Regarding the nginx retirement announcement..

https://kubernetes.io/blog/2025/11/11/ingress-nginx-retirement/

..soon, it seems we'll want to deploy using a gateway controller instead of ingress. Although we can mention other ingress types (that aren't being retired) in the documentation, I think eventually we won't want our DC helm chart to use an ingress. 

For reference, I got Confluence partially working after installing the Istio controller and using that instead of nginx:

1. Install the Istio controller:

   curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | sh -
   cd istio-*
   export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH
   istioctl install --set profile=demo -y 

2. Install gateway api CRDs:

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.0.0/standard-install.yaml 

3. Deploy Confluence using the DC helm chart without any ingress-related options set.
4. Apply a Gateway and HTTPRoute:

   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: Gateway
   metadata:
     name: confluence-gateway
     namespace: atlassian
   spec:
     gatewayClassName: istio
     listeners:
       - name: https
         protocol: HTTPS
         port: 443
         tls:
           mode: Terminate
           certificateRefs:
             - kind: Secret
               name: confluence-tls
   ---
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: HTTPRoute
   metadata:
     name: confluence-route
     namespace: atlassian
   spec:
     parentRefs:
       - name: confluence-gateway
     hostnames:
       - host.docker.internal
     rules:
       - matches:
           - path:
               type: PathPrefix
               value: /confluence
         backendRefs:
           - name: confluencelocalmsb
             port: 80
       - matches:
           - path:
               type: PathPrefix
               value: /synchrony
         backendRefs:
           - name: confluencelocalmsb-synchrony
             port: 80 
   

5. If you find that the EXTERNAL-IP of the gateway service is stuck in <pending> state, delete and re-apply the yaml to fix this:

   jmulcahey@HD6N59CQJP msb % kubectl get all
   NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   pod/confluence-gateway-istio-cfcd4fdb6-wnpff   1/1     Running   0          23m
   pod/confluencelocalmsb-0                       1/1     Running   0          23m
   pod/confluencelocalmsb-synchrony-0             1/1     Running   0          23m
   pod/postgres-postgresql-0                      1/1     Running   0          24m
   
   NAME                                   TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                         AGE
   service/confluence-gateway-istio       LoadBalancer   10.106.102.184   <pending>     15021:32223/TCP,443:30938/TCP   23m
   service/confluencelocalmsb             ClusterIP      10.108.95.215    <none>        80/TCP,5701/TCP                 23m
   service/confluencelocalmsb-synchrony   ClusterIP      10.109.226.100   <none>        80/TCP,5701/TCP                 44m
   service/postgres-postgresql            ClusterIP      10.97.182.122    <none>        5432/TCP                        24m
   service/postgres-postgresql-hl         ClusterIP      None             <none>        5432/TCP                        24m
   
   NAME                                       READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
   deployment.apps/confluence-gateway-istio   1/1     1            1           23m
   
   NAME                                                 DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
   replicaset.apps/confluence-gateway-istio-cfcd4fdb6   1         1         1       23m
   
   NAME                                            READY   AGE
   statefulset.apps/confluencelocalmsb             1/1     23m
   statefulset.apps/confluencelocalmsb-synchrony   1/1     23m
   statefulset.apps/postgres-postgresql            1/1     24m
   
   jmulcahey@HD6N59CQJP msb % kubectl delete -f ~/kubernetes/gatewayapi.yaml
   gateway.gateway.networking.k8s.io "confluence-gateway" deleted
   httproute.gateway.networking.k8s.io "confluence-route" deleted
   
   jmulcahey@HD6N59CQJP msb % kubectl apply -f ~/kubernetes/gatewayapi.yaml
   gateway.gateway.networking.k8s.io/confluence-gateway created
   httproute.gateway.networking.k8s.io/confluence-route created
   

Then I'm able to reach the Confluence frontend at https://host.docker.internal/confluence. I just didn't configure synchrony correctly, as collaborative editing isn't working yet.