Use Helm to Install NGINX Ingress Controller with NGINX Open Source

This page describes how to use Helm to install F5 NGINX Ingress Controller with NGINX Open Source.

It explains the requirements for NGINX Ingress Controller, how to obtain and install the Helm chart, and what custom resource definitions (CRDs) are installed during the process.

By following these instructions, you will finish with a functional NGINX Ingress Controller instance for your Kubernetes cluster.

Before you begin

Throughout this page, you will see placeholder values indicated with angular brackets, such as <my-release>. Replace them accordingly for your installation.

Warning
The edge version is not intended for production use. It is intended for testing and development purposes only.

If you’d like to test the latest changes in NGINX Ingress Controller before a new release, you can install the edge version, which is built from the main branch of the NGINX Ingress Controller repository.

You can install the edge version by specifying the --version flag with the value 0.0.0-edge:

helm install <my-release> oci://ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress --version 0.0.0-edge

Install the Helm chart

You have two options for installing the Helm chart: directly from the OCI registry, or using the source.

OCI Registry

To install NGINX Ingress Controller using the OCI registry, run this command with your release name:

helm install <my-release> oci://ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress --version 2.3.1
Example output
text
Pulled: ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress:2.3.1
Digest: sha256:bb452d593c31b6be39f459f9604882e170227429821bac01e7ddd7da16d91ba1
NAME: h4-oss
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Nov 28 11:53:57 2025
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
DESCRIPTION: Install complete
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
NGINX Ingress Controller 5.2.1 has been installed.

For release notes for this version please see: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/releases/

Installation and upgrade instructions: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/installation/installing-nic/installation-with-helm/

From source

To install NGINX Ingress Controller from source, first pull the chart by running this command:

helm pull oci://ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress --untar --version 2.3.1
Example output
text
Pulled: ghcr.io/nginx/charts/nginx-ingress:2.3.1
Digest: sha256:bb452d593c31b6be39f459f9604882e170227429821bac01e7ddd7da16d91ba1

Then use the cd command to change your working directory to nginx-ingress:

cd nginx-ingress

Finally, install the chart with your release name with helm install:

helm install <my-release> .
Example output
text
NAME: h4-oss-source
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Nov 28 12:06:07 2025
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
DESCRIPTION: Install complete
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
NGINX Ingress Controller 5.2.1 has been installed.

For release notes for this version please see: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/releases/

Installation and upgrade instructions: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx-ingress-controller/installation/installing-nic/installation-with-helm/

Verify the deployment

To verify that NGINX Ingress Controller has been installed correctly, you can review ingressclasses with kubectl get:

kubectl get ingressclasses
Example output
text
NAME    CONTROLLER                     PARAMETERS   AGE
nginx   nginx.org/ingress-controller   <none>       10m

Custom Resource Definitions

When installing the chart, Helm will install the required CRDs. Without them, NGINX Ingress Controller pods will not become Ready.

If you do not use the custom resources that require those CRDs, add the parameter --skip-crds in your helm install command.

The following chart parameters should be set to false:

  • controller.enableCustomResources
  • controller.appprotect.enable
  • controller.appprotectdos.enable

Next steps

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