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Welcome to Envoy Gateway

Envoy Gateway Documents

Envoy Gateway is an open source project for managing Envoy Proxy as a standalone or Kubernetes-based application gateway. Gateway API resources are used to dynamically provision and configure the managed Envoy Proxies.

architecture

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1 - Design

This section includes Designs of Envoy Gateway.

1.1 - Goals

The high-level goal of the Envoy Gateway project is to attract more users to Envoy by lowering barriers to adoption through expressive, extensible, role-oriented APIs that support a multitude of ingress and L7/L4 traffic routing use cases; and provide a common foundation for vendors to build value-added products without having to re-engineer fundamental interactions.

Objectives

Expressive API

The Envoy Gateway project will expose a simple and expressive API, with defaults set for many capabilities.

The API will be the Kubernetes-native Gateway API, plus Envoy-specific extensions and extension points. This expressive and familiar API will make Envoy accessible to more users, especially application developers, and make Envoy a stronger option for “getting started” as compared to other proxies. Application developers will use the API out of the box without needing to understand in-depth concepts of Envoy Proxy or use OSS wrappers. The API will use familiar nouns that users understand.

The core full-featured Envoy xDS APIs will remain available for those who need more capability and for those who add functionality on top of Envoy Gateway, such as commercial API gateway products.

This expressive API will not be implemented by Envoy Proxy, but rather an officially supported translation layer on top.

Batteries included

Envoy Gateway will simplify how Envoy is deployed and managed, allowing application developers to focus on delivering core business value.

The project plans to include additional infrastructure components required by users to fulfill their Ingress and API gateway needs: It will handle Envoy infrastructure provisioning (e.g. Kubernetes Service, Deployment, et cetera), and possibly infrastructure provisioning of related sidecar services. It will include sensible defaults with the ability to override. It will include channels for improving ops by exposing status through API conditions and Kubernetes status sub-resources.

Making an application accessible needs to be a trivial task for any developer. Similarly, infrastructure administrators will enjoy a simplified management model that doesn’t require extensive knowledge of the solution’s architecture to operate.

All environments

Envoy Gateway will support running natively in Kubernetes environments as well as non-Kubernetes deployments.

Initially, Kubernetes will receive the most focus, with the aim of having Envoy Gateway become the de facto standard for Kubernetes ingress supporting the Gateway API. Additional goals include multi-cluster support and various runtime environments.

Extensibility

Vendors will have the ability to provide value-added products built on the Envoy Gateway foundation.

It will remain easy for end-users to leverage common Envoy Proxy extension points such as providing an implementation for authentication methods and rate-limiting. For advanced use cases, users will have the ability to use the full power of xDS.

Since a general-purpose API cannot address all use cases, Envoy Gateway will provide additional extension points for flexibility. As such, Envoy Gateway will form the base of vendor-provided managed control plane solutions, allowing vendors to shift to a higher management plane layer.

Non-objectives

Cannibalize vendor models

Vendors need to have the ability to drive commercial value, so the goal is not to cannibalize any existing vendor monetization model, though some vendors may be affected by it.

Disrupt current Envoy usage patterns

Envoy Gateway is purely an additive convenience layer and is not meant to disrupt any usage pattern of any user with Envoy Proxy, xDS, or go-control-plane.

Personas

In order of priority

1. Application developer

The application developer spends the majority of their time developing business logic code. They require the ability to manage access to their application.

2. Infrastructure administrators

The infrastructure administrators are responsible for the installation, maintenance, and operation of API gateways appliances in infrastructure, such as CRDs, roles, service accounts, certificates, etc. Infrastructure administrators support the needs of application developers by managing instances of Envoy Gateway.

1.2 - System Design

Goals

  • Define the system components needed to satisfy the requirements of Envoy Gateway.

Non-Goals

  • Create a detailed design and interface specification for each system component.

Terminology

  • Control Plane- A collection of inter-related software components for providing application gateway and routing functionality. The control plane is implemented by Envoy Gateway and provides services for managing the data plane. These services are detailed in the components section.
  • Data Plane- Provides intelligent application-level traffic routing and is implemented as one or more Envoy proxies.

Architecture

Architecture

Configuration

Envoy Gateway is configured statically at startup and the managed data plane is configured dynamically through Kubernetes resources, primarily Gateway API objects.

Static Configuration

Static configuration is used to configure Envoy Gateway at startup, i.e. change the GatewayClass controllerName, configure a Provider, etc. Currently, Envoy Gateway only supports configuration through a configuration file. If the configuration file is not provided, Envoy Gateway starts-up with default configuration parameters.

Dynamic Configuration

Dynamic configuration is based on the concept of a declaring the desired state of the data plane and using reconciliation loops to drive the actual state toward the desired state. The desired state of the data plane is defined as Kubernetes resources that provide the following services:

  • Infrastructure Management- Manage the data plane infrastructure, i.e. deploy, upgrade, etc. This configuration is expressed through GatewayClass and Gateway resources. The EnvoyProxy Custom Resource can be referenced by gatewayclass.spec.parametersRef to modify data plane infrastructure default parameters, e.g. expose Envoy network endpoints using a ClusterIP service instead of a LoadBalancer service.
  • Traffic Routing- Define how to handle application-level requests to backend services. For example, route all HTTP requests for “www.example.com” to a backend service running a web server. This configuration is expressed through HTTPRoute and TLSRoute resources that match, filter, and route traffic to a backend. Although a backend can be any valid Kubernetes Group/Kind resource, Envoy Gateway only supports a Service reference.

Components

Envoy Gateway is made up of several components that communicate in-process; how this communication happens is described in the Watching Components Design.

Provider

A Provider is an infrastructure component that Envoy Gateway calls to establish its runtime configuration, resolve services, persist data, etc. As of v0.2, Kubernetes is the only implemented provider. A file provider is on the roadmap via Issue #37. Other providers can be added in the future as Envoy Gateway use cases are better understood. A provider is configured at start up through Envoy Gateway’s static configuration.

Kubernetes Provider

  • Uses Kubernetes-style controllers to reconcile Kubernetes resources that comprise the dynamic configuration.
  • Manages the data plane through Kubernetes API CRUD operations.
  • Uses Kubernetes for Service discovery.
  • Uses etcd (via Kubernetes API) to persist data.

File Provider

  • Uses a file watcher to watch files in a directory that define the data plane configuration.
  • Manages the data plane by calling internal APIs, e.g. CreateDataPlane().
  • Uses the host’s DNS for Service discovery.
  • If needed, the local filesystem is used to persist data.

Resource Watcher

The Resource Watcher watches resources used to establish and maintain Envoy Gateway’s dynamic configuration. The mechanics for watching resources is provider-specific, e.g. informers, caches, etc. are used for the Kubernetes provider. The Resource Watcher uses the configured provider for input and provides resources to the Resource Translator as output.

Resource Translator

The Resource Translator translates external resources, e.g. GatewayClass, from the Resource Watcher to the Intermediate Representation (IR). It is responsible for:

  • Translating infrastructure-specific resources/fields from the Resource Watcher to the Infra IR.
  • Translating proxy configuration resources/fields from the Resource Watcher to the xDS IR.

Note: The Resource Translator is implemented as the Translator API type in the gatewayapi package.

Intermediate Representation (IR)

The Intermediate Representation defines internal data models that external resources are translated into. This allows Envoy Gateway to be decoupled from the external resources used for dynamic configuration. The IR consists of an Infra IR used as input for the Infra Manager and an xDS IR used as input for the xDS Translator.

  • Infra IR- Used as the internal definition of the managed data plane infrastructure.
  • xDS IR- Used as the internal definition of the managed data plane xDS configuration.

xDS Translator

The xDS Translator translates the xDS IR into xDS Resources that are consumed by the xDS server.

xDS Server

The xDS Server is a xDS gRPC Server based on Go Control Plane. Go Control Plane implements the Delta xDS Server Protocol and is responsible for using xDS to configure the data plane.

Infra Manager

The Infra Manager is a provider-specific component responsible for managing the following infrastructure:

  • Data Plane - Manages all the infrastructure required to run the managed Envoy proxies. For example, CRUD Deployment, Service, etc. resources to run Envoy in a Kubernetes cluster.
  • Auxiliary Control Planes - Optional infrastructure needed to implement application Gateway features that require external integrations with the managed Envoy proxies. For example, Global Rate Limiting requires provisioning and configuring the Envoy Rate Limit Service and the Rate Limit filter. Such features are exposed to users through the Custom Route Filters extension.

The Infra Manager consumes the Infra IR as input to manage the data plane infrastructure.

Design Decisions

  • Envoy Gateway consumes one GatewayClass by comparing its configured controller name with spec.controllerName of a GatewayClass. If multiple GatewayClasses exist with the same spec.controllerName, Envoy Gateway follows Gateway API guidelines to resolve the conflict. gatewayclass.spec.parametersRef refers to the EnvoyProxy custom resource for configuring the managed proxy infrastructure. If unspecified, default configuration parameters are used for the managed proxy infrastructure.
  • Envoy Gateway manages Gateways that reference its GatewayClass.
    • A Gateway resource causes Envoy Gateway to provision managed Envoy proxy infrastructure.
    • Envoy Gateway groups Listeners by Port and collapses each group of Listeners into a single Listener if the Listeners in the group are compatible. Envoy Gateway considers Listeners to be compatible if all the following conditions are met:
      • Either each Listener within the group specifies the “HTTP” Protocol or each Listener within the group specifies either the “HTTPS” or “TLS” Protocol.
      • Each Listener within the group specifies a unique “Hostname”.
      • As a special case, one Listener within a group may omit “Hostname”, in which case this Listener matches when no other Listener matches.
    • Envoy Gateway does not merge listeners across multiple Gateways.
  • Envoy Gateway follows Gateway API guidelines to resolve any conflicts.
    • A Gateway listener corresponds to an Envoy proxy Listener.
  • An HTTPRoute resource corresponds to an Envoy proxy Route.
  • The goal is to make Envoy Gateway components extensible in the future. See the roadmap for additional details.

The draft for this document is here.

1.3 - Watching Components Design

Envoy Gateway is made up of several components that communicate in-process. Some of them (namely Providers) watch external resources, and “publish” what they see for other components to consume; others watch what another publishes and act on it (such as the resource translator watches what the providers publish, and then publishes its own results that are watched by another component). Some of these internally published results are consumed by multiple components.

To facilitate this communication use the watchable library. The watchable.Map type is very similar to the standard library’s sync.Map type, but supports a .Subscribe (and .SubscribeSubset) method that promotes a pub/sub pattern.

Pub

Many of the things we communicate around are naturally named, either by a bare “name” string or by a “name”/“namespace” tuple. And because watchable.Map is typed, it makes sense to have one map for each type of thing (very similar to if we were using native Go maps). For example, a struct that might be written to by the Kubernetes provider, and read by the IR translator:

type ResourceTable struct {
    // gateway classes are cluster-scoped; no namespace
    GatewayClasses watchable.Map[string, *gwapiv1b1.GatewayClass]

    // gateways are namespace-scoped, so use a k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/types.NamespacedName as the map key.
    Gateways watchable.Map[types.NamespacedName, *gwapiv1b1.Gateway]

    HTTPRoutes watchable.Map[types.NamespacedName, *gwapiv1b1.HTTPRoute]
}

The Kubernetes provider updates the table by calling table.Thing.Store(name, val) and table.Thing.Delete(name); updating a map key with a value that is deep-equal (usually reflect.DeepEqual, but you can implement your own .Equal method) the current value is a no-op; it won’t trigger an event for subscribers. This is handy so that the publisher doesn’t have as much state to keep track of; it doesn’t need to know “did I already publish this thing”, it can just .Store its data and watchable will do the right thing.

Sub

Meanwhile, the translator and other interested components subscribe to it with table.Thing.Subscribe (or table.Thing.SubscribeSubset if they only care about a few “Thing"s). So the translator goroutine might look like:

func(ctx context.Context) error {
    for snapshot := range k8sTable.HTTPRoutes.Subscribe(ctx) {
        fullState := irInput{
           GatewayClasses: k8sTable.GatewayClasses.LoadAll(),
           Gateways:       k8sTable.Gateways.LoadAll(),
           HTTPRoutes:     snapshot.State,
        }
        translate(irInput)
    }
}

Or, to watch multiple maps in the same loop:

func worker(ctx context.Context) error {
    classCh := k8sTable.GatewayClasses.Subscribe(ctx)
    gwCh := k8sTable.Gateways.Subscribe(ctx)
    routeCh := k8sTable.HTTPRoutes.Subscribe(ctx)
    for ctx.Err() == nil {
        var arg irInput
        select {
        case snapshot := <-classCh:
            arg.GatewayClasses = snapshot.State
        case snapshot := <-gwCh:
            arg.Gateways = snapshot.State
        case snapshot := <-routeCh:
            arg.Routes = snapshot.State
        }
        if arg.GateWayClasses == nil {
            arg.GatewayClasses = k8sTable.GateWayClasses.LoadAll()
        }
        if arg.GateWays == nil {
            arg.Gateways = k8sTable.GateWays.LoadAll()
        }
        if arg.HTTPRoutes == nil {
            arg.HTTPRoutes = k8sTable.HTTPRoutes.LoadAll()
        }
        translate(irInput)
    }
}

From the updates it gets from .Subscribe, it can get a full view of the map being subscribed to via snapshot.State; but it must read the other maps explicitly. Like sync.Map, watchable.Maps are thread-safe; while .Subscribe is a handy way to know when to run, .Load and friends can be used without subscribing.

