---
title: "Knative Kubernetes Services"
#linkTitle: "OPTIONAL_ALTERNATE_NAV_TITLE"
weight: 9
type: "docs"
---

This guide describes the
[Kubernetes Services](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/)
that are active when running Knative Serving.

## Before You Begin

1. This guide assumes that you have installed Knative Serving. If you have not,
   instructions on how to do this are located
   [here](https://knative.dev/docs/install/).
2. Verify that you have the proper components in your cluster. To view the
   services installed in your cluster, use the command:

   ```sh
   $ kubectl get services -n knative-serving
   ```

   This should return the following output:

   ```sh
   NAME                TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                  AGE
   activator-service   ClusterIP   10.96.61.11      <none>        80/TCP,81/TCP,9090/TCP   1h
   autoscaler          ClusterIP   10.104.217.223   <none>        8080/TCP,9090/TCP        1h
   controller          ClusterIP   10.101.39.220    <none>        9090/TCP                 1h
   webhook             ClusterIP   10.107.144.50    <none>        443/TCP                  1h
   ```

3. To view the deployments in your cluster, use the following command:

   ```sh
   $ kubectl get deployments -n knative-serving
   ```

   This should return the following output:

   ```sh
   NAME                     DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
   activator                1         1         1            1           1h
   autoscaler               1         1         1            1           1h
   controller               1         1         1            1           1h
   networking-certmanager   1         1         1            1           1h
   networking-istio         1         1         1            1           1h
   webhook                  1         1         1            1           1h
   ```

These services and deployments are installed by the `serving.yaml` file during
install. The next section describes their function.

## Components

### Service: activator

The activator is responsible for receiving & buffering requests for inactive
revisions and reporting metrics to the autoscaler. It also retries requests to a
revision after the autoscaler scales the revision based on the reported metrics.

### Service: autoscaler

The autoscaler receives request metrics and adjusts the number of pods required
to handle the load of traffic.

### Service: controller

The controller service reconciles all the public Knative objects and autoscaling
CRDs. When a user applies a Knative service to the Kubernetes API, this creates
the configuration and route. It will convert the configuration into revisions
and the revisions into deployments and Knative Pod Autoscalers (KPAs).

### Service: webhook

The webhook intercepts all Kubernetes API calls as well as all CRD insertions
and updates. It sets default values, rejects inconsitent and invalid objects,
and validates and mutates Kubernetes API calls.

### Deployment: networking-certmanager

The certmanager reconciles cluster ingresses into cert manager objects.

### Deployment: networking-istio

The networking-istio deployment reconciles a cluster's ingress into an
[Istio virtual service](https://istio.io/docs/reference/config/networking/v1alpha3/virtual-service/).

## What's Next

- For a deeper look at the services and deployments involved in Knative Serving,
  click
  [here](https://github.com/knative/serving/blob/main/docs/spec/overview.md#service).
- For a high-level analysis of Serving, look at the [documentation here](./).
- Check out the Knative Serving code samples [here](./samples/) for more
  hands-on tutorials.
