Building NGINX Ingress Controller

Learn how to build an NGINX Ingress Controller image from source code and upload it to a private Docker registry. You’ll also find information on the Makefile targets and variables.

Pre-built image alternatives
If you’d rather not build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, see the pre-built image options at the end of this guide.

Before you start

To get started, you need the following software installed on your machine:

• Docker v19.03 or higher
• GNU Make
• git
• OpenSSL, optionally, if you would like to generate a self-signed certificate and a key for the default server.
• For NGINX Plus users, download the certificate (nginx-repo.crt) and key (nginx-repo.key) from MyF5.

Although NGINX Ingress Controller is written in Golang, you don’t need to have Golang installed. You can either download the precompiled binary file or build NGINX Ingress Controller in a Docker container.

Prepare the environment

Get your system ready for building and pushing the NGINX Ingress Controller image.

1. Sign in to your private registry. Replace <my-docker-registry> with the path to your own private registry.

   docker login <my-docker-registry>
   

2. Clone the NGINX Ingress Controller GitHub repository. Replace <version_number> with the version of NGINX Ingress Controller you want.

   git clone https://github.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress.git --branch <version_number>
   cd kubernetes-ingress
   

   For instance if you want to clone version v3.6.1, the commands to run would be:

   git clone https://github.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress.git --branch v3.6.1
   cd kubernetes-ingress
   

Build the NGINX Ingress Controller image

After setting up your environment, follow these steps to build the NGINX Ingress Controller image.

Note:
If you have a local Golang environment and want to build the binary yourself, remove TARGET=download from the make commands. If you don’t have Golang but still want to build the binary, use TARGET=container.

For NGINX

1. Build the image. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

   • For a Debian-based image:

     make debian-image PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-ingress TARGET=download
     

   • For an Alpine-based image:

     make alpine-image PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-ingress TARGET=download
     

   What to expect: The image is built and tagged with a version number, which is derived from the VERSION variable in the Makefile. This version number is used for tracking and deployment purposes.

For NGINX Plus

1. Place your NGINX Plus license files (nginx-repo.crt and nginx-repo.key) in the project’s root folder. To verify they’re in place, run:

   ls nginx-repo.*
   

   You should see:

   nginx-repo.crt  nginx-repo.key
   

2. Build the image. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

   make debian-image-plus PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress TARGET=download
   

   
   

   What to expect: The image is built and tagged with a version number, which is derived from the VERSION variable in the Makefile. This version number is used for tracking and deployment purposes.

Note:
In the event a patch version of NGINX Plus is released, make sure to rebuild your image to get the latest version. If your system is caching the Docker layers and not updating the packages, add DOCKER_BUILD_OPTIONS="--pull --no-cache" to the make command.

Push the image to your private registry

Once you’ve successfully built the NGINX or NGINX Plus Ingress Controller image, the next step is to upload it to your private Docker registry. This makes the image available for deployment to your Kubernetes cluster.

For NGINX

1. Upload the NGINX image. If you’re using a custom tag, append TAG=your-tag to the command. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

   make push PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-ingress
   

For NGINX Plus

1. Upload the NGINX Plus image. Like with the NGINX image, if you’re using a custom tag, add TAG=your-tag to the end of the command. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

   make push PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress
   

Makefile details

This section provides comprehensive information on the targets and variables available in the Makefile. These targets and variables allow you to customize how you build, tag, and push your NGINX or NGINX Plus images.

Key Makefile targets

Tip:
To view available Makefile targets, run make with no target or type make help.

Key targets include:

RHEL_ORGANIZATION=1111111
RHEL_ACTIVATION_KEY=your-key

Additional useful targets

A few other useful targets:

Makefile variables you can customize

The Makefile includes several key variables. You have the option to either modify these variables directly in the Makefile or override them when you run the make command.

Alternatives to building your own image

If you prefer not to build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, you can use pre-built images. Here are your options:

NGINX Ingress Controller: Download the image nginx/nginx-ingress from DockerHub or GitHub.

NGINX Plus Ingress Controller: You have two options for this, both requiring an NGINX Ingress Controller subscription.

• Download the image using your NGINX Ingress Controller subscription certificate and key. See the Getting the F5 Registry NGINX Ingress Controller Image guide.
• Use your NGINX Ingress Controller subscription JWT token to get the image: Instructions are in Getting the NGINX Ingress Controller Image with JWT.