There can be any number of subscribers. For that matter, there can be any number of publishers .Storeing things, but it’s probably wise to just have one publisher for each map.

The channel returned from .Subscribe is immediately readable with a snapshot of the map as it existed when .Subscribe was called; and becomes readable again whenever .Store or .Delete mutates the map. If multiple mutations happen between reads (or if mutations happen between .Subscribe and the first read), they are coalesced in to one snapshot to be read; the snapshot.State is the most-recent full state, and snapshot.Updates is a listing of each of the mutations that cause this snapshot to be different than the last-read one. This way subscribers don’t need to worry about a backlog accumulating if they can’t keep up with the rate of changes from the publisher.

If the map contains anything before .Subscribe is called, that very first read won’t include snapshot.Updates entries for those pre-existing items; if you are working with snapshot.Update instead of snapshot.State, then you must add special handling for your first read. We have a utility function ./internal/message.HandleSubscription to help with this.

Other Notes

The common pattern will likely be that the entrypoint that launches the goroutines for each component instantiates the map, and passes them to the appropriate publishers and subscribers; same as if they were communicating via a dumb chan.

A limitation of watchable.Map is that in order to ensure safety between goroutines, it does require that value types be deep-copiable; either by having a DeepCopy method, being a proto.Message, or by containing no reference types and so can be deep-copied by naive assignment. Fortunately, we’re using controller-gen anyway, and controller-gen can generate DeepCopy methods for us: just stick a // +k8s:deepcopy-gen=true on the types that you want it to generate methods for.

1.4 - Gateway API Translator Design

The Gateway API translates external resources, e.g. GatewayClass, from the configured Provider to the Intermediate Representation (IR).

Assumptions

Initially target core conformance features only, to be followed by extended conformance features.

Inputs and Outputs

The main inputs to the Gateway API translator are:

  • GatewayClass, Gateway, HTTPRoute, TLSRoute, Service, ReferenceGrant, Namespace, and Secret resources.

Note: ReferenceGrant is not fully implemented as of v0.2.

The outputs of the Gateway API translator are:

  • Xds and Infra Internal Representations (IRs).
  • Status updates for GatewayClass, Gateways, HTTPRoutes

Listener Compatibility

Envoy Gateway follows Gateway API listener compatibility spec:

Each listener in a Gateway must have a unique combination of Hostname, Port, and Protocol. An implementation MAY group Listeners by Port and then collapse each group of Listeners into a single Listener if the implementation determines that the Listeners in the group are “compatible”.

Note: Envoy Gateway does not collapse listeners across multiple Gateways.

Listener Compatibility Examples

Example 1: Gateway with compatible Listeners (same port & protocol, different hostnames)

kind: Gateway
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: gateway-1
  namespace: envoy-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: envoy-gateway
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
      hostname: "*.envoygateway.io"
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
      hostname: whales.envoygateway.io

Example 2: Gateway with compatible Listeners (same port & protocol, one hostname specified, one not)

kind: Gateway
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: gateway-1
  namespace: envoy-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: envoy-gateway
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
      hostname: "*.envoygateway.io"
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All

Example 3: Gateway with incompatible Listeners (same port, protocol and hostname)

kind: Gateway
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: gateway-1
  namespace: envoy-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: envoy-gateway
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
      hostname: whales.envoygateway.io
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
      hostname: whales.envoygateway.io

Example 4: Gateway with incompatible Listeners (neither specify a hostname)

kind: Gateway
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: gateway-1
  namespace: envoy-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: envoy-gateway
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
      allowedRoutes:
        namespaces:
          from: All

Computing Status

Gateway API specifies a rich set of status fields & conditions for each resource. To achieve conformance, Envoy Gateway must compute the appropriate status fields and conditions for managed resources.

Status is computed and set for:

  • The managed GatewayClass (gatewayclass.status.conditions).
  • Each managed Gateway, based on its Listeners’ status (gateway.status.conditions). For the Kubernetes provider, the Envoy Deployment and Service status are also included to calculate Gateway status.
  • Listeners for each Gateway (gateway.status.listeners).
  • The ParentRef for each Route (route.status.parents).

The Gateway API translator is responsible for calculating status conditions while translating Gateway API resources to the IR and publishing status over the message bus. The Status Manager subscribes to these status messages and updates the resource status using the configured provider. For example, the Status Manager uses a Kubernetes client to update resource status on the Kubernetes API server.

Outline

The following roughly outlines the translation process. Each step may produce (1) IR; and (2) status updates on Gateway API resources.

  1. Process Gateway Listeners

    • Validate unique hostnames, ports, and protocols.
    • Validate and compute supported kinds.
    • Validate allowed namespaces (validate selector if specified).
    • Validate TLS fields if specified, including resolving referenced Secrets.
  2. Process HTTPRoutes

    • foreach route rule:
      • compute matches
        • [core] path exact, path prefix
        • [core] header exact
        • [extended] query param exact
        • [extended] HTTP method
      • compute filters
        • [core] request header modifier (set/add/remove)
        • [core] request redirect (hostname, statuscode)
        • [extended] request mirror
      • compute backends
        • [core] Kubernetes services
    • foreach route parent ref:
      • get matching listeners (check Gateway, section name, listener validation status, listener allowed routes, hostname intersection)
      • foreach matching listener:
        • foreach hostname intersection with route:
          • add each computed route rule to host

Context Structs

To help store, access and manipulate information as it’s processed during the translation process, a set of context structs are used. These structs wrap a given Gateway API type, and add additional fields and methods to support processing.

GatewayContext wraps a Gateway and provides helper methods for setting conditions, accessing Listeners, etc.

type GatewayContext struct {
	// The managed Gateway
	*v1beta1.Gateway

	// A list of Gateway ListenerContexts.
	listeners []*ListenerContext
}

ListenerContext wraps a Listener and provides helper methods for setting conditions and other status information on the associated Gateway.

type ListenerContext struct {
    // The Gateway listener.
	*v1beta1.Listener

	// The Gateway this Listener belongs to.
	gateway           *v1beta1.Gateway

	// An index used for managing this listener in the list of Gateway listeners.
	listenerStatusIdx int

	// Only Routes in namespaces selected by the selector may be attached
	// to the Gateway this listener belongs to.
	namespaceSelector labels.Selector

	// The TLS Secret for this Listener, if applicable.
	tlsSecret         *v1.Secret
}

RouteContext represents a generic Route object (HTTPRoute, TLSRoute, etc.) that can reference Gateway objects.

type RouteContext interface {
	client.Object

	// GetRouteType returns the Kind of the Route object, HTTPRoute,
	// TLSRoute, TCPRoute, UDPRoute etc.
	GetRouteType() string

	// GetHostnames returns the hosts targeted by the Route object.
	GetHostnames() []string

	// GetParentReferences returns the ParentReference of the Route object.
	GetParentReferences() []v1beta1.ParentReference

	// GetRouteParentContext returns RouteParentContext by using the Route
	// objects' ParentReference.
	GetRouteParentContext(forParentRef v1beta1.ParentReference) *RouteParentContext
}

1.5 - Add Pprof support in Envoy Gateway

Overview

Envoy Gateway exposes endpoints at localhost:8899/debug/pprof to run Golang profiles to aid in live debugging. The endpoints are equivalent to those found in the http/pprof package. /debug/pprof/ returns an HTML page listing the available profiles.

Goals

  • Add Debug Pprof support to Envoy Gateway control plane.
  • Define an API to allow Envoy Gateway to custom debug server configuration.

The following are the different types of profiles end-user can run:

PROFILEFUNCTION
/debug/pprof/allocsReturns a sampling of all past memory allocations.
/debug/pprof/blockReturns stack traces of goroutines that led to blocking on synchronization primitives.
/debug/pprof/cmdlineReturns the command line that was invoked by the current program.
/debug/pprof/goroutineReturns stack traces of all current goroutines.
/debug/pprof/heapReturns a sampling of memory allocations of live objects.
/debug/pprof/mutexReturns stack traces of goroutines holding contended mutexes.
/debug/pprof/profileReturns pprof-formatted cpu profile. You can specify the duration using the seconds GET parameter. The default duration is 30 seconds.
/debug/pprof/symbolReturns the program counters listed in the request.
/debug/pprof/threadcreateReturns stack traces that led to creation of new OS threads.
/debug/pprof/traceReturns the execution trace in binary form. You can specify the duration using the seconds GET parameter. The default duration is 1 second.

Non Goals

API

  • Add admin field in EnvoyGateway config.
  • Add debug field under admin field.
  • Add enable, port and host under address field.

Here is an example configuration

apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
gateway:
    controllerName: "gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller"
kind: EnvoyGateway
provider:
    type: "Kubernetes"
admin:
    debug: true
    address:
        port: 8899
        host: "127.0.0.1"

1.6 - Bootstrap Design

Overview

Issue 31 specifies the need for allowing advanced users to specify their custom Envoy Bootstrap configuration rather than using the default Bootstrap configuration defined in Envoy Gateway. This allows advanced users to extend Envoy Gateway and support their custom use cases such setting up tracing and stats configuration that is not supported by Envoy Gateway.

Goals

  • Define an API field to allow a user to specify a custom Bootstrap
  • Provide tooling to allow the user to generate the default Bootstrap configuration as well as validate their custom Bootstrap.

Non Goals

  • Allow user to configure only a section of the Bootstrap

API

Leverage the existing EnvoyProxy resource which can be attached to the GatewayClass using the parametersRef field, and define a Bootstrap field within the resource. If this field is set, the value is used as the Bootstrap configuration for all managed Envoy Proxies created by Envoy Gateway.

// EnvoyProxySpec defines the desired state of EnvoyProxy.
type EnvoyProxySpec struct {
    ......
	// Bootstrap defines the Envoy Bootstrap as a YAML string.
	// Visit https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/api-v3/config/bootstrap/v3/bootstrap.proto#envoy-v3-api-msg-config-bootstrap-v3-bootstrap
	// to learn more about the syntax.
	// If set, this is the Bootstrap configuration used for the managed Envoy Proxy fleet instead of the default Bootstrap configuration
	// set by Envoy Gateway.
	// Some fields within the Bootstrap that are required to communicate with the xDS Server (Envoy Gateway) and receive xDS resources
	// from it are not configurable and will result in the `EnvoyProxy` resource being rejected.
	// Backward compatibility across minor versions is not guaranteed.
	// We strongly recommend using `egctl x translate` to generate a `EnvoyProxy` resource with the `Bootstrap` field set to the default
	// Bootstrap configuration used. You can edit this configuration, and rerun `egctl x translate` to ensure there are no validation errors.
	//
	// +optional
	Bootstrap *string `json:"bootstrap,omitempty"`
}

Tooling

A CLI tool egctl x translate will be provided to the user to help generate a working Bootstrap configuration. Here is an example where a user inputs a GatewayClass and the CLI generates the EnvoyProxy resource with the Bootstrap field populated.

cat <<EOF | egctl x translate --from gateway-api --to gateway-api -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
---

EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
  parametersRef:
    group: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyProxy
    name: with-bootstrap-config
---
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: with-bootstrap-config
spec:
  bootstrap: |
    admin:
      access_log:
      - name: envoy.access_loggers.file
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.access_loggers.file.v3.FileAccessLog
          path: /dev/null
      address:
        socket_address:
          address: 127.0.0.1
          port_value: 19000
    dynamic_resources:
      cds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
      lds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
    static_resources:
      clusters:
      - connect_timeout: 1s
        load_assignment:
          cluster_name: xds_cluster
          endpoints:
          - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: envoy-gateway
                    port_value: 18000
        typed_extension_protocol_options:
          "envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions":
             "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions"
             "explicit_http_config":
               "http2_protocol_options": {}
        name: xds_cluster
        type: STRICT_DNS
        transport_socket:
          name: envoy.transport_sockets.tls
          typed_config:
            "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.UpstreamTlsContext
            common_tls_context:
              tls_params:
                tls_maximum_protocol_version: TLSv1_3
              tls_certificate_sds_secret_configs:
              - name: xds_certificate
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-certificate.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
              validation_context_sds_secret_config:
                name: xds_trusted_ca
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-trusted-ca.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
    layered_runtime:
      layers:
        - name: runtime-0
          rtds_layer:
            rtds_config:
              resource_api_version: V3
              api_config_source:
                transport_api_version: V3
                api_type: DELTA_GRPC
                grpc_services:
                  envoy_grpc:
                    cluster_name: xds_cluster
            name: runtime-0

The user can now modify the output, for their use case. Lets say for this example, the user wants to change the admin server port from 19000 to 18000, they can do so by editing the previous output and running egctl x translate again to see if there any validation errors. Validation errors should be surfaced in the Status subresource. The internal validator will ensure that the Bootstrap string can be unmarshalled into the Bootstrap object as well as ensure the user can override certain fields within the Bootstrap configuration such as the address and tls context within the xds_cluster which are essential for xDS communication between Envoy Gateway and Envoy Proxy.

