The Kubernetes network proxy (aka kube-proxy) is a daemon running on each node. It basically reflects the services defined in the cluster and manages the rules to load-balance requests to a service’s backend pods. Quick example: Let’s say we have several pods of an API microservice running in our cluster, with those replicas being exposed by a service. When a request reaches the service virtual IP, how is the request forwarded to one of the underlying pods? Well… simply by using the rules that kube-proxy created. OK, it’s not that simple under the hood, but we get the big picture here.