In this interactive guide, we’ll dive into the world of Kong API Gateway and explore how to harness its powerful features to build robust and secure APIs. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just getting started with API management, this blog will walk you through the configuration of various advanced features in Kong, step by step.

Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Kong API Gateway? Let’s get started on our journey to mastering API management with Kong!

Note: Please visit this blog to rerfer for Kong API Gateway architecture and installation guide

Service Management

• Define Upstream Service:
  • Use the Kong Admin API or Konga (Kong’s graphical user interface) to define an upstream service.
  • This creates a service named my-service with the upstream URL http://example.com.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/services/ \ --data 'name=my-service' \ --data 'url=http://example.com'

• Retrieve Service Information:
  • Verify that the service has been successfully created.
  • This retrieves information about the my-service service.

curl -i -X GET --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service

Route Management

• Add Route for the Service:
  • Define a route to map incoming requests to the upstream service.
  • This creates a route named my-route for the my-service service, matching requests to the /my-endpoint path.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service/routes \ --data 'paths[]=/my-endpoint' \ --data 'name=my-route'

• Verify Route Configuration:
  • Ensure that the route has been successfully configured.
  • This retrieves information about the my-route route.

curl -i -X GET --url http://localhost:8001/routes/my-route

Load Balancing

• Configure Load Balancing for Service:
  • Enable load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple instances of the upstream service.
  • This configures the my-service service with load balancing properties such as retries and client certificate.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service \ --data 'retries=5' \ --data 'url=http://example.com' \ --data 'client_certificate=abcd-1234'

• Verify Load Balancing Configuration:
  • Confirm that load balancing has been configured for the service.
  • This retrieves updated information about the my-service service, including load balancing configuration.

curl -i -X GET --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service

• Add Route for the Service:
  • Define a route to map incoming requests to the upstream service.
  • This creates a route named my-route for the my-service service, matching requests to the /my-endpoint path.

curl -i -X POST –url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service/routes \ –data ‘paths[]=/my-endpoint’ \ –data ‘name=my-route’

• Verify Route Configuration:
  • Ensure that the route has been successfully configured.
  • This retrieves information about the my-route route.

curl -i -X GET --url http://localhost:8001/routes/my-route

• Configure Load Balancing for Service:
  • Enable load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple instances of the upstream service.
  • This configures the my-service service with load balancing properties such as retries and client certificate.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service \ --data 'retries=5' \ --data 'url=http://example.com' \ --data 'client_certificate=abcd-1234'

• Verify Load Balancing Configuration:
  • Confirm that load balancing has been configured for the service.
  • This retrieves updated information about the my-service service, including load balancing configuration.

curl -i -X GET --url http://localhost:8001/services/my-service

Authentication

• Choose an Authentication Plugin:
  • Kong supports various authentication methods such as API key, JWT, OAuth2, Basic Auth, etc.
  • Select the appropriate plugin based on your authentication requirements.
• Enable Authentication Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the chosen authentication plugin for a specific route or service.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply authentication.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=key-auth"

• Test Authentication:
  • Verify that authentication is working as expected by making a request to the protected route or service with valid credentials.

Authorization

• Define Authorization Rules:
  • Determine the authorization rules based on user roles, permissions, or other criteria.
  • Kong provides plugins like ACL, RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), etc., for implementing authorization rules.
• Enable Authorization Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Similar to authentication, enable the chosen authorization plugin for the desired route or service using the Kong Admin API.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply authorization.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=acl" \ --data "config.whitelist=my_role"

• Test Authorization:
  • Test the authorization rules by making requests with different user roles or permissions to ensure proper access control.

Rate Limiting

• Choose a Rate Limiting Plugin:
  • Kong provides rate limiting plugins like rate-limiting, response-ratelimiting, etc.
  • Select the appropriate plugin based on your rate limiting requirements (e.g., limit by IP, consumer, etc.).
• Enable Rate Limiting Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Enable the chosen rate limiting plugin for the desired route or service using the Kong Admin API.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply rate limiting.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=rate-limiting" \ --data "config.minute=100" \ --data "config.limit_by=ip"

• Test Rate Limiting:
  • Test the rate limiting by making requests exceeding the defined limits to verify that requests are being throttled accordingly.

Logging

• Choose a Logging Plugin:
  • Kong supports various logging plugins such as file-log, tcp-log, http-log, etc.
  • Select the appropriate plugin based on your logging requirements (e.g., logging to a file, sending logs to a remote server).
• Enable Logging Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the chosen logging plugin for a specific route or service.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply logging.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=file-log" \ --data "config.path=/path/to/log/file"

• Test Logging:
  • Make requests to the route or service with logging enabled and verify that logs are generated as expected in the specified log file or destination.