cat <<EOF | egctl x translate --from gateway-api --to gateway-api -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
  parametersRef:
    group: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyProxy
    name: with-bootstrap-config
---
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: with-bootstrap-config
spec:
  bootstrap: |
    admin:
      access_log:
      - name: envoy.access_loggers.file
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.access_loggers.file.v3.FileAccessLog
          path: /dev/null
      address:
        socket_address:
          address: 127.0.0.1
          port_value: 18000
    dynamic_resources:
      cds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
      lds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
    static_resources:
      clusters:
      - connect_timeout: 1s
        load_assignment:
          cluster_name: xds_cluster
          endpoints:
          - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: envoy-gateway
                    port_value: 18000
        typed_extension_protocol_options:
          "envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions":
             "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions"
             "explicit_http_config":
               "http2_protocol_options": {}
        name: xds_cluster
        type: STRICT_DNS
        transport_socket:
          name: envoy.transport_sockets.tls
          typed_config:
            "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.UpstreamTlsContext
            common_tls_context:
              tls_params:
                tls_maximum_protocol_version: TLSv1_3
              tls_certificate_sds_secret_configs:
              - name: xds_certificate
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-certificate.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
              validation_context_sds_secret_config:
                name: xds_trusted_ca
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-trusted-ca.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
    layered_runtime:
      layers:
        - name: runtime-0
          rtds_layer:
            rtds_config:
              resource_api_version: V3
              api_config_source:
                transport_api_version: V3
                api_type: DELTA_GRPC
                grpc_services:
                  envoy_grpc:
                    cluster_name: xds_cluster
            name: runtime-0

EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
  parametersRef:
    group: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyProxy
    name: with-bootstrap-config
---
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: with-bootstrap-config
spec:
  bootstrap: |
    admin:
      access_log:
      - name: envoy.access_loggers.file
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.access_loggers.file.v3.FileAccessLog
          path: /dev/null
      address:
        socket_address:
          address: 127.0.0.1
          port_value: 18000
    dynamic_resources:
      cds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
      lds_config:
        resource_api_version: V3
        api_config_source:
          api_type: DELTA_GRPC
          transport_api_version: V3
          grpc_services:
          - envoy_grpc:
              cluster_name: xds_cluster
          set_node_on_first_message_only: true
    static_resources:
      clusters:
      - connect_timeout: 1s
        load_assignment:
          cluster_name: xds_cluster
          endpoints:
          - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: envoy-gateway
                    port_value: 18000
        typed_extension_protocol_options:
          "envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions":
             "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions"
             "explicit_http_config":
               "http2_protocol_options": {}
        name: xds_cluster
        type: STRICT_DNS
        transport_socket:
          name: envoy.transport_sockets.tls
          typed_config:
            "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.UpstreamTlsContext
            common_tls_context:
              tls_params:
                tls_maximum_protocol_version: TLSv1_3
              tls_certificate_sds_secret_configs:
              - name: xds_certificate
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-certificate.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
              validation_context_sds_secret_config:
                name: xds_trusted_ca
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-trusted-ca.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
    layered_runtime:
      layers:
        - name: runtime-0
          rtds_layer:
            rtds_config:
              resource_api_version: V3
              api_config_source:
                transport_api_version: V3
                api_type: DELTA_GRPC
                grpc_services:
                  envoy_grpc:
                    cluster_name: xds_cluster
            name: runtime-0

1.7 - Configuration API Design

Motivation

Issue 51 specifies the need to design an API for configuring Envoy Gateway. The control plane is configured statically at startup and the data plane is configured dynamically through Kubernetes resources, primarily Gateway API objects. Refer to the Envoy Gateway design doc for additional details regarding Envoy Gateway terminology and configuration.

Goals

  • Define an initial API to configure Envoy Gateway at startup.
  • Define an initial API for configuring the managed data plane, e.g. Envoy proxies.

Non-Goals

  • Implementation of the configuration APIs.
  • Define the status subresource of the configuration APIs.
  • Define a complete set of APIs for configuring Envoy Gateway. As stated in the Goals, this document defines the initial configuration APIs.
  • Define an API for deploying/provisioning/operating Envoy Gateway. If needed, a future Envoy Gateway operator would be responsible for designing and implementing this type of API.
  • Specify tooling for managing the API, e.g. generate protos, CRDs, controller RBAC, etc.

Control Plane API

The EnvoyGateway API defines the control plane configuration, e.g. Envoy Gateway. Key points of this API are:

  • It will define Envoy Gateway’s startup configuration file. If the file does not exist, Envoy Gateway will start up with default configuration parameters.
  • EnvoyGateway inlines the TypeMeta API. This allows EnvoyGateway to be versioned and managed as a GroupVersionKind scheme.
  • EnvoyGateway does not contain a metadata field since it’s currently represented as a static configuration file instead of a Kubernetes resource.
  • Since EnvoyGateway does not surface status, EnvoyGatewaySpec is inlined.
  • If data plane static configuration is required in the future, Envoy Gateway will use a separate file for this purpose.

The v1alpha1 version and config.gateway.envoyproxy.io API group get generated:

// gateway/api/config/v1alpha1/doc.go

// Package v1alpha1 contains API Schema definitions for the config.gateway.envoyproxy.io API group.
//
// +groupName=config.gateway.envoyproxy.io
package v1alpha1

The initial EnvoyGateway API:

// gateway/api/config/v1alpha1/envoygateway.go

package valpha1

import (
	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
)

// EnvoyGateway is the Schema for the envoygateways API
type EnvoyGateway struct {
	metav1.TypeMeta `json:",inline"`

	// EnvoyGatewaySpec defines the desired state of Envoy Gateway.
	EnvoyGatewaySpec `json:",inline"`
}

// EnvoyGatewaySpec defines the desired state of Envoy Gateway configuration.
type EnvoyGatewaySpec struct {
	// Gateway defines Gateway-API specific configuration. If unset, default
	// configuration parameters will apply.
	//
	// +optional
	Gateway *Gateway `json:"gateway,omitempty"`

	// Provider defines the desired provider configuration. If unspecified,
	// the Kubernetes provider is used with default parameters.
	//
	// +optional
	Provider *EnvoyGatewayProvider `json:"provider,omitempty"`
}

// Gateway defines desired Gateway API configuration of Envoy Gateway.
type Gateway struct {
	// ControllerName defines the name of the Gateway API controller. If unspecified,
	// defaults to "gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller". See the following
	// for additional details:
	//
	// https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/reference/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1.GatewayClass
	//
	// +optional
	ControllerName string `json:"controllerName,omitempty"`
}

// EnvoyGatewayProvider defines the desired configuration of a provider.
// +union
type EnvoyGatewayProvider struct {
	// Type is the type of provider to use. If unset, the Kubernetes provider is used.
	//
	// +unionDiscriminator
	Type ProviderType `json:"type,omitempty"`
	// Kubernetes defines the configuration of the Kubernetes provider. Kubernetes
	// provides runtime configuration via the Kubernetes API.
	//
	// +optional
	Kubernetes *EnvoyGatewayKubernetesProvider `json:"kubernetes,omitempty"`

	// File defines the configuration of the File provider. File provides runtime
	// configuration defined by one or more files.
	//
	// +optional
	File *EnvoyGatewayFileProvider `json:"file,omitempty"`
}

// ProviderType defines the types of providers supported by Envoy Gateway.
type ProviderType string

const (
	// KubernetesProviderType defines the "Kubernetes" provider.
	KubernetesProviderType ProviderType = "Kubernetes"

	// FileProviderType defines the "File" provider.
	FileProviderType ProviderType = "File"
)

// EnvoyGatewayKubernetesProvider defines configuration for the Kubernetes provider.
type EnvoyGatewayKubernetesProvider struct {
	// TODO: Add config as use cases are better understood.
}

// EnvoyGatewayFileProvider defines configuration for the File provider.
type EnvoyGatewayFileProvider struct {
	// TODO: Add config as use cases are better understood.
}

Note: Provider-specific configuration is defined in the {$PROVIDER_NAME}Provider API.

Gateway

Gateway defines desired configuration of Gateway API controllers that reconcile and translate Gateway API resources into the Intermediate Representation (IR). Refer to the Envoy Gateway design doc for additional details.

Provider

Provider defines the desired configuration of an Envoy Gateway provider. A provider is an infrastructure component that Envoy Gateway calls to establish its runtime configuration. Provider is a union type. Therefore, Envoy Gateway can be configured with only one provider based on the type discriminator field. Refer to the Envoy Gateway design doc for additional details.

Control Plane Configuration

The configuration file is defined by the EnvoyGateway API type. At startup, Envoy Gateway searches for the configuration at “/etc/envoy-gateway/config.yaml”.

Start Envoy Gateway:

$ ./envoy-gateway

Since the configuration file does not exist, Envoy Gateway will start with default configuration parameters.

The Kubernetes provider can be configured explicitly using provider.kubernetes:

$ cat << EOF > /etc/envoy-gateway/config.yaml
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyGateway
provider:
  type: Kubernetes
  kubernetes: {}
EOF

This configuration will cause Envoy Gateway to use the Kubernetes provider with default configuration parameters.

The Kubernetes provider can be configured using the provider field. For example, the foo field can be set to “bar”:

$ cat << EOF > /etc/envoy-gateway/config.yaml
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyGateway
provider:
  type: Kubernetes
  kubernetes:
    foo: bar
EOF

Note: The Provider API from the Kubernetes package is currently undefined and foo: bar is provided for illustration purposes only.

The same API structure is followed for each supported provider. The following example causes Envoy Gateway to use the File provider:

$ cat << EOF > /etc/envoy-gateway/config.yaml
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyGateway
provider:
  type: File
  file:
    foo: bar
EOF

Note: The Provider API from the File package is currently undefined and foo: bar is provided for illustration purposes only.

Gateway API-related configuration is expressed through the gateway field. If unspecified, Envoy Gateway will use default configuration parameters for gateway. The following example causes the GatewayClass controller to manage GatewayClasses with controllerName foo instead of the default gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller:

$ cat << EOF > /etc/envoy-gateway/config.yaml
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyGateway
gateway:
  controllerName: foo

With any of the above configuration examples, Envoy Gateway can be started without any additional arguments:

$ ./envoy-gateway

Data Plane API

The data plane is configured dynamically through Kubernetes resources, primarily Gateway API objects. Optionally, the data plane infrastructure can be configured by referencing a custom resource (CR) through spec.parametersRef of the managed GatewayClass. The EnvoyProxy API defines the data plane infrastructure configuration and is represented as the CR referenced by the managed GatewayClass. Key points of this API are:

  • If unreferenced by gatewayclass.spec.parametersRef, default parameters will be used to configure the data plane infrastructure, e.g. expose Envoy network endpoints using a LoadBalancer service.
  • Envoy Gateway will follow Gateway API recommendations regarding updates to the EnvoyProxy CR:

    It is recommended that this resource be used as a template for Gateways. This means that a Gateway is based on the state of the GatewayClass at the time it was created and changes to the GatewayClass or associated parameters are not propagated down to existing Gateways.

The initial EnvoyProxy API:

// gateway/api/config/v1alpha1/envoyproxy.go

package v1alpha1

import (
	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
)

// EnvoyProxy is the Schema for the envoyproxies API.
type EnvoyProxy struct {
	metav1.TypeMeta   `json:",inline"`
	metav1.ObjectMeta `json:"metadata,omitempty"`

	Spec   EnvoyProxySpec   `json:"spec,omitempty"`
	Status EnvoyProxyStatus `json:"status,omitempty"`
}

// EnvoyProxySpec defines the desired state of Envoy Proxy infrastructure
// configuration.
type EnvoyProxySpec struct {
	// Undefined by this design spec.
}

// EnvoyProxyStatus defines the observed state of EnvoyProxy.
type EnvoyProxyStatus struct {
	// Undefined by this design spec.
}

The EnvoyProxySpec and EnvoyProxyStatus fields will be defined in the future as proxy infrastructure configuration use cases are better understood.

Data Plane Configuration

GatewayClass and Gateway resources define the data plane infrastructure. Note that all examples assume Envoy Gateway is running with the Kubernetes provider.

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: example-class
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: example-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: example-class
  listeners:
  - name: http
    protocol: HTTP
    port: 80

Since the GatewayClass does not define spec.parametersRef, the data plane is provisioned using default configuration parameters. The Envoy proxies will be configured with a http listener and a Kubernetes LoadBalancer service listening on port 80.

The following example will configure the data plane to use a ClusterIP service instead of the default LoadBalancer service:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: example-class
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
  parametersRef:
    name: example-config
    group: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io
    kind: EnvoyProxy
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: example-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: example-class
  listeners:
  - name: http
    protocol: HTTP
    port: 80
---
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: example-config
spec:
  networkPublishing:
    type: ClusterIPService

Note: The NetworkPublishing API is currently undefined and is provided here for illustration purposes only.

1.8 - egctl Design

Motivation

EG should provide a command line tool with following capabilities:

  • Collect configuration from envoy proxy and gateway
  • Analyse system configuration to diagnose any issues in envoy gateway

This tool is named egctl.

Syntax

Use the following syntax to run egctl commands from your terminal window:

egctl [command] [entity] [name] [flags]

where command, name, and flags are:

  • command: Specifies the operation that you want to perform on one or more resources, for example config, version.

  • entity: Specifies the entity the operation is being performed on such as envoy-proxy or envoy-gateway.

  • name: Specifies the name of the specified instance.

  • flags: Specifies optional flags. For example, you can use the -c or --config flags to specify the values for installing.

If you need help, run egctl help from the terminal window.

