Kubernetes Headless Services: Enabling Direct Pod Connectivity

In Kubernetes, a Service typically provides a stable IP address and DNS name to abstract a group of Pod endpoints behind a single virtual IP (the “ClusterIP”). A Headless Service, by contrast, sets spec.clusterIP: None, deliberately forgoing that virtual IP. Instead of load‑balancing traffic through a proxy, DNS queries for the service return the individual Pod IPs directly. This pattern is essential whenever applications need to discover, address or manage peers at the Pod level—common in stateful or peer‑to‑peer workloads.