Installation Options
A runtime instance is a single self-managed instance of Kong Gateway that functions as a data plane. In Kong Konnect, runtime instances are part of runtime groups and can be used to serve traffic to the runtime group. Runtime groups manage and store configuration in Kong Konnect, and runtime instances are configured according to the configuration distributed by the runtime group.
Konnect provides runtime instance installation scripts for various platforms. These runtime instances are configured to run in your Konnect environment.
Supported installation options
You can set up a runtime instance by navigating to Runtime Manager, choosing a runtime group, then clicking on New Runtime Instance.
This brings you to a set of installation options. Choose one of the options, then follow the instructions in Konnect to finish setting up.
Konnect supports the following installation options:



Notes:
- Runtime Manager includes a feature called Runtime Launcher which can be used with any of AWS, Azure, or GCP. This feature is currently in tech preview.
- Kong does not host runtime instances. You must install and host your own.
- Runtime Manager allows users to select the Kong Gateway version that they want for their Quickstart scripts (except for cloud provider quickstart scripts for AWS, Azure, and GCP). This allows you to leverage official Konnect scripts to start your gateways while reducing the number of errors due to an invalid script for a certain Kong Gateway version.
Forward proxy support
Kong Konnect supports using non-transparent forward proxies to connect your Kong Gateway data plane with the Kong Konnect control plane. See the Forward proxy connectionsKong Gateway documentation for more information.
Runtime instance dashboard
Gateway runtime instance dashboard
Figure 1: This image shows a Gateway runtime instance dashboard. For each Gateway runtime instance, you can see details about the runtime instance, analytics, and host details.
KIC runtime instance dashboard
Figure 2: This image shows a KIC runtime instance dashboard. For each KIC runtime instance, you can see details about the runtime instance, analytics, and KIC status details.
More information
- Upgrade a runtime instance
- Renew certificates - Renew your data plane certificates
- Backup and restore - Back up and restore Konnect using declarative configuration
- Forward proxy connections - Allow runtime instances to communicate with Konnect through a forward proxy
- Runtime parameter reference - Reference for the default configuration parameters used in runtime instance installation
- Analytics dashboard - Monitor and analyze your runtime instances, as well as specific entities
- Troubleshooting documentation - Common runtime instance troubleshooting instruction documentation.