Operation

The following table includes short descriptions and the general syntax for all the egctl operations:

OperationSyntaxDescription
versionegctl versionPrints out build version information.
configegctl config ENTITYRetrieve information about proxy configuration from envoy proxy and gateway
analyzeegctl analyzeAnalyze EG configuration and print validation messages
experimentalegctl experimentalSubcommand for experimental features. These do not guarantee backwards compatibility

Examples

Use the following set of examples to help you familiarize yourself with running the commonly used egctl operations:

# Retrieve all information about proxy configuration from envoy
egctl config envoy-proxy all <instance_name>

# Retrieve listener information about proxy configuration from envoy 
egctl config envoy-proxy listener <instance_name>

# Retrieve information about envoy gateway
egctl config envoy-gateway

1.9 - Envoy Gateway Extensions Design

As outlined in the official goals for the Envoy Gateway project, one of the main goals is to “provide a common foundation for vendors to build value-added products without having to re-engineer fundamental interactions”. Development of the Envoy Gateway project has been focused on developing the core features for the project and Kubernetes Gateway API conformance. This system focuses on the “common foundation for vendors” component by introducing a way for vendors to extend Envoy Gateway.

To meaningfully extend Envoy Gateway and provide additional features, Extensions need to be able to introduce their own custom resources and have a high level of control over the configuration generated by Envoy Gateway. Simply applying some static xDS configuration patches or relying on the existing Gateway API resources are both insufficient on their own as means to add larger features that require dynamic user-configuration.

As an example, an extension developer may wish to provide their own out-of-the-box authentication filters that require configuration from the end-user. This is a scenario where the ability to introduce custom resources and attach them to HTTPRoutes as an ExtensionRef is necessary. Providing the same feature through a series of xDS patch resources would be too cumbersome for many end-users that want to avoid that level of complexity when managing their clusters.

Goals

  • Provide a foundation for extending the Envoy Gateway control plane
  • Allow Extension Developers to introduce their own custom resources for extending the Gateway-API via ExtensionRefs, policyAttachments (future) and backendRefs (future).
  • Extension developers should NOT have to maintain a custom fork of Envoy Gateway
  • Provide a system for extending Envoy Gateway which allows extension projects to ship updates independent of Envoy Gateway’s release schedule
  • Modify the generated Envoy xDS config
  • Setup a foundation for the initial iteration of Extending Envoy Gateway
  • Allow an Extension to hook into the infra manager pipeline (future)

Non-Goals

  • The initial design does not capture every hook that Envoy Gateway will eventually support.
  • Extend Gateway API Policy Attachments. At some point, these will be addressed using this extension system, but the initial implementation omits these.
  • Support multiple extensions at the same time. Due to the fact that extensions will be modifying xDS resources after they are generated, handling the order of extension execution for each individual hook point is a challenge. Additionally, there is no real way to prevent one extension from overwriting or breaking modifications to xDS resources that were made by another extension that was executed first.

Overview

Envoy Gateway can be extended by vendors by means of an extension server developed by the vendor and deployed alongside Envoy Gateway. An extension server can make use of one or more pre/post hooks inside Envoy Gateway before and after its major components (translator, etc.) to allow the extension to modify the data going into or coming out of these components. An extension can be created external to Envoy Gateway as its own Kubernetes deployment or loaded as a sidecar. gRPC is used for the calls between Envoy Gateway and an extension. In the hook call, Envoy Gateway sends data as well as context information to the extension and expects a reply with a modified version of the data that was sent to the extension. Since extensions fundamentally alter the logic and data that Envoy Gateway provides, Extension projects assume responsibility for any bugs and issues they create as a direct result of their modification of Envoy Gateway.

Diagram

Architecture

Registering Extensions in Envoy Gateway

Information about the extension that Envoy Gateway needs to load is configured in the Envoy Gateway config.

An example configuration:

apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyGateway
extensionManager:
  resources:
  - group: example.myextension.io
    version: v2
    kind: OAuth2Filter
  hooks:
    xdsTranslator:
      post:
      - Route
      - VirtualHost
      - HTTPListener
      - Translation
  service:
    host: my-extension.example
    port: 443
    tls:
      certificateRef:
        name: my-secret
        namespace: default

An extension must supply connection information in the extension.service field so that Envoy Gateway can communicate with the extension. The tls configuration is optional.

If the extension wants Envoy Gateway to watch resources for it then the extension must configure the optional extension.resources field and supply a list of:

  • group: the API group of the resource
  • version: the API version of the resource
  • kind: the Kind of resource

The extension can configure the extensionManager.hooks field to specify which hook points it would like to support. If a given hook is not listed here then it will not be executed even if the extension is configured properly. This allows extension developers to only opt-in to the hook points they want to make use of.

This configuration is required to be provided at bootstrap and modifying the registered extension during runtime is not currently supported. Envoy Gateway will keep track of the registered extension and its API groups and kinds when processing Gateway API resources.

Extending Gateway API and the Data Plane

Envoy Gateway manages Envoy deployments, which act as the data plane that handles actual user traffic. Users configure the data plane using the K8s Gateway API resources which Envoy Gateway converts into Envoy specific configuration (xDS) to send over to Envoy.

Gateway API offers ExtensionRef filters and Policy Attachments as extension points for implementers to use. Envoy Gateway extends the Gateway API using these extension points to provide support for rate limiting and authentication native to the project. The initial design of Envoy Gateway extensions will primarily focus on ExtensionRef filters so that extension developers can reference their own resources as HTTP Filters in the same way that Envoy Gateway has native support for rate limiting and authentication filters.

When Envoy Gateway encounters an HTTPRoute or GRPCRoute that has an ExtensionRef filter with a group and kind that Envoy Gateway does not support, it will first check the registered extension to determine if it supports the referenced object before considering it a configuration error.

This allows users to be able to reference additional filters provided by their Envoy Gateway Extension, in their HTTPRoutes / GRPCRoutes:

apiVersion: example.myextension.io/v1alpha1
kind: OAuth2Filter
metadata:
  name: oauth2-filter
spec:
  ...

---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - clientSelectors:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: example.myextension.io
        kind: OAuth2Filter
        name: oauth2-filter
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000

In order to enable the usage of new resources introduced by an extension for translation and xDS modification, Envoy Gateway provides hook points within the translation pipeline, where it calls out to the extension service registered in the EnvoyGateway config if they specify an group that matches the group of an ExtensionRef filter. The extension will then be able to modify the xDS that Envoy Gateway generated and send back the modified configuration. If an extension is not registered or if the registered extension does not specify support for the group of an ExtensionRef filter then Envoy Gateway will treat it as an unknown resource and provide an error to the user.

Note: Currently (as of v1beta1) Gateway API does not provide a means to specify the namespace or version of an object referenced as an ExtensionRef. The extension mechanism will assume that the namespace of any ExtensionRef is the same as the namespace of the HTTPRoute or GRPCRoute it is attached to rather than treating the name field of an ExtensionRef as a name.namespace string. If Gateway API adds support for these fields then the design of the Envoy Gateway extensions will be updated to support them.

Watching New Resources

Envoy Gateway will dynamically create new watches on resources introduced by the registered Extension. It does so by using the controller-runtime to create new watches on Unstructured resources that match the versions, groups, and kinds that the registered extension configured. When communicating with an extension, Envoy Gateway sends these Unstructured resources over to the extension. This eliminates the need for the extension to create its own watches which would have a strong chance of creating race conditions and reconciliation loops when resources change. When an extension receives the Unstructured resources from Envoy Gateway it can perform its own type validation on them. Currently we make the simplifying assumption that the registered extension’s Kinds are filters referenced by extensionRef in HTTPRouteFilters . Support for Policy attachments will be introduced at a later time.

xDS Hooks API

Envoy Gateway supports the following hooks as the initial foundation of the Extension system. Additional hooks can be developed using this extension system at a later point as new use-cases and needs are discovered. The primary iteration of the extension hooks focuses solely on the modification of xDS resources.

Route Modification Hook

The Route level Hook provides a way for extensions to modify a route generated by Envoy Gateway before it is finalized. Doing so allows extensions to configure/modify route fields configured by Envoy Gateway and also to configure the Route’s TypedPerFilterConfig which may be desirable to do things such as pass settings and information to ext_authz filters. The Post Route Modify hook also passes a list of Unstructured data for the externalRefs owned by the extension on the HTTPRoute that created this xDS route This hook is always executed when an extension is loaded that has added Route to the EnvoyProxy.extensionManager.hooks.xdsTranslator.post, and only on Routes which were generated from an HTTPRoute that uses extension resources as externalRef filters.

// PostRouteModifyRequest sends a Route that was generated by Envoy Gateway along with context information to an extension so that the Route can be modified
message PostRouteModifyRequest {
    envoy.config.route.v3.Route route = 1;
    PostRouteExtensionContext post_route_context = 2;
}

// RouteExtensionContext provides resources introduced by an extension and watched by Envoy Gateway
// additional context information can be added to this message as more use-cases are discovered
message PostRouteExtensionContext {
    // Resources introduced by the extension that were used as extensionRefs in an HTTPRoute/GRPCRoute
    repeated ExtensionResource extension_resources = 1;

    // hostnames are the fully qualified domain names attached to the HTTPRoute
    repeated string hostnames = 2;
}

// ExtensionResource stores the data for a K8s API object referenced in an HTTPRouteFilter
// extensionRef. It is constructed from an unstructured.Unstructured marshalled to JSON. An extension
// can marshal the bytes from this resource back into an unstructured.Unstructured and then 
// perform type checking to obtain the resource.
message ExtensionResource {
    bytes unstructured_bytes = 1;
}

// PostRouteModifyResponse is the expected response from an extension and contains a modified version of the Route that was sent
// If an extension returns a nil Route then it will not be modified
message PostRouteModifyResponse {
    envoy.config.route.v3.Route route = 1;
}

VirtualHost Modification Hook

The VirtualHost Hook provides a way for extensions to modify a VirtualHost generated by Envoy Gateway before it is finalized. An extension can also make use of this hook to generate and insert entirely new Routes not generated by Envoy Gateway. This hook is always executed when an extension is loaded that has added VirtualHost to the EnvoyProxy.extensionManager.hooks.xdsTranslator.post. An extension may return nil to not make any changes to the VirtualHost.

// PostVirtualHostModifyRequest sends a VirtualHost that was generated by Envoy Gateway along with context information to an extension so that the VirtualHost can be modified
message PostVirtualHostModifyRequest {
    envoy.config.route.v3.VirtualHost virtual_host = 1;
    PostVirtualHostExtensionContext post_virtual_host_context = 2;
}

// Empty for now but we can add fields to the context as use-cases are discovered without
// breaking any clients that use the API
// additional context information can be added to this message as more use-cases are discovered
message PostVirtualHostExtensionContext {}

// PostVirtualHostModifyResponse is the expected response from an extension and contains a modified version of the VirtualHost that was sent
// If an extension returns a nil Virtual Host then it will not be modified
message PostVirtualHostModifyResponse {
    envoy.config.route.v3.VirtualHost virtual_host = 1;
}

HTTP Listener Modification Hook

The HTTP Listener modification hook is the broadest xDS modification Hook available and allows an extension to make changes to a Listener generated by Envoy Gateway before it is finalized. This hook is always executed when an extension is loaded that has added HTTPListener to the EnvoyProxy.extensionManager.hooks.xdsTranslator.post. An extension may return nil in order to not make any changes to the Listener.

// PostVirtualHostModifyRequest sends a Listener that was generated by Envoy Gateway along with context information to an extension so that the Listener can be modified
message PostHTTPListenerModifyRequest {
    envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener listener = 1;
    PostHTTPListenerExtensionContext post_listener_context = 2;
}

// Empty for now but we can add fields to the context as use-cases are discovered without
// breaking any clients that use the API
// additional context information can be added to this message as more use-cases are discovered
message PostHTTPListenerExtensionContext {}

// PostHTTPListenerModifyResponse is the expected response from an extension and contains a modified version of the Listener that was sent
// If an extension returns a nil Listener then it will not be modified
message PostHTTPListenerModifyResponse {
    envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener listener = 1;
}

Post xDS Translation Modify Hook

The Post Translate Modify hook allows an extension to modify the clusters and secrets in the xDS config. This allows for inserting clusters that may change along with extension specific configuration to be dynamically created rather than using custom bootstrap config which would be sufficient for clusters that are static and not prone to have their configurations changed. An example of how this may be used is to inject a cluster that will be used by an ext_authz http filter created by the extension. The list of clusters and secrets returned by the extension are used as the final list of all clusters and secrets This hook is always executed when an extension is loaded that has added Translation to the EnvoyProxy.extensionManager.hooks.xdsTranslator.post.

