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

Installation

1. Install Kong

   If you are downloading the package, execute:

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

   If you are using the apt repository execute:

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    $ 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:

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    CREATE USER kong; CREATE DATABASE kong OWNER kong;
   

   Now, run the Kong migrations:

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    $ 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.

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    $ 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:

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

3. Start Kong

   Note: When you start Kong, the Nginx master process runs as root and the worker processes as kong by default. If this is not the desired behavior, you can switch the Nginx master process to run on the built-in kong user or to a custom non-root user before starting Kong. For more information, see Running Kong as a Non-Root User.

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

4. Use Kong

   Kong is running:

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

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

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