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Working with Kubernetes NetworkPolicies

By default, Kubernetes pods have unrestricted network access both inside and outside the cluster. However, it is often desirable to restrict network access to and from pods, particularly for security reasons. Kubernetes NetworkPolicies provide a flexible way to implement these networking restrictions, giving you control over all of the network traffic involving your pods. In this lab, walk through NetworkPolicies concepts, and examine some existing policies to determine how we can properly apply them to a pod.

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Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 1h 0m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 30, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Provide the `web-gateway` Pod with Network Access to the Pods Associated with the `inventory-svc` Service

    First, get a list of existing NetworkPolicies:

    kubectl get networkpolicy

    Examine inventory-policy more closely:

    kubectl describe networkpolicy inventory-policy

    Note that the policy selects pods with the label app: inventory, and provides incoming and outgoing network access to all pods with the label inventory-access: true.

    Modify the web-gateway pod with kubectl edit pod web-gateway.

    Add the inventory-access: "true" label to the pod under metdadata.labels.

    ...
metdadata:
  labels:
    inventory-access: "true"
...

    Test access to the inventory-svc like so:

    kubectl exec web-gateway -- curl -m 3 inventory-svc

  2. Challenge

    Provide the `web-gateway` Pod with Network Access to the Pods Associated with the `customer-data-svc` Service

    Examine customer-data-policy more closely:

    kubectl describe networkpolicy customer-data-policy

    Note that the policy selects pods with the label app: customer-data, and provides incoming and outgoing network access to all pods with the label customer-data-access: true.

    Modify the web-gateway pod with kubectl edit pod web-gateway.

    Add the customer-data-access: "true" label to the pod under metadadata.labels:

    ...
metdadata:
  labels:
    inventory-access: "true"
    customer-data-access: "true"
...

    Test access to the customer-data-svc like so:

    kubectl exec web-gateway -- curl -m 3 customer-data-svc
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