Configuring Static IP address with Ingress Nginx Sticky Session on Azure Kubernetes - nginx

Question

I am trying to configure an additional layer of Sticky Session to my current Kubernetes architecture. Instead of routing every request through the main LoadBalancer service, I want to route the requests through an upper layer of nginx sticky session. I am following the guide on https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/examples/affinity/cookie/
I am using Azure Cloud for my cluster deployment. Previously, using a Service with LoadBalancer type would automatically generate an external IP address for users to connect to my cluster. Now I need to configure the static IP address for my users to connect to, with the nginx ingress in place. How can I do so? I followed the guide here - https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/tree/master/docs/examples/static-ip but the external address of the Ingress is still empty!!
What did I do wrongly?
# nginx-sticky-service.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: nginx-ingress-lb
labels:
app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
spec:
externalTrafficPolicy: Local
type: LoadBalancer
ports:
- port: 80
name: http
targetPort: 80
- port: 443
name: https
targetPort: 443
selector:
# Selects nginx-ingress-controller pods
app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
# nginx-sticky-controller.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx-ingress-controller
labels:
app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app.kubernetes.io/name: ingress-nginx
app.kubernetes.io/part-of: ingress-nginx
spec:
terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 60
containers:
- image: quay.io/kubernetes-ingress-controller/nginx-ingress-controller:0.31.0
name: nginx-ingress-controller
ports:
- containerPort: 80
hostPort: 80
- containerPort: 443
hostPort: 443
resources:
limits:
cpu: 0.5
memory: "0.5Gi"
requests:
cpu: 0.5
memory: "0.5Gi"
env:
- name: POD_NAME
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
- name: POD_NAMESPACE
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.namespace
args:
- /nginx-ingress-controller
- --publish-service=$(POD_NAMESPACE)/nginx-ingress-lb
# nginx-sticky-server.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: ingress-nginx
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "nginx"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity: "cookie"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-name: "nginx-sticky-server"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-expires: "172800"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-max-age: "172800"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "false"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity-mode: persistent
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-hash: sha1
spec:
rules:
- http:
paths:
- backend:
# This assumes http-svc exists and routes to healthy endpoints.
serviceName: my-own-service-master
servicePort: http

Answer 1

Ok I got it working. I think the difference lies in the cloud provider you are using, and for Azure Cloud, you should follow their documentation and their way of implementing ingress controller in the Kubernetes cluster.
Link over here for deploying the ingress controller. Their way of creating the public IP address within the Kubernetes cluster and linking it up with the ingress controller works. I can confirm as of now, the time of writing.
Once I am done deploying the steps in the link above, I can apply the ingress .yaml file as usual i.e. kubectl apply -f nginx-sticky-server.yaml to set up the nginx sticky session. IF the service name and service port stated in your ingress .yaml file is correct, the nginx ingress controller should redirect your user requests to the correct service.