Runtime Manager Overview

The Runtime Manager is a Kong Konnect functionality module that lets you catalogue, connect to, and monitor the status of all runtime groups and instances in one place, as well as manage group configuration.

The Runtime Manager overview page displays a list of runtime groups currently owned by the organization. From here, you can add or delete runtime groups, or go into each individual group to manage runtime instances and their global configuration.

With Konnect acting as the control plane, a runtime instance doesn’t need a database to store configuration data. Instead, configuration is stored in-memory on each node, and you can easily update all runtime instances in a group with a few clicks.

The Runtime Manager, and the Kong Konnect application as a whole, does not have access or visibility into the data flowing through your runtimes, and it does not store any data except the state and connection details for each runtime instance.

Runtime groups

Konnect manages runtime configuration in runtime groups. Each runtime group acts as a separate control plane and can manage runtime configurations independently of any other group. See runtime groups for more information.

Runtime instances

Kong does not host runtimes. You must provide your own runtime instances.

The Runtime Manager aims to simplify this process by providing a script to provision a Kong Gateway runtime in a Docker container, eliminating any confusion about initial configuration or setup.

You can also choose to manually configure runtime instances on the following:

• Linux
• Kubernetes
• AWS
• Azure

See the runtime instance installation options for more detail.