PLEASE NOTE: This document applies to the HEAD of the source tree
If you are using a released version of Kubernetes, you should
refer to the docs that go with that version.
The latest release of this document can be found
[here](http://releases.k8s.io/release-1.1/docs/user-guide/connecting-to-applications-port-forward.md).
Documentation for other releases can be found at
[releases.k8s.io](http://releases.k8s.io).
--
# Connecting to applications: kubectl port-forward
kubectl port-forward forwards connections to a local port to a port on a pod. Its man page is available [here](kubectl/kubectl_port-forward.md). Compared to [kubectl proxy](accessing-the-cluster.md#using-kubectl-proxy), `kubectl port-forward` is more generic as it can forward TCP traffic while `kubectl proxy` can only forward HTTP traffic. This guide demonstrates how to use `kubectl port-forward` to connect to a Redis database, which may be useful for database debugging.
## Creating a Redis master
```console
$ kubectl create examples/redis/redis-master.yaml
pods/redis-master
```
wait until the Redis master pod is Running and Ready,
```console
$ kubectl get pods
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
redis-master 2/2 Running 0 41s
```
## Connecting to the Redis master[a]
The Redis master is listening on port 6397, to verify this,
```console
$ kubectl get pods redis-master -t='{{(index (index .spec.containers 0).ports 0).containerPort}}{{"\n"}}'
6379
```
then we forward the port 6379 on the local workstation to the port 6379 of pod redis-master,
```console
$ kubectl port-forward redis-master 6379:6379
I0710 14:43:38.274550 3655 portforward.go:225] Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:6379 -> 6379
I0710 14:43:38.274797 3655 portforward.go:225] Forwarding from [::1]:6379 -> 6379
```
To verify the connection is successful, we run a redis-cli on the local workstation,
```console
$ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> ping
PONG
```
Now one can debug the database from the local workstation.
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