Kong for Kubernetes

Install Kong Ingress Controller for Kubernetes

Install the Gateway API CRDs

Install the Gateway API CRDs before installing Kong Ingress Controller.

1

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

Create a Gateway and GatewayClass instance to use.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23


echo "
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: kong
  annotations:
    konghq.com/gatewayclass-unmanaged: 'true'

spec:
  controllerName: konghq.com/kic-gateway-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: kong
spec:
  gatewayClassName: kong
  listeners:
  - name: proxy
    port: 80
    protocol: HTTP
" | kubectl apply -f -

Install Kong

Install Kong in your Kubernetes cluster using Helm:

1
2


$ helm repo add kong https://charts.konghq.com
$ helm repo update

Install Kong Ingress Controller and Kong Gateway with Helm:

1

$ helm install kong kong/ingress -n kong --create-namespace

Connect to LoadBalancer services

Start an external load balancer by running the following command in a different terminal:

1

$ minikube tunnel

Test connectivity to Kong

Kubernetes exposes the proxy through a Kubernetes service. Run the following commands to store the load balancer IP address in a variable named PROXY_IP:

1
2


$ export PROXY_IP=$(kubectl get svc --namespace kong kong-gateway-proxy -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
$ echo $PROXY_IP

Ensure that you can call the proxy IP:

1

$ curl -i $PROXY_IP

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8


 HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
 Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
 Connection: keep-alive
 Content-Length: 48
 X-Kong-Response-Latency: 0
 Server: kong/3.0.0
  
 {"message":"no Route matched with those values"}

Services and Routes

A Service inside Kubernetes is a way to abstract an application that is running on a set of Pods. This maps to two objects in Kong: Service and Upstream.

The service object in Kong holds the information of the protocol to use to talk to the upstream service and various other protocol specific settings. The Upstream object defines load-balancing and health-checking behavior.

Routes are configured using Gateway API or Ingress resources, such as HTTPRoute, TCPRoute, GRPCRoute, Ingress and more.

Deploy an echo service

1

$ kubectl apply -f https://docs.konghq.com/assets/kubernetes-ingress-controller/examples/echo-service.yaml

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20


echo "
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: echo
  annotations:
    konghq.com/strip-path: 'true'
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: kong
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /echo
    backendRefs:
    - name: echo
      kind: Service
      port: 1027
" | kubectl apply -f -

Test the routing rule:

1

$ curl -i $PROXY_IP/echo

The results should look like this:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 140
Connection: keep-alive
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:24:55 GMT
X-Kong-Upstream-Latency: 0
X-Kong-Proxy-Latency: 1
Via: kong/3.2.2

Welcome, you are connected to node docker-desktop.
Running on Pod echo-7f87468b8c-tzzv6.
In namespace default.
With IP address 10.1.0.237.
...

If everything is deployed correctly, you should see the above response. This verifies that Kong Gateway can correctly route traffic to an application running inside Kubernetes.

Plugins

Authentication

Basic Authentication

Key Authentication

JWT Authentication

Rate Limiting

Proxy Caching

Cleanup

1

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

Reference

Kong Helm Charts

Kong for Kubernetes Kong

Implementing Kong Gateway on k8s

Install Kong Ingress Controller with Helm

Table of Contents