// PostTranslateModifyRequest currently sends only clusters and secrets to an extension.
// The extension is free to add/modify/remove the resources it received.
message PostTranslateModifyRequest {
    PostTranslateExtensionContext post_translate_context = 1;
    repeated envoy.config.cluster.v3.Cluster clusters = 2;
    repeated envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.Secret secrets = 3;
}

// PostTranslateModifyResponse is the expected response from an extension and contains
// the full list of xDS clusters and secrets to be used for the xDS config.
message PostTranslateModifyResponse {
    repeated envoy.config.cluster.v3.Cluster clusters = 1;
    repeated envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.Secret secrets = 2;
}

Extension Service

Currently, an extension must implement all of the following hooks although it may return the input(s) it received if no modification of the resource is desired. A future expansion of the extension hooks will allow an Extension to specify with config which Hooks it would like to “subscribe” to and which Hooks it does not wish to support. These specific Hooks were chosen in order to provide extensions with the ability to have both broad and specific control over xDS resources and to minimize the amount of data being sent.

service EnvoyGatewayExtension {
    rpc PostRouteModify (PostRouteModifyRequest) returns (PostRouteModifyResponse) {};
    rpc PostVirtualHostModify(PostVirtualHostModifyRequest) returns (PostVirtualHostModifyResponse) {};
    rpc PostHTTPListenerModify(PostHTTPListenerModifyRequest) returns (PostHTTPListenerModifyResponse) {};
    rpc PostTranslateModify(PostTranslateModifyRequest) returns (PostTranslateModifyResponse) {};
}

Design Decisions

  • Envoy Gateway watches new custom resources introduced by a loaded extension and passes the resources back to the extension when they are used.
    • This decision was made to solve the problem about how resources introduced by an extension get watched. If an extension server watches its own resources then it would need some way to trigger an Envoy Gateway reconfigure when a resource that Envoy Gateway is not watching gets updated. Having Envoy Gateway watch all resources removes any concern about creating race confitions or reconcile loops that would result from Envoy Gateway and the extension server both having so much separate state that needs to be synchronized.
  • The Extension Server takes ownership of producing the correct xDS configuration in the hook responses
  • The Extension Server will be responsible for ensuring the performance of the hook processing time
  • The Post xDS level gRPC hooks all currently send a context field even though it contains nothing for several hooks. These fields exist so that they can be updated in the future to pass additional information to extensions as new use-cases and needs are discovered.
  • The initial design supplies the scaffolding for both “pre xDS” and “post xDS” hooks. Only the post hooks are currently implemented which operate on xDS resources after they have been generated. The pre hooks will be implemented at a later date along with one or more hooks in the infra manager. The infra manager level hook(s) will exist to power use-cases such as dynamically creating Deployments/Services for the extension the whenever Envoy Gateway creates an instance of Envoy Proxy. An extension developer might want to take advantage of this functionality to inject a new authorization service as a sidecar on the Envoy Proxy deployment for reduced latency.
  • Multiple extensions are not be supported at the same time. Preventing conflict between multiple extensions that are mangling xDS resources is too difficult to ensure compatibility with and is likely to only generate issues.

Known Challenges

Extending Envoy Gateway by using an external extension server which makes use of hook points in Envoy Gateway does comes with a few trade-offs. One known trade-off is the impact of the time that it takes for the hook calls to be executed. Since an extension would make use of hook points in Envoy Gateway that use gRPC for communication, the time it takes to perform these requests could become a concern for some extension developers. One way to minimize the request time of the hook calls is to load the extension server as a sidecar to Envoy Gateway to minimize the impact of networking on the hook calls.

1.10 - EnvoyPatchPolicy

Overview

This design introduces the EnvoyPatchPolicy API allowing users to modify the generated Envoy xDS Configuration that Envoy Gateway generates before sending it to Envoy Proxy.

Envoy Gateway allows users to configure networking and security intent using the upstream Gateway API as well as implementation specific Extension APIs defined in this project to provide a more batteries included experience for application developers.

  • These APIs are an abstracted version of the underlying Envoy xDS API to provide a better user experience for the application developer, exposing and setting only a subset of the fields for a specific feature, sometimes in a opinionated way (e.g RateLimit)
  • These APIs do not expose all the features capabilities that Envoy has either because these features are desired but the API is not defined yet or the project cannot support such an extensive list of features. To alleviate this problem, and provide an interim solution for a small section of advanced users who are well versed in Envoy xDS API and its capabilities, this API is being introduced.

Goals

  • Add an API allowing users to modify the generated xDS Configuration

Non Goals

  • Support multiple patch mechanisims

Implementation

EnvoyPatchPolicy is a Direct Policy Attachment type API that can be used to extend Gateway API Modifications to the generated xDS configuration can be provided as a JSON Patch which is defined in RFC 6902. This patching mechanism has been adopted in Kubernetes as well as Kustomize to update resource objects.

Example

Here is an example highlighting how a user can configure global ratelimiting using an external rate limit service using this API.

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: eg
  namespace: default
spec:
  gatewayClassName: eg
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: default
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - "www.example.com"
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - group: ""
          kind: Service
          name: backend
          port: 3000
          weight: 1
      matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /
---
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyPatchPolicy
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-patch-policy
  namespace: default
spec:
  targetRef:
    group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
    kind: Gateway
    name: eg
    namespace: default
  type: JSONPatch
  jsonPatches:
    - type: "type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener"
      # The listener name is of the form <GatewayNamespace>/<GatewayName>/<GatewayListenerName>
      name: default/eg/http
      operation:
        op: add
        path: "/default_filter_chain/filters/0/typed_config/http_filters/0"
        value:
          name: "envoy.filters.http.ratelimit"
          typed_config:
            "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.ratelimit.v3.RateLimit"
            domain: "eag-ratelimit"
            failure_mode_deny: true
            timeout: 1s
            rate_limit_service:
              grpc_service:
                envoy_grpc:
                  cluster_name: rate-limit-cluster
              transport_api_version: V3
    - type: "type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.route.v3.RouteConfiguration"
      # The route name is of the form <GatewayNamespace>/<GatewayName>/<GatewayListenerName>
      name: default/eg/http
      operation:
        op: add
        path: "/virtual_hosts/0/rate_limits"
        value:
          - actions:
              - remote_address: {}
    - type: "type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.cluster.v3.Cluster"
      name: rate-limit-cluster
      operation:
        op: add
        path: ""
        value:
          name: rate-limit-cluster
          type: STRICT_DNS
          connect_timeout: 10s
          lb_policy: ROUND_ROBIN
          http2_protocol_options: {}
          load_assignment:
            cluster_name: rate-limit-cluster
            endpoints:
              - lb_endpoints:
                  - endpoint:
                      address:
                        socket_address:
                          address: ratelimit.svc.cluster.local
                          port_value: 8081

Verification

  • Offline - Leverage egctl x translate to ensure that the EnvoyPatchPolicy can be successfully applied and the desired output xDS is created.
  • Runtime - Use the Status field within EnvoyPatchPolicy to highlight whether the patch was applied successfully or not.

State of the World

  • Istio - Supports the EnvoyFilter API which allows users to customize the output xDS using patches and proto based merge semantics.

Design Decisions

  • This API will only support a single targetRef and can bind to only a Gateway resource. This simplifies reasoning of how patches will work.
  • This API will always be an experimental API and cannot be graduated into a stable API because Envoy Gateway cannot garuntee
    • that the naming scheme for the generated resources names will not change across releases
    • that the underlying Envoy Proxy API will not change across releases
  • This API needs to be explicitly enabled using the EnvoyGateway API

Open Questions

  • Should the value only support JSON or YAML as well (which is a JSON superset) ?

Alternatives

1.11 - Observability: Accesslog

Overview

Envoy supports extensible accesslog to different sinks, File, gRPC etc. Envoy supports customizable access log formats using predefined fields as well as arbitrary HTTP request and response headers. Envoy supports several built-in access log filters and extension filters that are registered at runtime.

Envoy Gateway leverages Gateway API for configuring managed Envoy proxies. Gateway API defines core, extended, and implementation-specific API support levels for implementers such as Envoy Gateway to expose features. Since accesslog is not covered by Core or Extended APIs, EG should provide an easy to config access log formats and sinks per EnvoyProxy.

Goals

  • Support send accesslog to File or OpenTelemetry backend
  • TODO: Support access log filters base on CEL expression

Non-Goals

Use-Cases

  • Configure accesslog for a EnvoyProxy to File
  • Configure accesslog for a EnvoyProxy to OpenTelemetry backend
  • Configure multi accesslog providers for a EnvoyProxy

ProxyAccessLog API Type

type ProxyAccessLog struct {
	// Disable disables access logging for managed proxies if set to true.
	Disable bool `json:"disable,omitempty"`
	// Settings defines accesslog settings for managed proxies.
	// If unspecified, will send default format to stdout.
	// +optional
	Settings []ProxyAccessLogSetting `json:"settings,omitempty"`
}

type ProxyAccessLogSetting struct {
	// Format defines the format of accesslog.
	Format ProxyAccessLogFormat `json:"format"`
	// Sinks defines the sinks of accesslog.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:MinItems=1
	Sinks []ProxyAccessLogSink `json:"sinks"`
}

type ProxyAccessLogFormatType string

const (
	// ProxyAccessLogFormatTypeText defines the text accesslog format.
	ProxyAccessLogFormatTypeText ProxyAccessLogFormatType = "Text"
	// ProxyAccessLogFormatTypeJSON defines the JSON accesslog format.
	ProxyAccessLogFormatTypeJSON ProxyAccessLogFormatType = "JSON"
	// TODO: support format type "mix" in the future.
)

// ProxyAccessLogFormat defines the format of accesslog.
// +union
type ProxyAccessLogFormat struct {
	// Type defines the type of accesslog format.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=Text;JSON
	// +unionDiscriminator
	Type ProxyAccessLogFormatType `json:"type,omitempty"`
	// Text defines the text accesslog format, following Envoy accesslog formatting,
	// empty value results in proxy's default access log format.
	// It's required when the format type is "Text".
	// Envoy [command operators](https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/configuration/observability/access_log/usage#command-operators) may be used in the format.
	// The [format string documentation](https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/configuration/observability/access_log/usage#config-access-log-format-strings) provides more information.
	// +optional
	Text *string `json:"text,omitempty"`
	// JSON is additional attributes that describe the specific event occurrence.
	// Structured format for the envoy access logs. Envoy [command operators](https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/configuration/observability/access_log/usage#command-operators)
	// can be used as values for fields within the Struct.
	// It's required when the format type is "JSON".
	// +optional
	JSON map[string]string `json:"json,omitempty"`
}

type ProxyAccessLogSinkType string

const (
	// ProxyAccessLogSinkTypeFile defines the file accesslog sink.
	ProxyAccessLogSinkTypeFile ProxyAccessLogSinkType = "File"
	// ProxyAccessLogSinkTypeOpenTelemetry defines the OpenTelemetry accesslog sink.
	ProxyAccessLogSinkTypeOpenTelemetry ProxyAccessLogSinkType = "OpenTelemetry"
)

type ProxyAccessLogSink struct {
	// Type defines the type of accesslog sink.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=File;OpenTelemetry
	Type ProxyAccessLogSinkType `json:"type,omitempty"`
	// File defines the file accesslog sink.
	// +optional
	File *FileEnvoyProxyAccessLog `json:"file,omitempty"`
	// OpenTelemetry defines the OpenTelemetry accesslog sink.
	// +optional
	OpenTelemetry *OpenTelemetryEnvoyProxyAccessLog `json:"openTelemetry,omitempty"`
}

type FileEnvoyProxyAccessLog struct {
	// Path defines the file path used to expose envoy access log(e.g. /dev/stdout).
	// Empty value disables accesslog.
	Path string `json:"path,omitempty"`
}

// TODO: consider reuse ExtensionService?
type OpenTelemetryEnvoyProxyAccessLog struct {
	// Host define the extension service hostname.
	Host string `json:"host"`
	// Port defines the port the extension service is exposed on.
	//
	// +optional
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Minimum=0
	// +kubebuilder:default=4317
	Port int32 `json:"port,omitempty"`
	// Resources is a set of labels that describe the source of a log entry, including envoy node info.
	// It's recommended to follow [semantic conventions](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/reference/specification/resource/semantic_conventions/).
	// +optional
	Resources map[string]string `json:"resources,omitempty"`

	// TODO: support more OpenTelemetry accesslog options(e.g. TLS, auth etc.) in the future.
}

Example

  1. The following is an example to disable access log.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: disable-accesslog
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    accessLog:
      disable: true
  1. The following is an example with text format access log.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: text-access-logging
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    accessLog:
      settings:
        - format:
            type: Text
            text: |
              [%START_TIME%] "%REQ(:METHOD)% %REQ(X-ENVOY-ORIGINAL-PATH?:PATH)% %PROTOCOL%" %RESPONSE_CODE% %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %BYTES_RECEIVED% %BYTES_SENT% %DURATION% "%REQ(X-FORWARDED-FOR)%" "%REQ(USER-AGENT)%" "%REQ(X-REQUEST-ID)%" "%REQ(:AUTHORITY)%" "%UPSTREAM_HOST%"              
          sinks:
            - type: File
              file:
                path: /dev/stdout
  1. The following is an example with json format access log.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: json-access-logging
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    accessLog:
      settings:
        - format:
          type: JSON
          json:
            status: "%RESPONSE_CODE%"
            message: "%LOCAL_REPLY_BODY%"
      sinks:
        - type: File
          file:
            path: /dev/stdout
  1. The following is an example with OpenTelemetry format access log.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: otel-access-logging
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    accessLog:
      settings:
        - format:
            type: Text
            text: |
              [%START_TIME%] "%REQ(:METHOD)% %REQ(X-ENVOY-ORIGINAL-PATH?:PATH)% %PROTOCOL%" %RESPONSE_CODE% %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %BYTES_RECEIVED% %BYTES_SENT% %DURATION% "%REQ(X-FORWARDED-FOR)%" "%REQ(USER-AGENT)%" "%REQ(X-REQUEST-ID)%" "%REQ(:AUTHORITY)%" "%UPSTREAM_HOST%"              
          sinks:
            - type: OpenTelemetry
              openTelemetry:
                host: otel-collector.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
                port: 4317
                resources:
                  k8s.cluster.name: "cluster-1"
  1. The following is an example of sending same format to different sinks.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: multi-sinks
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    accessLog:
      settings:
        - format:
            type: Text
            text: |
              [%START_TIME%] "%REQ(:METHOD)% %REQ(X-ENVOY-ORIGINAL-PATH?:PATH)% %PROTOCOL%" %RESPONSE_CODE% %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %BYTES_RECEIVED% %BYTES_SENT% %DURATION% "%REQ(X-FORWARDED-FOR)%" "%REQ(USER-AGENT)%" "%REQ(X-REQUEST-ID)%" "%REQ(:AUTHORITY)%" "%UPSTREAM_HOST%"              
          sinks:
            - type: File
              file:
                path: /dev/stdout
            - type: OpenTelemetry
              openTelemetry:
                host: otel-collector.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
                port: 4317
                resources:
                  k8s.cluster.name: "cluster-1"

1.12 - Observability: Metrics

Overview

Envoy provide robust platform for metrics, Envoy support three different kinds of stats: counter, gauges, histograms.

