The Kubernetes Ingress NGINX controller deprecated by the community is reaching end-of-life, forcing teams to migrate. The natural successor is F5's NGINX Open Source Ingress Controller, which offers a cleaner architecture without Lua scripting and supports modern Custom Resource Definitions like VirtualServer.

Unlike the old controller, F5’s version uses a Go-based control plane that generates native NGINX config files. This shift improves stability but requires rewriting existing Ingress resources, as annotation-based configurations differ significantly. Teams must audit current setups and plan for side-by-side deployment during migration.

Adopting VirtualServer CRDs simplifies complex routing and reduces configuration errors. Standard annotations need prefix changes, and features like URL rewriting behave differently. Migration involves DNS cutover, traffic validation, and eventual decommissioning of the old controller. Teams should begin now to avoid last-minute disruptions.