Proxy HTTP requests

Create HTTP routing configuration for Kong Gateway in Kubernetes using either the HTTPRoute Gateway API resource or Ingress resource.

Before you begin ensure that you have Installed Kong Ingress Controller with Gateway API support in your Kubernetes cluster and are able to connect to Kong.

Prerequisites

Install the Gateway APIs

Install the Gateway API CRDs before installing Kong Ingress Controller.

 kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.1.0/standard-install.yaml

Create a Gateway and GatewayClass instance to use.

echo "
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: kong
  annotations:
    konghq.com/gatewayclass-unmanaged: 'true'

spec:
  controllerName: konghq.com/kic-gateway-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: kong
spec:
  gatewayClassName: kong
  listeners:
  - name: proxy
    port: 80
    protocol: HTTP
" | kubectl apply -f -

The results should look like this:

gatewayclass.gateway.networking.k8s.io/kong created
gateway.gateway.networking.k8s.io/kong created

Install Kong

You can install Kong in your Kubernetes cluster using Helm.

Add the Kong Helm charts:

 helm repo add kong https://charts.konghq.com
 helm repo update

Install Kong Ingress Controller and Kong Gateway with Helm:

 helm install kong kong/ingress -n kong --create-namespace 

Test connectivity to Kong

Kubernetes exposes the proxy through a Kubernetes service. Run the following commands to store the load balancer IP address in a variable named PROXY_IP:

Populate $PROXY_IP for future commands:

 export PROXY_IP=$(kubectl get svc --namespace kong kong-gateway-proxy -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
 echo $PROXY_IP

Ensure that you can call the proxy IP:

 curl -i $PROXY_IP

The results should look like this:

 HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
 Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
 Connection: keep-alive
 Content-Length: 48
 X-Kong-Response-Latency: 0
 Server: kong/3.0.0
  
 {"message":"no Route matched with those values"}

Deploy an echo service

To proxy requests, you need an upstream application to send a request to. Deploying this echo server provides a simple application that returns information about the Pod it’s running in:

kubectl apply -f https://docs.konghq.com/assets/kubernetes-ingress-controller/examples/echo-service.yaml

The results should look like this:

service/echo created
deployment.apps/echo created

Add routing configuration

Create routing configuration to proxy /echo requests to the echo server:

Gateway API

Ingress

echo "
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: echo
  annotations:
    konghq.com/strip-path: 'true'
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: kong
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /echo
    backendRefs:
    - name: echo
      kind: Service
      port: 1027
" | kubectl apply -f -

echo "
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: echo
  annotations:
    konghq.com/strip-path: 'true'
spec:
  ingressClassName: kong
  rules:
  - http:
      paths:
      - path: /echo
        pathType: ImplementationSpecific
        backend:
          service:
            name: echo
            port:
              number: 1027
" | kubectl apply -f -

The results should look like this:

      Gateway API
    
      Ingress
    
httproute.gateway.networking.k8s.io/echo created
ingress.networking.k8s.io/echo created

Test the routing rule:

curl -i $PROXY_IP/echo

The results should look like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 140
Connection: keep-alive
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:24:55 GMT
X-Kong-Upstream-Latency: 0
X-Kong-Proxy-Latency: 1
Via: kong/3.2.2

Welcome, you are connected to node docker-desktop.
Running on Pod echo-7f87468b8c-tzzv6.
In namespace default.
With IP address 10.1.0.237.
...

If everything is deployed correctly, you should see the above response. This verifies that Kong Gateway can correctly route traffic to an application running inside Kubernetes.