Envoy enables prometheus format output via the /stats/prometheus admin endpoint.

Envoy support different kinds of sinks, but EG will only support Open Telemetry sink.

Envoy Gateway leverages Gateway API for configuring managed Envoy proxies. Gateway API defines core, extended, and implementation-specific API support levels for implementers such as Envoy Gateway to expose features. Since metrics is not covered by Core or Extended APIs, EG should provide an easy to config metrics per EnvoyProxy.

Goals

  • Support expose metrics in prometheus way(reuse probe port).
  • Support Open Telemetry stats sink.

Non-Goals

  • Support other stats sink.

Use-Cases

  • Enable prometheus metric
  • Push metrics via Open Telemetry Sink
  • TODO: Customize histogram buckets of target metric
  • TODO: Support stats matcher

ProxyMetric API Type

type ProxyMetrics struct {
	// Prometheus defines the configuration for Admin endpoint `/stats/prometheus`.
	Prometheus *PrometheusProvider `json:"prometheus,omitempty"`
	// Sinks defines the metric sinks where metrics are sent to.
	Sinks []MetricSink `json:"sinks,omitempty"`
}

type MetricSinkType string

const (
	MetricSinkTypeOpenTelemetry MetricSinkType = "OpenTelemetry"
)

type MetricSink struct {
	// Type defines the metric sink type.
	// EG currently only supports OpenTelemetry.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=OpenTelemetry
	// +kubebuilder:default=OpenTelemetry
	Type MetricSinkType `json:"type"`
	// OpenTelemetry defines the configuration for OpenTelemetry sink.
	// It's required if the sink type is OpenTelemetry.
	OpenTelemetry *OpenTelemetrySink `json:"openTelemetry,omitempty"`
}

type OpenTelemetrySink struct {
	// Host define the service hostname.
	Host string `json:"host"`
	// Port defines the port the service is exposed on.
	//
	// +optional
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Minimum=0
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Maximum=65535
	// +kubebuilder:default=4317
	Port int32 `json:"port,omitempty"`

	// TODO: add support for customizing OpenTelemetry sink in https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/api-v3/extensions/stat_sinks/open_telemetry/v3/open_telemetry.proto#envoy-v3-api-msg-extensions-stat-sinks-open-telemetry-v3-sinkconfig
}

type PrometheusProvider struct {
}

Example

  1. The following is an example to enable prometheus metric.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: prometheus
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    metrics:
      prometheus: {}
  1. The following is an example to send metric via Open Telemetry sink.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: otel-sink
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    metrics:
      sinks:
        - type: OpenTelemetry
          openTelemetry:
            host: otel-collector.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
            port: 4317

1.13 - Observability: Tracing

Overview

Envoy supports extensible tracing to different sinks, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry etc. Overview of Envoy tracing can be found here.

Envoy Gateway leverages Gateway API for configuring managed Envoy proxies. Gateway API defines core, extended, and implementation-specific API support levels for implementers such as Envoy Gateway to expose features. Since tracing is not covered by Core or Extended APIs, EG should provide an easy to config tracing per EnvoyProxy.

Only OpenTelemetry sink can be configured currently, you can use OpenTelemetry Collector to export to other tracing backends.

Goals

  • Support send tracing to OpenTelemetry backend
  • Support configurable sampling rate
  • Support propagate tag from Literal, Environment and Request Header

Non-Goals

  • Support other tracing backend, e.g. Zipkin, Jaeger

Use-Cases

  • Configure accesslog for a EnvoyProxy to File

ProxyAccessLog API Type

type ProxyTracing struct {
	// SamplingRate controls the rate at which traffic will be
	// selected for tracing if no prior sampling decision has been made.
	// Defaults to 100, valid values [0-100]. 100 indicates 100% sampling.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Minimum=0
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Maximum=100
	// +kubebuilder:default=100
	// +optional
	SamplingRate *uint32 `json:"samplingRate,omitempty"`
	// CustomTags defines the custom tags to add to each span.
	// If provider is kubernetes, pod name and namespace are added by default.
	CustomTags map[string]CustomTag `json:"customTags,omitempty"`
	// Provider defines the tracing provider.
	// Only OpenTelemetry is supported currently.
	Provider TracingProvider `json:"provider"`
}

type TracingProviderType string

const (
	TracingProviderTypeOpenTelemetry TracingProviderType = "OpenTelemetry"
)

type TracingProvider struct {
	// Type defines the tracing provider type.
	// EG currently only supports OpenTelemetry.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=OpenTelemetry
	// +kubebuilder:default=OpenTelemetry
	Type TracingProviderType `json:"type"`
	// Host define the provider service hostname.
	Host string `json:"host"`
	// Port defines the port the provider service is exposed on.
	//
	// +optional
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Minimum=0
	// +kubebuilder:default=4317
	Port int32 `json:"port,omitempty"`
}

type CustomTagType string

const (
	// CustomTagTypeLiteral adds hard-coded value to each span.
	CustomTagTypeLiteral CustomTagType = "Literal"
	// CustomTagTypeEnvironment adds value from environment variable to each span.
	CustomTagTypeEnvironment CustomTagType = "Environment"
	// CustomTagTypeRequestHeader adds value from request header to each span.
	CustomTagTypeRequestHeader CustomTagType = "RequestHeader"
)

type CustomTag struct {
	// Type defines the type of custom tag.
	// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=Literal;Environment;RequestHeader
	// +unionDiscriminator
	// +kubebuilder:default=Literal
	Type CustomTagType `json:"type"`
	// Literal adds hard-coded value to each span.
	// It's required when the type is "Literal".
	Literal *LiteralCustomTag `json:"literal,omitempty"`
	// Environment adds value from environment variable to each span.
	// It's required when the type is "Environment".
	Environment *EnvironmentCustomTag `json:"environment,omitempty"`
	// RequestHeader adds value from request header to each span.
	// It's required when the type is "RequestHeader".
	RequestHeader *RequestHeaderCustomTag `json:"requestHeader,omitempty"`

	// TODO: add support for Metadata tags in the future.
	// EG currently doesn't support metadata for route or cluster.
}

// LiteralCustomTag adds hard-coded value to each span.
type LiteralCustomTag struct {
	// Value defines the hard-coded value to add to each span.
	Value string `json:"value"`
}

// EnvironmentCustomTag adds value from environment variable to each span.
type EnvironmentCustomTag struct {
	// Name defines the name of the environment variable which to extract the value from.
	Name string `json:"name"`
	// DefaultValue defines the default value to use if the environment variable is not set.
	// +optional
	DefaultValue *string `json:"defaultValue,omitempty"`
}

// RequestHeaderCustomTag adds value from request header to each span.
type RequestHeaderCustomTag struct {
	// Name defines the name of the request header which to extract the value from.
	Name string `json:"name"`
	// DefaultValue defines the default value to use if the request header is not set.
	// +optional
	DefaultValue *string `json:"defaultValue,omitempty"`
}

Example

  1. The following is an example to config tracing.
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: tracing
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  telemetry:
    tracing:
      # sample 100% of requests
      samplingRate: 100
      provider:
        host: otel-collector.monitoring.svc.cluster.local
        port: 4317
      customTags:
        # This is an example of using a literal as a tag value
        key1:
          type: Literal
          literal:
            value: "val1"
        # This is an example of using an environment variable as a tag value
        env1:
          type: Environment
          environment:
            name: ENV1
            defaultValue: "-"
        # This is an example of using a header value as a tag value
        header1:
          type: RequestHeader
          requestHeader:
            name: X-Header-1
            defaultValue: "-"

1.14 - Rate Limit Design

Overview

Rate limit is a feature that allows the user to limit the number of incoming requests to a predefined value based on attributes within the traffic flow.

Here are some reasons why a user may want to implements Rate limits

  • To prevent malicious activity such as DDoS attacks.
  • To prevent applications and its resources (such as a database) from getting overloaded.
  • To create API limits based on user entitlements.

Scope Types

The rate limit type here describes the scope of rate limits.

  • Global - In this case, the rate limit is common across all the instances of Envoy proxies where its applied i.e. if the data plane has 2 replicas of Envoy running, and the rate limit is 10 requests/second, this limit is common and will be hit if 5 requests pass through the first replica and 5 requests pass through the second replica within the same second.

  • Local - In this case, the rate limits are specific to each instance/replica of Envoy running. Note - This is not part of the initial design and will be added as a future enhancement.

Match Types

Rate limit a specific traffic flow

  • Here is an example of a ratelimit implemented by the application developer to limit a specific user by matching on a custom x-user-id header with a value set to one
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-specific-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - name: x-user-id
          value: one
      limit:
        requests: 10
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-specific-user
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000

Rate limit all traffic flows

  • Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer that limits the total requests made to a specific route to safeguard health of internal application components. In this case, no specific headers match is specified, and the rate limit is applied to all traffic flows accepted by this HTTPRoute.
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-all-requests
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - limit:
        requests: 1000
        unit: Second
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-all-requests
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000

Rate limit per distinct value

  • Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer to limit any unique user by matching on a custom x-user-id header. Here, user A (recognised from the traffic flow using the header x-user-id and value a) will be rate limited at 10 requests/hour and so will user B (recognised from the traffic flow using the header x-user-id and value b).
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-per-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - type: Distinct
          name: x-user-id
      limit:
        requests: 10
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-per-user 
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000

Rate limit per source IP

  • Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer that limits the total requests made to a specific route by matching on source IP. In this case, requests from x.x.x.x will be rate limited at 10 requests/hour.
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-per-ip
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - sourceIP: x.x.x.x/32
      limit:
        requests: 10
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-per-user 
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000

Rate limit based on JWT claims

  • Here is an example of rate limit implemented by the application developer that limits the total requests made to a specific route by matching on the jwt claim. In this case, requests with jwt claim information of {"name":"John Doe"} will be rate limited at 10 requests/hour.
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: AuthenticationFilter
metadata:
  name: jwt-example
spec:
  type: JWT
  jwtProviders:
  - name: example
    remoteJWKS:
      uri: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/main/examples/kubernetes/jwt/jwks.json
    claimToHeaders:
    - claim: name
      header: custom-request-header
---
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-specific-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - name: custom-request-header
          value: John Doe
      limit:
        requests: 10
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - "www.example.com"
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: AuthenticationFilter
        name: jwt-example
      type: ExtensionRef
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-specific-user
    matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo

Multiple RateLimitFilters, rules and clientSelectors

  • Users can create multiple RateLimitFilters and apply it to the same HTTPRoute. In such a case each RateLimitFilter will be applied to the route and matched (and limited) in a mutually exclusive way, independent of each other.
  • Rate limits are applied for each RateLimitFilter rule when ALL the conditions under clientSelectors hold true.

Here’s an example highlighting this -

apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-all-safeguard-app 
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - limit:
        requests: 100
        unit: Second
---

apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-per-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - type: Distinct
          name: x-user-id
      limit:
        requests: 1000
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - www.example.com
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-per-user
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-all-safeguard-app
    backendRefs:
    - name: backend
      port: 3000
  • The user has created two RateLimitFilters and has attached it to a HTTPRoute - one(ratelimit-all-safeguard-app) to ensure that the backend does not get overwhelmed with requests, any excess requests are rate limited irrespective of the attributes within the traffic flow, and another(ratelimit-per-user) to rate limit each distinct user client who can be differentiated using the x-user-id header, to ensure that each client does not make exessive requests to the backend.
  • If user baz (identified with the header and value of x-user-id: baz) sends 90 requests within the first second, and user bar sends 11 more requests during that same interval of 1 second, and user bar sends the 101th request within that second, the rule defined in ratelimit-all-safeguard-app gets activated and Envoy Gateway will ratelimit the request sent by bar (and any other request sent within that 1 second). After 1 second, the rate limit counter associated with the ratelimit-all-safeguard-app rule is reset and again evaluated.
  • If user bar also ends up sending 90 more requests within the hour, summing up bar’s total request count to 101, the rate limit rule defined within ratelimit-per-user will get activated, and bar’s requests will be rate limited again until the hour interval ends.
  • Within the same above hour, if baz sends 991 more requests, summing up baz’s total request count to 1001, the rate limit rule defined within ratelimit-per-user will get activated for baz, and baz’s requests will also be rate limited until the hour interval ends.

Design Decisions

  • The initial design uses an Extension filter to apply the Rate Limit functionality on a specific HTTPRoute. This was preferred over the PolicyAttachment extension mechanism, because it is unclear whether Rate Limit will be required to be enforced or overridden by the platform administrator or not.
  • The RateLimitFilter can only be applied as a filter to a [HTTPRouteRule[], applying it across all backends within a HTTPRoute and cannot be applied a filter within a HTTPBackendRef for a specific backend.
  • The HTTPRoute API has a matches field within each rule to select a specific traffic flow to be routed to the destination backend. The RateLimitFilter API that can be attached to an HTTPRoute via an extensionRef filter, also has a clientSelectors field within each rule to select attributes within the traffic flow to rate limit specific clients. The two levels of selectors/matches allow for flexibility and aim to hold match information specific to its use, allowing the author/owner of each configuration to be different. It also allows the clientSelectors field within the RateLimitFilter to be enhanced with other matchable attribute such as IP subnet in the future that are not relevant in the HTTPRoute API.

