Set up a Kong Gateway Runtime on Linux

Using kong.conf, set up a runtime through the Konnect Runtime Manager and configure your Kong Gateway instance to accept configuration from Konnect. The Runtime Manager keeps track of all runtimes associated with the Konnect SaaS account.

Prerequisites

You have a Kong Konnect account. Contact your sales representative for access.

Generate certificates

1. In Konnect, from the left navigation menu, select Runtimes.

   For the first runtime, the page opens to a Configure New Runtime form.

   Once configured, this page lists all runtimes associated with the Konnect SaaS account.

2. (Optional) If this is not the first runtime configuration, click Configure New Runtime.

3. Open the tab that suits your environment: Quick Setup - Docker, Linux, or Kubernetes.

4. Click Generate Certificate.

   Three new fields appear: a certificate, a private key, and a root CA certificate. The contents of these fields are unique to each runtime configuration.

5. Save the contents of each field into a separate file in a safe location:

   • Certificate: tls.crt
   • Private key: tls.key
   • Root CA Certificate: ca.crt

   If you navigate away from this page before saving all of the certificate and key files, you will need to regenerate them.

6. Store the files on your runtime’s local filesystem.

Keep the configuration page open for the next section, as you’ll need to refer back to it for the configuration parameters.

Configure the runtime

Next, configure a Kong Gateway runtime using the certificate, the private key, and the remaining configuration details on the Configure Runtime page.

1. Find the documentation for your platform, and follow the instructions in Steps 1 and 2 only to download and install Kong Gateway 2.3.3.2.

   Do not start or create a database on this node.

2. Return to Konnect and copy the codeblock in the Step 2. Configuration Parameters section.

   

3. Open your instance’s kong.conf file. Add the parameters you just copied to the file.

   The result should look something like this, replacing placeholder values with your own from Konnect:

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    role = data_plane
    database = off
    anonymous_reports = off
    vitals_ttl_days = 732
    cluster_mtls = pki
    cluster_control_plane = <example.cp.konnect.foo>:443
    cluster_server_name = <kong-cpoutlet-example.service>
    cluster_telemetry_endpoint = <example.tp.konnect.foo>:443
    cluster_telemetry_server_name = <kong-telemetry-example.service>
    cluster_cert = /<path-to-file>/tls.crt
    cluster_cert_key = /<path-to-file>/tls.key
    lua_ssl_trusted_certificate = system,/<path-to-file>/ca.crt
   

   See Parameters for descriptions and the matching fields in Konnect.

4. Replace the values in cluster_cert, cluster_cert_key, and lua_ssl_trusted_certificate with the paths to your certificate and key files.

5. Restart Kong Gateway for the settings to take effect:

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    $ kong restart
   

6. On the Configure New Runtime page, click Done to go to the Runtime Manager overview.

   The Runtime Manager will include a new entry for your instance.

Access services using the proxy URL

Kong Gateway uses port 8000 for the proxy, taking incoming traffic from consumers, and forwarding it to upstream services.

The default proxy URL is http://localhost:8000. If you configured a different host, replace localhost with your hostname. Use this URL, along with any routes you set, to access your services.

For example, to access a service with the route /mock, use http://localhost:8000/mock, or http://example-host:8000/mock.