Resolving ImagePullBackOff and Accessing a LoadBalancer Service in Minikube

Summary: This document details the steps taken to resolve the ImagePullBackOff error and access a LoadBalancer service in a Kubernetes cluster running on Minikube.

Issue

The ImagePullBackOff error occurred while deploying the hello-world-microservice in a Kubernetes cluster running on Minikube. This issue prevented the deployment from starting. Additionally, accessing the LoadBalancer service using the curl command did not return any output.

Resolution

Fixing the ImagePullBackOff error

1. Update the image name in the Kubernetes deployment manifest to use the correct image name available in the container registry.
2. Apply the updated deployment manifest:

kubectl apply -f k8s-deployment.yaml

In terraform terraform apply

Accessing the LoadBalancer service

Check the logs of the running pods to see if there is any error or if the application has started properly:

kubectl logs hello-world-microservice-b849675f-gns8s -n hello-world
kubectl logs hello-world-microservice-b849675f-jrgpp -n hello-world

Access the service from within the cluster using a temporary pod with the curl command:

kubectl run curl-test --image=curlimages/curl:latest --rm -it --restart=Never --namespace=hello-world --command -- sh

Then, within the curl-test, Run:

curl hello-world-microservice:80


I am doing this because it's a web application. This depends on and defer based on the program.

My issue with Minikube

The actual problem I had was not with code and image but Minikube.

Since Minikube doesn't support the LoadBalancer service type out-of-the-box, run the minikube tunnel command in a separate terminal to create a network route on the host to the service CIDR of the cluster using the cluster's IP address as a gateway:

minikube tunnel

Check if the service's external IP:
kubectl get svc hello-world-microservice -n hello-world

Access the service using the external IP and port:
curl http://<EXTERNAL_IP>:80

Conclusion
By updating the image name in the Kubernetes deployment manifest and using the minikube tunnel command, I was successful in resolving the ImagePullBackOff error and accessed the LoadBalancer service in the Minikube Kubernetes cluster.