Configure a Data Plane Node

Set up your first data plane node through the Konnect Gateway Manager.

Data plane nodes proxy service traffic. With Kong Konnect working as the control plane, the data plane doesn’t need a database to store configuration data. Instead, configurations are stored in-memory on each data plane.

Note: Konnect does not host data plane nodes. You must install and host your own data plane nodes.

Prerequisites

Your account has the Organization Admin role in Kong Konnect. If you created this Konnect organization, your account is part of the organization admin team by default.
The quick setup script requires Docker and a Unix shell (for example, bash or zsh).
You also need the following platform-specific tools and permissions:
- All platforms: Docker and jq installed
- Linux: User added to the docker group
- Windows: Docker Desktop installed and integrated with a WSL 2 backend.

Create a data plane node

Data plane nodes are Kong Gateway instances that are used to proxy service traffic. Konnect provides you with a script that creates a Docker container running an instance of Kong Gateway and automatically connects it to your Konnect account.

From the left navigation menu, open Gateway Manager.
Select the default control plane.

Every account starts with one control plane named default.
Select Data Plane Nodes from the side menu, then click the New Data Plane Node button.

You will see the latest Kong Gateway version and Docker pre-selected.
Click Generate Script.
Copy and run the script on any host you choose.

This script creates a Docker container running the Kong Gateway instance and connects it to your Kong Konnect account.
Once Konnect detects the data plane node, click Done to go back to the data plane nodes page.

The data plane nodes table will now include a new entry for the data plane and the tag in the Sync Status column should say In Sync. If you have an Enterprise subscription, you can create additional custom control planes.

The default proxy URL for the data plane is http://localhost:8000. Take note of this URL, as you’ll need it later to access a service implementation.

Note: The certificates generated by Konnect have a ten (10) year expiration date by default. If you bring your own certificates, make sure to monitor the expiration date. To rotate certificates, see Renew Certificates

Summary and next steps

In this step, you ran a script which set up a Docker container with a Kong Gateway instance, adding your first data plane node to the Gateway Manager.

Next, set up a your first Gateway service through Kong Konnect.