Ubuntu Installation

Packages

Start by downloading the corresponding package for your configuration:

• 16.04 Xenial
• 18.04 Bionic
• 20.04 Focal

Enterprise trial users should download their package from their welcome email and save their license to /etc/kong/license.json after step 1.

APT Repositories

You can also install Kong via APT; follow the instructions on the “Set Me Up” section on the page below, setting distribution to the appropriate value ( lsb_release -sc ) (e.g., precise) and components to main.

• Deb Repository

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Installation

1. Install Kong

   If you are downloading the package, execute:

    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get install /absolute/path/to/package.deb
   

   If you are using the apt repository execute:

    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https curl lsb-core
    $ echo "deb https://kong.bintray.com/kong-deb `lsb_release -sc` main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
    $ curl -o bintray.key https://bintray.com/user/downloadSubjectPublicKey?username=bintray
    $ sudo apt-key add bintray.key
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get install -y kong
   

2. Prepare your database or declarative configuration file

   Kong can run either with or without a database.

   When using a database, you will use the kong.conf configuration file for setting Kong’s configuration properties at start-up and the database as storage of all configured entities, such as the Routes and Services to which Kong proxies.

   When not using a database, you will use kong.conf its configuration properties and a kong.yml file for specifying the entities as a declarative configuration.

   Using a database

   Configure Kong so it can connect to your database. Kong supports both PostgreSQL 9.5+ and Cassandra 3.x.x as its datastore.

   If you are using Postgres, please provision a database and a user before starting Kong, ie:

    CREATE USER kong; CREATE DATABASE kong OWNER kong;
   

   Now, run the Kong migrations:

    $ kong migrations bootstrap [-c /path/to/kong.conf]
   

   Note for Kong < 0.15: with Kong versions below 0.15 (up to 0.14), use the up sub-command instead of bootstrap. Also note that with Kong < 0.15, migrations should never be run concurrently; only one Kong node should be performing migrations at a time. This limitation is lifted for Kong 0.15, 1.0, and above.

   Without a database

   If you are going to run Kong in DB-less mode, you should start by generating declarative config file. The following command will generate a kong.yml file in your current folder. It contains instructions about how to fill it up.

    $ kong config init
   

   After filling up the kong.yml file, edit your kong.conf file. Set the database option to off and the declarative_config option to the path of your kong.yml file:

    database = off
    declarative_config = /path/to/kong.yml
   

3. Start Kong

    $ kong start [-c /path/to/kong.conf]
   

4. Use Kong

   Kong is running:

    $ curl -i http://localhost:8001/
   

   Quickly learn how to use Kong with the 5-minute Quickstart.

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