mirror of https://github.com/hashicorp/consul
63 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: docs
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page_title: API gateways overview
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description: API gateways provide an ingress point for service mesh traffic. Learn how API gateways add listeners for external traffic and route HTTP requests to services in the mesh.
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---
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# API gateways overview
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This topic provides overview information about API gateways in Consul. API gateways enable external network clients to access applications and services running in a Consul datacenter. Consul API gateways can also forward requests from clients to specific destinations based on path or request protocol.
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## API gateway use cases
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API gateways solve the following primary use cases:
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- **Control access at the point of entry**: Set the protocols of external connection requests and secure inbound connections with TLS certificates from trusted providers, such as Verisign and Let's Encrypt.
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- **Simplify traffic management**: Load balance requests across services and route traffic to the appropriate service by matching one or more criteria, such as hostname, path, header presence or value, and HTTP method.
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## Workflows
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You can deploy API gateways to networks that implement a variety of computing environments:
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- Services hosted on VMs
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- Kubernetes-orchestrated service containers
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- Kubernetes-orchestrated service containers in OpenShift
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The following steps describe the general workflow for deploying a Consul API gateways:
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1. For Kubernetes-orchestrated services, install Consul on your cluster. For Kubernetes-orchestrated services on OpenShift, you must also enable the `openShift.enabled` parameter. Refer to [Install Consul on Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/install-k8s) for additional information.
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1. Define and deploy the API gateway configurations to create the API gateway artifacts. For VM-hosted services, create configuration entries for the gateway service, listeners configurations, and TLS certificates. For Kubernetes-orchestrated services, configurations also include `GatewayClassConfig` and `parametersRef`. All Consul API Gateways created in Kubernetes with the `consul-k8s` Helm chart v1.5.0 or later use file system certificates when TLS is enabled.
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1. Define and deploy routes between the gateway listeners and services in the mesh.
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Gateway configurations are modular, so you can define and attach routes and inline certificates to multiple gateways.
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## Technical specifications
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Refer to [Technical specifications for API gateways on Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/tech-specs) for additional details and considerations about using API gateways in Kubernetes-orchestrated networks.
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## Guidance
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Refer to the following resources for help setting up and using API gateways:
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### Tutorials
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- [Control access into the service mesh with Consul API gateway](/consul/tutorials/developer-mesh/kubernetes-api-gateway)
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### Usage documentation
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- [Deploy API gateway listeners to VMs](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/deploy/listeners-vms)
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- [Deploy API gateway listeners to Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/deploy/listeners-k8s)
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- [Deploy API gateway routes to VMs](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/define-routes/routes-vms)
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- [Deploy API gateway routes to Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/define-routes/routes-k8s)
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- [Reroute HTTP requests in Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/define-routes/reroute-http-requests)
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- [Route traffic to peered services in Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/define-routes/route-to-peered-services)
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- [Encrypt API gateway traffic on VMs](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/secure-traffic/encrypt-vms)
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- [Use JWTs to verify requests to API gateways on VMs](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/secure-traffic/verify-jwts-vms)
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- [Use JWTs to verify requests to API gateways on Kubernetes](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/secure-traffic/verify-jwts-k8s)
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### Reference
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- [API gateway configuration reference overview](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/configuration/)
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- [Error messages](/consul/docs/connect/gateways/api-gateway/errors)
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