PROBLEM: Cannot access pods in my k8s deployment for testing
SOLUTION: Use very simple port-forward method

Find your destination

Decide what do you want to access. Port forward works on services, pods, deployments or even replicaSets.
The syntax is very simple.

kubctl port-forward pod-name local-port:destination-port

Which leads to example like this:

kubectl port-forward my-pod-name 1000:3000

You can see your app through port 1000 on your local machine (working on the port 3000 on remote). Bear in mind, you are connecting directly to the service/pod/whatever, so use the port defined in the service/pod itself. Just type “localhost:1000” in your browser/terminal.

Other examples:

You can ommit the port pair to keep just one port.

kubectl port-forward svc/some-service 3000

To match deployment

kubectl port-forward deployment/my-sweet-deployment 3000:5000

You can use the & to set proxy on the background like this:

kubectl port-forward pods/some-pod 9000 &

Full docs: https://kubernetes.io/…/port-forward-access…/