Implementation Details

Global Rate limiting

  • Global rate limiting in Envoy Proxy can be achieved using the following -
    • Actions can be configured per xDS Route.
    • If the match criteria defined within these actions is met for a specific HTTP Request, a set of key value pairs called descriptors defined within the above actions is sent to a remote rate limit service, whose configuration (such as the URL for the rate limit service) is defined using a rate limit filter.
    • Based on information received by the rate limit service and its programmed configuration, a decision is computed, whether to rate limit the HTTP Request or not, and is sent back to Envoy, which enforces this decision on the data plane.
  • Envoy Gateway will leverage this Envoy Proxy feature by -
    • Translating the user facing RateLimitFilter API into Rate limit Actions as well as Rate limit service configuration to implement the desired API intent.
    • Envoy Gateway will use the existing reference implementation of the rate limit service.
      • The Infrastructure administrator will need to enable the rate limit service using new settings that will be defined in the EnvoyGateway config API.
    • The xDS IR will be enhanced to hold the user facing rate limit intent.
    • The xDS Translator will be enhanced to translate the rate limit field within the xDS IR into Rate limit Actions as well as instantiate the rate limit filter.
    • A new runner called rate-limit will be added that subscribes to the xDS IR messages and translates it into a new Rate Limit Infra IR which contains the rate limit service configuration as well as other information needed to deploy the rate limit service.
    • The infrastructure service will be enhanced to subscribe to the Rate Limit Infra IR and deploy a provider specific rate limit service runnable entity.
    • A Status field within the RateLimitFilter API will be added to reflect whether the specific configuration was programmed correctly in these multiple locations or not.

1.15 - Request Authentication Design

Overview

Issue 336 specifies the need for exposing a user-facing API to configure request authentication. Request authentication is defined as an authentication mechanism to be enforced by Envoy on a per-request basis. A connection will be rejected if it contains invalid authentication information, based on the AuthenticationFilter API type proposed in this design document.

Envoy Gateway leverages Gateway API for configuring managed Envoy proxies. Gateway API defines core, extended, and implementation-specific API support levels for implementers such as Envoy Gateway to expose features. Since implementing request authentication is not covered by Core or Extended APIs, an Implementation-specific API will be created for this purpose.

Goals

  • Define an API for configuring request authentication.
  • Implement JWT as the first supported authentication type.
  • Allow users that manage routes, e.g. HTTPRoute, to authenticate matching requests before forwarding to a backend service.
  • Support HTTPRoutes as an Authentication API referent. HTTPRoute provides multiple extension points. The HTTPRouteFilter is the extension point supported by the Authentication API.

Non-Goals

  • Allow infrastructure administrators to override or establish default authentication policies.
  • Support referents other than HTTPRoute.
  • Support Gateway API extension points other than HTTPRouteFilter.

Use-Cases

These use-cases are presented as an aid for how users may attempt to utilize the outputs of the design. They are not an exhaustive list of features for authentication support in Envoy Gateway.

As a Service Producer, I need the ability to:

  • Authenticate a request before forwarding it to a backend service.
  • Have different authentication mechanisms per route rule.
  • Choose from different authentication mechanisms supported by Envoy, e.g. OIDC.

Authentication API Type

The Authentication API type defines authentication configuration for authenticating requests through managed Envoy proxies.

package v1alpha1

import (
	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"

)

type AuthenticationFilter struct {
	metav1.TypeMeta
	metav1.ObjectMeta

	// Spec defines the desired state of the Authentication type.
	Spec AuthenticationFilterSpec

	// Note: The status sub-resource has been excluded but may be added in the future.
}

// AuthenticationFilterSpec defines the desired state of the AuthenticationFilter type.
// +union
type AuthenticationFilterSpec struct {
	// Type defines the type of authentication provider to use. Supported provider types are:
	//
	// * JWT: A provider that uses JSON Web Token (JWT) for authenticating requests.
	//
	// +unionDiscriminator
	Type AuthenticationFilterType

	// JWT defines the JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication provider type. When multiple
	// jwtProviders are specified, the JWT is considered valid if any of the providers
	// successfully validate the JWT.
	JwtProviders []JwtAuthenticationFilterProvider
}

...

Refer to PR 773 for the detailed AuthenticationFilter API spec.

The status subresource is not included in the AuthenticationFilter API. Status will be surfaced by an HTTPRoute that references an AuthenticationFilter. For example, an HTTPRoute will surface the ResolvedRefs=False status condition if it references an AuthenticationFilter that does not exist. It may be beneficial to add AuthenticationFilter status fields in the future based on defined use-cases. For example, a remote JWKS can be validated based on the specified URI and have an appropriate status condition surfaced.

AuthenticationFilter Example

The following is an AuthenticationFilter example with one JWT authentication provider:

apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: AuthenticationFilter
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  type: JWT
  jwtProviders:
  - name: example
    issuer: https://www.example.com
    audiences:
    - foo.com
    remoteJwks:
      uri: https://foo.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
      <TBD>

Note: type is a union type, allowing only one of any supported provider type such as jwtProviders to be specified.

The following is an example HTTPRoute configured to use the above JWT authentication provider:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - www.example.com
  rules:
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /foo
      filters:
        - type: ExtensionRef
          extensionRef:
            group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
            kind: AuthenticationFilter
            name: example
      backendRefs:
        - name: backend
          port: 3000

Requests for www.example.com/foo will be authenticated using the referenced JWT provider before being forwarded to the backend service named “backend”.

Implementation Details

The JWT authentication type is translated to an Envoy JWT authentication filter and a cluster is created for each remote JWKS. The following examples provide additional details on how Gateway API and AuthenticationFilter resources are translated into Envoy configuration.

Example 1: One Route with One JWT Provider

The following cluster is created from the above HTTPRoute and AuthenticationFilter:

dynamic_clusters:
  - name: foo.com|443
    load_assignment:
      cluster_name: foo.com|443
      endpoints:
        - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: foo.com
                    port_value: 443
    transport_socket:
      name: envoy.transport_sockets.tls
      typed_config:
        "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.UpstreamTlsContext
        sni: foo.com
        common_tls_context:
          validation_context:
            match_subject_alt_names:
              - exact: "*.foo.com"
            trusted_ca:
              filename: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

A JWT authentication HTTP filter is added to the HTTP Connection Manager. For example:

dynamic_resources:
  dynamic_listeners:
    - name: example_listener
      address:
        socket_address:
          address: 1.2.3.4
          port_value: 80
      filter_chains:
        - filters:
            - name: envoy.http_connection_manager
          http_filters:
          - name: envoy.filters.http.jwt_authn
            typed_config:
              "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.filter.http.jwt_authn.v2alpha.JwtAuthentication

This JWT authentication HTTP filter contains two fields:

  • The providers field specifies how a JWT should be verified, such as where to extract the token, where to fetch the public key (JWKS) and where to output its payload. This field is built from the source resource namespace-name, and the JWT provider name of an AuthenticationFilter.
  • The rules field specifies matching rules and their requirements. If a request matches a rule, its requirement applies. The requirement specifies which JWT providers should be used. This field is built from a HTTPRoute matches rule that references the AuthenticationFilter. When a referenced Authentication specifies multiple jwtProviders, the JWT is considered valid if any of the providers successfully validate the JWT.

The following JWT authentication HTTP filter providers configuration is created from the above AuthenticationFilter.

providers:
   example:
     issuer: https://www.example.com
     audiences:
     - foo.com
     remote_jwks:
       http_uri:
         uri: https://foo.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
         cluster: example_jwks_cluster
         timeout: 1s

The following JWT authentication HTTP filter rules configuration is created from the above HTTPRoute.

rules:
  - match:
      prefix: /foo
    requires:
      provider_name: default-example-example

Example 2: Two HTTPRoutes with Different AuthenticationFilters

The following example contains:

  • Two HTTPRoutes with different hostnames.
  • Each HTTPRoute references a different AuthenticationFilter.
  • Each AuthenticationFilter contains a different JWT provider.
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: AuthenticationFilter
metadata:
  name: example1
spec:
  type: JWT
  jwtProviders:
  - name: example1
    issuer: https://www.example1.com
    audiences:
    - foo.com
    remoteJwks:
      uri: https://foo.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: AuthenticationFilter
metadata:
  name: example2
spec:
  type: JWT
  jwtProviders:
    - name: example2
      issuer: https://www.example2.com
      audiences:
        - bar.com
      remoteJwks:
        uri: https://bar.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example1
spec:
  hostnames:
    - www.example1.com
  parentRefs:
    - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
      kind: Gateway
      name: eg
  rules:
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /foo
      filters:
        - type: ExtensionRef
          extensionRef:
            group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
            kind: AuthenticationFilter
            name: example1
      backendRefs:
        - name: backend
          port: 3000
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example2
spec:
  hostnames:
    - www.example2.com
  parentRefs:
    - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
      kind: Gateway
      name: eg
  rules:
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /bar
      filters:
        - type: ExtensionRef
          extensionRef:
            group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
            kind: AuthenticationFilter
            name: example2
      backendRefs:
        - name: backend2
          port: 3000

The following xDS configuration is created from the above example resources:

configs:
...
dynamic_listeners:
  - name: default-eg-http
    ...
        default_filter_chain:
          filters:
          - name: envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager
            typed_config:
              '@type': >-
                type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.network.http_connection_manager.v3.HttpConnectionManager                
              stat_prefix: http
              rds:
                config_source:
                  ...
                route_config_name: default-eg-http
              http_filters:
                - name: envoy.filters.http.jwt_authn
                  typed_config:
                    '@type': >-
                      type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.filter.http.jwt_authn.v2alpha.JwtAuthentication                      
                    providers:
                      default-example1-example1:
                        issuer: https://www.example1.com
                        audiences:
                          - foo.com
                        remote_jwks:
                          http_uri:
                            uri: https://foo.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
                            cluster: default-example1-example1-jwt
                      default-example2-example2:
                        issuer: https://www.example2.com
                        audiences:
                          - bar.com
                        remote_jwks:
                          http_uri:
                            uri: https://bar.com/jwt/public-key/jwks.json
                            cluster: default-example2-example2-jwt
                    rules:
                      - match:
                          exact: /foo
                        requires:
                          provider_name: default-example1-example1
                      - match:
                          exact: /bar
                        requires:
                          provider_name: default-example2-example2
                - name: envoy.filters.http.router
                  typed_config:
                    '@type': >-
                      type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.router.v3.Router                      
dynamic_route_configs:
  - route_config:
      '@type': type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.route.v3.RouteConfiguration
      name: default-eg-http
      virtual_hosts:
        - name: default-eg-http
          domains:
            - '*'
          routes:
            - match:
                prefix: /foo
                headers:
                  - name: ':authority'
                    string_match:
                      exact: www.example1.com
              route:
                cluster: default-backend-rule-0-match-0-www.example1.com
            - match:
                prefix: /bar
                headers:
                  - name: ':authority'
                    string_match:
                      exact: www.example2.com
              route:
                cluster: default-backend2-rule-0-match-0-www.example2.com
dynamic_active_clusters:
  - cluster:
      name: default-backend-rule-0-match-0-www.example.com
      ...
        endpoints:
        - locality: {}
          lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: $BACKEND_SERVICE1_IP
                    port_value: 3000
  - cluster:
      '@type': type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.cluster.v3.Cluster
      name: default-backend-rule-1-match-0-www.example.com
      ...
        endpoints:
        - locality: {}
          lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: $BACKEND_SERVICE2_IP
                    port_value: 3000
...

Note: The JWT provider cluster and route is omitted from the above example for brevity.

Implementation Outline

  • Update the Kubernetes provider to get/watch AuthenticationFilter resources that are referenced by managed HTTPRoutes. Add the referenced AuthenticationFilter object to the resource map and publish it.
  • Update the resource translator to include the AuthenticationFilter API in HTTPRoute processing.
  • Update the xDS translator to translate an AuthenticationFilter into xDS resources. The translator should perform the following:
    • Convert a list of JWT rules from the xds IR into an Envoy JWT filter config.
    • Create a JWT authentication HTTP filter.
    • Build the HTTP Connection Manager (HCM) HTTP filters.
    • Build the HCM.
    • When building the Listener, create an HCM for each filter-chain.

Adding Authentication Types

Additional authentication types can be added in the future through the AuthenticationFilterType API. For example, to add the Foo authentication type:

Define the Foo authentication provider:

package v1alpha1

// FooAuthenticationFilterProvider defines the "Foo" authentication filter provider type.
type FooAuthenticationFilterProvider struct {
	// TODO: Define fields of the Foo authentication filter provider type.
}

Add the FooAuthenticationFilterProvider type to AuthenticationFilterSpec:

package v1alpha1

type AuthenticationFilterSpec struct {
	...
	
