Deploy a Data Plane

To attach a Kong Gateway Operator data plane to Konnect the data plane needs to know which endpoint to connect to, and how to authenticate the requests.

To get the endpoint and the authentication details of the data plane:

1. Log in to Konnect.
2. Navigate to Gateway Manager, choose the control plane, and click New DataPlane Node.
3. In the Create a Data Plane Node page select Kubernetes as the Platform.
4. Click Generate Certificate in step 3.
5. Save the contents of Cluster Certificate in a file named tls.crt. Save the contents of Cluster Key in a file named tls.key.

6. Create a namespace named kong in the Kubernetes cluster:

   kubectl create namespace kong
   

7. Create a Kubernetes secret containing the cluster certificate:

    kubectl create secret tls konnect-client-tls -n kong --cert=./tls.crt --key=./tls.key
   

8. Extract the following values from the Configuration parameters step 4:
   1. CP_ID: Find the value of cluster_server_name. The first segment of that value is the control plane ID for your cluster. For example, if the value of cluster_server_name is 36fc5d01be.us.cp0.konghq.com, then the control plane ID of the cluster is 36fc5d01be
   2. REGION: Find the value in the bottom left corner of the screen.
   3. HOSTNAME: The server you are connected to (e.g. konghq.tech, konghq.com).

9. Now, create a KonnectExtension resource. In the following manifest, replace the placeholders for CP_ID, REGION, and HOSTNAME with the values you just noted, and deploy it with kubectl apply:

    echo '
    kind: KonnectExtension
    apiVersion: gateway-operator.konghq.com/v1alpha1
    metadata:
      name: example-konnect-config
      namespace: kong
    spec:
      controlPlaneRef:
        type: konnectID
        konnectID: <CP_ID>
      controlPlaneRegion: <REGION>
      serverHostname: <HOSTNAME>
      konnectControlPlaneAPIAuthConfiguration:
        clusterCertificateSecretRef:
          name: konnect-client-tls
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The result should look like this:

    konnectextension.gateway-operator.konghq.com/example-konnect-config created
   

10. Deploy your data plane that references such a KonnectExtension with kubectl apply:

     echo '
     apiVersion: gateway-operator.konghq.com/v1beta1
     kind: DataPlane
     metadata:
       name: dataplane-example
       namespace: kong
     spec:
       extensions:
       - kind: KonnectExtension
         name: example-konnect-config
         group: gateway-operator.konghq.com
       deployment:
         podTemplateSpec:
           spec:
             containers:
             - name: proxy
               image: kong/kong-gateway:3.8.0.0
               env:
               - name: KONG_LOG_LEVEL
                 value: debug
     ' | kubectl apply -f -
    

    The result should look like this:

     dataplane.gateway-operator.konghq.com/dataplane-example created