Metrics

• Choose a Metrics Plugin:
  • Kong provides metrics plugins such as prometheus, statsd, etc., for collecting API-related metrics.
  • Select the appropriate plugin based on your metrics collection and visualization requirements.
• Enable Metrics Plugin for Global Monitoring:
  • Enable the chosen metrics plugin globally to collect metrics for all incoming requests.
• Visualize Metrics:
  • Set up a monitoring tool (e.g., Prometheus with Grafana) to visualize the collected metrics and monitor API performance in real-time.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/plugins/ \ --data "name=prometheus" \ --data "config.prometheus_metrics_enabled=true"

Health Checks

• Configure Health Checks for Upstream Services:
  • Define health check endpoints or scripts for monitoring the health of upstream services.
  • Replace {service_id} with the ID of the upstream service for which you want to configure health checks.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/services/{service_id} \ --data "healthcheck.active.timeout=1000" \ --data "healthcheck.active.concurrency=10"

• Enable Passive Health Checks:
  • Enable passive health checks to monitor the health of upstream services based on response status codes.
• Monitor Health Checks:
  • Monitor the health of upstream services in the Kong Admin API or using external monitoring tools to ensure high availability and reliability.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/services/{service_id} \ --data "healthcheck.passive.healthy.http_statuses=200,302" \ --data "healthcheck.passive.unhealthy.http_statuses=500,503"

Circuit Breaking

• Choose a Circuit Breaking Plugin:
  • Kong provides a circuit-breaker plugin for implementing circuit breaking functionality.
  • The circuit breaker helps prevent cascading failures by breaking the circuit when a service is unavailable or slow.
• Enable Circuit Breaking Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the circuit breaker plugin for a specific route or service.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply circuit breaking.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=circuit-breaker"

• Configure Circuit Breaking Parameters:
  • Adjust circuit breaker parameters such as max_concurrency, error_threshold_percentage, reset_timeout, etc., as needed for your application’s requirements.
  • Replace {route_id} and {plugin_id} with the appropriate IDs.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins/{plugin_id} \ --data "config.error_threshold_percentage=50" \ --data "config.reset_timeout=30000"

Request and Response Transformation

• Choose Transformation Plugins:
  • Kong supports various transformation plugins such as request-transformer, response-transformer, request-size-limiting, etc.
  • Select the appropriate plugin based on your transformation requirements (e.g., modifying request headers, body transformation, etc.).
• Enable Transformation Plugin for a Route or Service:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the desired transformation plugin for a specific route or service.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply request transformation.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=request-transformer" \ --data "config.add.headers=X-Custom-Header:Value"

• Configure Transformation Parameters:
  • Adjust transformation plugin parameters (e.g., adding headers, modifying request body, etc.) as needed for your application’s requirements.
  • Replace {route_id} and {plugin_id} with the appropriate IDs.

curl -i -X PATCH --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins/{plugin_id} \ --data "config.add.headers=X-Custom-Header:Value"

Data Protection

• Enable SSL/TLS Termination:
  • Configure Kong to terminate SSL/TLS connections from clients.
  • Generate or obtain SSL/TLS certificates for your domain.
• Enable SSL Plugin for Routes or Services:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the SSL plugin for specific routes or services.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply SSL termination.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=ssl" \ --data "config.certificates=/path/to/certificate.pem" \ --data "config.key=/path/to/private_key.pem"

• Configure Other Security Plugins (Optional):
  • Kong offers various security plugins such as cors, oauth2, hmac-auth, etc.
  • Choose and configure additional security plugins as needed for your application’s security requirements.

Audit Trails

• Choose an Audit Plugin:
  • Kong provides an http-log plugin that can be used to log API requests and responses.
  • Select the http-log plugin for auditing API access and configuration changes.
• Enable Audit Plugin for Routes or Services:
  • Use the Kong Admin API to enable the http-log plugin for specific routes or services.
  • Replace {route_id} with the ID of the route to which you want to apply audit logging.
  • Configure http_endpoint to specify the URL where audit logs will be sent.

curl -i -X POST --url http://localhost:8001/routes/{route_id}/plugins \ --data "name=http-log" \ --data "config.http_endpoint=http://audit-service.example.com/log"

• Test Audit Logging:
  • Make requests to the route or service with audit logging enabled.
  • Verify that audit logs are generated and sent to the specified endpoint.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mastering the configuration of advanced features in Kong API Gateway empowers you to build resilient, scalable, and secure API infrastructures. By leveraging features such as authentication, rate limiting, logging, and more, you can ensure the reliability and performance of your APIs while maintaining robust security measures.

Throughout this guide, we’ve explored the step-by-step process of configuring these features, empowering you to tailor Kong to your specific use cases and requirements. Whether you’re managing microservices architectures, implementing API security measures, or monitoring API traffic, Kong provides the tools you need to succeed.

As you continue your journey with Kong API Gateway, remember to stay updated on new features and best practices to continually optimize and enhance your API management strategy. With Kong as your gateway, you’re equipped to navigate the complexities of modern API ecosystems with confidence.

Now, armed with this knowledge, go forth and unlock the full potential of Kong API Gateway to build the next generation of innovative and scalable APIs!

Tags: Advanced FeaturesAPI Gateway ConfigurationAPI ManagementAPI MonitoringAPI PerformanceAPI SecurityAuthenticationkong api gatewaykong api gateway tutorialkong gateway authenticationkong gateway load balancekong gateway rate limitKong PluginsLoggingMicroservicesRate LimitingScalabilitySecurity