namespace:    default
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  k8s.nginx.org/v1
Kind:         VirtualServer
Metadata:
Creation Timestamp:  2026-02-23T04:09:55Z
Generation:          1
Resource Version:    702605
UID:                 f273f290-eaf9-4964-867e-deff938c53e6
Spec:
Host:  cafe.example.com
Routes:
   Path:  /coffee
   Splits:
      Action:
      Pass:  coffee-v1
      Weight:  90
      Action:
      Pass:  coffee-v2
      Weight:  10
Upstreams:
   Name:     coffee-v1
   Port:     80
   Service:  coffee-v1-svc
   Name:     coffee-v2
   Port:     80
   Service:  coffee-v2-svc
Status:
External Endpoints:
   Ip:     10.1.1.9
   Ports:  [80,443]
Message:  Configuration for default/cafe was added or updated
Reason:   AddedOrUpdated
State:    Valid
Events:
Type    Reason          Age   From                      Message
----    ------          ----  ----                      -------
Normal  AddedOrUpdated  117s  nginx-ingress-controller  Configuration for default/cafe was added or updated
Normal  AddedOrUpdated  117s  nginx-ingress-controller  Configuration for default/cafe was added or updated

Test Application Access¶

Access the Application¶

curl -H "Host: cafe.example.com" http://$NIC_IP:$HTTP_PORT/coffee

90% of responses will come from coffee-v1-svc and be similar to:

Server address: 192.168.36.105:8080
Server name: coffee-v1-c48b96b65-6rlgx
Date: 03/Apr/2025:20:42:14 +0000
URI: /coffee
Request ID: 7e5a8e7143f9f5341b9c19ee60e47b8b

10% of responses will come from coffee-v2-svc and be similar to:

Server address: 192.168.36.104:8080
Server name: coffee-v2-685fd9bb65-xpgfl
Date: 03/Apr/2025:20:42:48 +0000
URI: /coffee
Request ID: 77d52bf9dc70bd6df6ee099553835615

Test Traffic Split Ratio¶

Test access using the script provided. It sends 100 requests and shows the traffic split ratio:

. ./test.sh

Output should be similar to:

Summary of responses:
Coffee v1: 90 times
Coffee v2: 10 times

Cleanup¶

Delete the lab resources:

kubectl delete -f .

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