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Setting up ExternalDNS for Services on Vultr

This tutorial describes how to setup ExternalDNS for usage within a Kubernetes cluster using Vultr DNS.

Make sure to use >=0.6 version of ExternalDNS for this tutorial.

Managing DNS with Vultr

If you want to read up on vultr DNS service you can read the following tutorial:
Introduction to Vultr DNS

Create a new DNS Zone where you want to create your records in. For the examples we will be using example.com

Creating Vultr Credentials

You will need to create a new API Key which can be found on the Vultr Dashboard.

The environment variable VULTR_API_KEY will be needed to run ExternalDNS with Vultr.

Deploy ExternalDNS

Connect your kubectl client to the cluster you want to test ExternalDNS with.
Then apply one of the following manifests file to deploy ExternalDNS.

Manifest (for clusters without RBAC enabled)

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: external-dns
spec:
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: external-dns
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: external-dns
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: external-dns
        image: registry.k8s.io/external-dns/external-dns:v0.13.2
        args:
        - --source=service # ingress is also possible
        - --domain-filter=example.com # (optional) limit to only example.com domains; change to match the zone created above.
        - --provider=vultr
        env:
        - name: VULTR_API_KEY
          value: "YOU_VULTR_API_KEY"

Manifest (for clusters with RBAC enabled)

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: external-dns
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: external-dns
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["services","endpoints","pods"]
  verbs: ["get","watch","list"]
- apiGroups: ["extensions","networking.k8s.io"]
  resources: ["ingresses"]
  verbs: ["get","watch","list"]
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["nodes"]
  verbs: ["list"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: external-dns-viewer
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: external-dns
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: external-dns
  namespace: default
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: external-dns
spec:
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: external-dns
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: external-dns
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: external-dns
      containers:
      - name: external-dns
        image: registry.k8s.io/external-dns/external-dns:v0.13.2
        args:
        - --source=service # ingress is also possible
        - --domain-filter=example.com # (optional) limit to only example.com domains; change to match the zone created above.
        - --provider=vultr
        env:
        - name: VULTR_API_KEY
          value: "YOU_VULTR_API_KEY"

Deploying a Nginx Service

Create a service file called ‘nginx.yaml’ with the following contents:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: nginx
        name: nginx
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx
  annotations:
    external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: my-app.example.com
spec:
  selector:
    app: nginx
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

Note the annotation on the service; use the same hostname as the Vultr DNS zone created above.

ExternalDNS uses this annotation to determine what services should be registered with DNS. Removing the annotation will cause ExternalDNS to remove the corresponding DNS records.

Create the deployment and service:

$ kubectl create -f nginx.yaml

Depending where you run your service it can take a little while for your cloud provider to create an external IP for the service.

Once the service has an external IP assigned, ExternalDNS will notice the new service IP address and synchronize the Vultr DNS records.

Verifying Vultr DNS records

Check your Vultr UI to view the records for your Vultr DNS zone.

Click on the zone for the one created above if a different domain was used.

This should show the external IP address of the service as the A record for your domain.

Cleanup

Now that we have verified that ExternalDNS will automatically manage Vultr DNS records, we can delete the tutorial’s example:

$ kubectl delete service -f nginx.yaml
$ kubectl delete service -f externaldns.yaml
Last update: February 4, 2023
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