	// Foo defines the Foo authentication type. For additional
	// details, see:
	//
	//   <INSERT_LINK>
	//
	// +optional
	Foo *FooAuthenticationFilterProvider
}

Lastly, add the type to the AuthenticationType enum:

// AuthenticationType is a type of authentication provider.
// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=JWT,FOO
type AuthenticationFilterType string

const (
	// JwtAuthenticationProviderType is the JWT authentication provider type.
	FooAuthenticationFilterProviderType AuthenticationFilterType = "FOO"
)

The AuthenticationFilter API should support additional authentication types in the future, for example:

  • OAuth2
  • OIDC

Outstanding Questions

  • If Envoy Gateway owns the AuthenticationFilter API, is an xDS IR equivalent needed?
  • Should local JWKS be implemented before remote JWKS?
  • How should Envoy obtain the trusted CA for a remote JWKS?
  • Should HTTPS be the only supported scheme for remote JWKS?
  • Should OR’ing JWT providers be supported?
  • Should Authentication provide status?
  • Are the API field validation rules acceptable?

1.16 - Running Envoy Gateway locally

Overview

Today, Envoy Gateway runs only on Kubernetes. This is an ideal solution when the applications are running in Kubernetes. However there might be cases when the applications are running on the host which would require Envoy Gateway to run locally.

Goals

  • Define an API to allow Envoy Gateway to retrieve configuration while running locally.
  • Define an API to allow Envoy Gateway to deploy the managed Envoy Proxy fleet on the host machine.

Non Goals

  • Support multiple ways to retrieve configuration while running locally.
  • Support multiple ways to deploy the Envoy Proxy fleet locally on the host.

API

  • The provider field within the EnvoyGateway configuration only supports Kubernetes today which provides two features - the ability to retrieve resources from the Kubernetes API Server as well as deploy the managed Envoy Proxy fleet on Kubernetes.
  • This document proposes adding a new top level provider type called Custom with two fields called resource and infrastructure to allow the user to configure the sub providers for providing resource configuration and an infrastructure to deploy the Envoy Proxy data plane in.
  • A File resource provider will be introduced to enable retrieving configuration locally by reading from the configuration from a file.
  • A Host infrastructure provider will be introduced to allow Envoy Gateway to spawn a Envoy Proxy child process on the host.

Here is an example configuration

provider:
  type: Custom
  custom:
    resource:
      type: File
      file:
        paths: 
        - "config.yaml"
    infrastructure:
      type: Host
      host: {}

1.17 - TCP and UDP Proxy Design

Even though most of the use cases for Envoy Gateway are at Layer-7, Envoy Gateway can also work at Layer-4 to proxy TCP and UDP traffic. This document will explore the options we have when operating Envoy Gateway at Layer-4 and explain the design decision.

Envoy can work as a non-transparent proxy or a transparent proxy for both TCP and UDP , so ideally, Envoy Gateway should also be able to work in these two modes:

Non-transparent Proxy Mode

For TCP, Envoy terminates the downstream connection, connects the upstream with its own IP address, and proxies the TCP traffic from the downstream to the upstream.

For UDP, Envoy receives UDP datagrams from the downstream, and uses its own IP address as the sender IP address when proxying the UDP datagrams to the upstream.

In this mode, the upstream will see Envoy’s IP address and port.

Transparent Proxy Mode

For TCP, Envoy terminates the downstream connection, connects the upstream with the downstream IP address, and proxies the TCP traffic from the downstream to the upstream.

For UDP, Envoy receives UDP datagrams from the downstream, and uses the downstream IP address as the sender IP address when proxying the UDP datagrams to the upstream.

In this mode, the upstream will see the original downstream IP address and Envoy’s mac address.

Note: Even in transparent mode, the upstream can’t see the port number of the downstream because Envoy doesn’t forward the port number.

The Implications of Transparent Proxy Mode

Escalated Privilege

Envoy needs to bind to the downstream IP when connecting to the upstream, which means Envoy requires escalated CAP_NET_ADMIN privileges. This is often considered as a bad security practice and not allowed in some sensitive deployments.

Routing

The upstream can see the original source IP, but the original port number won’t be passed, so the return traffic from the upstream must be routed back to Envoy because only Envoy knows how to send the return traffic back to the right port number of the downstream, which requires routing at the upstream side to be set up. In a Kubernetes cluster, Envoy Gateway will have to carefully cooperate with CNI plugins to get the routing right.

The Design Decision (For Now)

The implementation will only support proxying in non-transparent mode i.e. the backend will see the source IP and port of the deployed Envoy instance instead of the client.

2 - User Guides

This section includes User Guides of Envoy Gateway.

2.1 - Quickstart

This guide will help you get started with Envoy Gateway in a few simple steps.

Prerequisites

A Kubernetes cluster.

Note: Refer to the Compatibility Matrix for supported Kubernetes versions.

Installation

Install the Gateway API CRDs and Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Install the GatewayClass, Gateway, HTTPRoute and example app:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/download/v0.5.0/quickstart.yaml -n default

Note: quickstart.yaml defines that Envoy Gateway will listen for traffic on port 80 on its globally-routable IP address, to make it easy to use browsers to test Envoy Gateway. When Envoy Gateway sees that its Listener is using a privileged port (<1024), it will map this internally to an unprivileged port, so that Envoy Gateway doesn’t need additional privileges. It’s important to be aware of this mapping, since you may need to take it into consideration when debugging.

Testing the Configuration

Get the name of the Envoy service created the by the example Gateway:

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

Port forward to the Envoy service:

kubectl -n envoy-gateway-system port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8888:80 &

Curl the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl --verbose --header "Host: www.example.com" http://localhost:8888/get

External LoadBalancer Support

You can also test the same functionality by sending traffic to the External IP. To get the external IP of the Envoy service, run:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get svc/${ENVOY_SERVICE} -n envoy-gateway-system -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')

In certain environments, the load balancer may be exposed using a hostname, instead of an IP address. If so, replace ip in the above command with hostname.

Curl the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl --verbose --header "Host: www.example.com" http://$GATEWAY_HOST/get

Clean-Up

Use the steps in this section to uninstall everything from the quickstart guide.

Delete the GatewayClass, Gateway, HTTPRoute and Example App:

kubectl delete -f https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/download/v0.5.0/quickstart.yaml --ignore-not-found=true

Delete the Gateway API CRDs and Envoy Gateway:

helm uninstall eg -n envoy-gateway-system

Next Steps

Checkout the Developer Guide to get involved in the project.

2.2 - Customize EnvoyProxy

Envoy Gateway provides an EnvoyProxy CRD that can be linked to the ParametersRef in GatewayClass, allowing cluster admins to customize the managed EnvoyProxy Deployment and Service. To learn more about GatewayClass and ParametersRef, please refer to Gateway API documentation.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Add GatewayClass ParametersRef

First, you need to add ParametersRef in GatewayClass, and refer to EnvoyProxy Config:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
  parametersRef:
    group: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io
    kind: EnvoyProxy
    name: custom-proxy-config
    namespace: envoy-gateway-system
EOF

Customize EnvoyProxy Deployment Replicas

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Deployment Replicas via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        replicas: 2
EOF

After you apply the config, you should see the replicas of envoyproxy changes to 2. And also you can dynamically change the value.

kubectl get deployment envoy-gateway

Customize EnvoyProxy Image

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Image via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        container:
          image: envoyproxy/envoy:v1.25-v0.5.0
EOF

After applying the config, you can get the deployment image, and see it has changed.

Customize EnvoyProxy Pod Annotations

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Pod Annotations via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        pod:
          annotations:
            custom1: deploy-annotation1
            custom2: deploy-annotation2
EOF

After applying the config, you can get the envoyproxy pods, and see new annotations has been added.

Customize EnvoyProxy Deployment Resources

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Deployment Resources via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        container:
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 150m
              memory: 640Mi
            limits:
              cpu: 500m
              memory: 1Gi
EOF

Customize EnvoyProxy Deployment Env

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Deployment Env via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        container:
          env:
          - name: env_a
            value: env_a_value
          - name: env_b
            value: env_b_value
EOF

Envoy Gateway has provided two initial env ENVOY_GATEWAY_NAMESPACE and ENVOY_POD_NAME for envoyproxy container.

After applying the config, you can get the envoyproxy deployment, and see resources has been changed.

Customize EnvoyProxy Deployment Volumes or VolumeMounts

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Deployment Volumes or VolumeMounts via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyDeployment:
        container:
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: /certs
            name: certs
            readOnly: true
        pod:
          volumes:
          - name: certs
            secret:
              secretName: envoy-cert   
EOF

After applying the config, you can get the envoyproxy deployment, and see resources has been changed.

Customize EnvoyProxy Service Annotations

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Service Annotations via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  provider:
    type: Kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      envoyService:
        annotations:
          custom1: svc-annotation1
          custom2: svc-annotation2

EOF

After applying the config, you can get the envoyproxy service, and see annotations has been added.

Customize EnvoyProxy Bootstrap Config

You can customize the EnvoyProxy Bootstrap Config via EnvoyProxy Config like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyProxy
metadata:
  name: custom-proxy-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  bootstrap: |
    admin:
      access_log:
      - name: envoy.access_loggers.file
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.access_loggers.file.v3.FileAccessLog
          path: /dev/null
      address:
        socket_address:
          address: 127.0.0.1
          port_value: 20000
    dynamic_resources:
      ads_config:
        api_type: DELTA_GRPC
        transport_api_version: V3
        grpc_services:
        - envoy_grpc:
            cluster_name: xds_cluster
        set_node_on_first_message_only: true
      lds_config:
        ads: {}
        resource_api_version: V3
      cds_config:
        ads: {}
        resource_api_version: V3
    static_resources:
      clusters:
      - connect_timeout: 10s
        load_assignment:
          cluster_name: xds_cluster
          endpoints:
          - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: envoy-gateway
                    port_value: 18000
        typed_extension_protocol_options:
          "envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions":
             "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.upstreams.http.v3.HttpProtocolOptions"
             "explicit_http_config":
               "http2_protocol_options": {}
        name: xds_cluster
        type: STRICT_DNS
        transport_socket:
          name: envoy.transport_sockets.tls
          typed_config:
            "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.tls.v3.UpstreamTlsContext
            common_tls_context:
              tls_params:
                tls_maximum_protocol_version: TLSv1_3
              tls_certificate_sds_secret_configs:
              - name: xds_certificate
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-certificate.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
              validation_context_sds_secret_config:
                name: xds_trusted_ca
                sds_config:
                  path_config_source:
                    path: "/sds/xds-trusted-ca.json"
                  resource_api_version: V3
    layered_runtime:
      layers:
      - name: runtime-0
        rtds_layer:
          rtds_config:
            ads: {}
            resource_api_version: V3
          name: runtime-0
EOF

You can use egctl translate to get the default xDS Bootstrap configuration used by Envoy Gateway.

After applying the config, the bootstrap config will be overridden by the new config you provided. Any errors in the configuration will be surfaced as status within the GatewayClass resource. You can also validate this configuration using egctl translate.

2.3 - Deployment Mode

One GatewayClass per Envoy Gateway

  • Envoy Gateway can accept a single GatewayClass resource. If you’ve instantiated multiple GatewayClasses, we recommend running multiple Envoy Gateway controllers in different namespaces, linking a GatewayClass to each of them.
  • Support for accepting multiple GatewayClass is being tracked here.

Supported Modes

Kubernetes

  • The current deployment model is - Envoy Gateway watches for resources such a Service & HTTPRoute in all namespaces and creates managed data plane resources such as EnvoyProxy Deployment in the namespace where Envoy Gateway is running.
  • Support for alternate deployment modes is being tracked here.

Multi-tenancy

Kubernetes

  • A tenant is a group within an organization (e.g. a team or department) who shares organizational resources. We recommend each tenant deploy their own Envoy Gateway controller in their respective namespace. Below is an example of deploying Envoy Gateway by the marketing and product teams in separate namespaces.

  • Lets deploy Envoy Gateway in the marketing namespace. We are also setting the controller name to a unique string here gateway.envoyproxy.io/marketing-gatewayclass-controller.

helm install --set config.envoyGateway.gateway.controllerName=gateway.envoyproxy.io/marketing-gatewayclass-controller eg-marketing oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n marketing --create-namespace

Lets create a GatewayClass linked to the marketing team’s Envoy Gateway controller, and as well other resources linked to it, so the backend application operated by this team can be exposed to external clients.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg-marketing
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/marketing-gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: eg
  namespace: marketing
spec:
  gatewayClassName: eg-marketing
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 8080
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: marketing
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: marketing
  labels:
    app: backend
    service: backend
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3000
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: marketing
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend
        version: v1
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: backend
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: marketing
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - "www.marketing.example.com"
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - group: ""
          kind: Service
          name: backend
          port: 3000
          weight: 1
      matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /
EOF

Lets port forward to the generated envoy proxy service in the marketing namespace and send a request to it

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n marketing --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=marketing,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl -n marketing port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8888:8080 &
curl --verbose --header "Host: www.marketing.example.com" http://localhost:8888/get
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:8888...
* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 8888 (#0)
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: www.marketing.example.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.86.0
> Accept: */*
>
Handling connection for 8888
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< date: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 19:19:42 GMT
< content-length: 521
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
{
 "path": "/get",
 "host": "www.marketing.example.com",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.86.0"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
   "15000"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Internal": [
   "true"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-For": [
   "10.1.0.157"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
   "http"
  ],
  "X-Request-Id": [
   "c637977c-458a-48ae-92b3-f8c429849322"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "marketing",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-74888f465f-bcs8f"
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact
  • Lets deploy Envoy Gateway in the product namespace
helm install --set config.envoyGateway.gateway.controllerName=gateway.envoyproxy.io/product-gatewayclass-controller eg-product oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n product --create-namespace

Lets create a GatewayClass linked to the product team’s Envoy Gateway controller, and as well other resources linked to it, so the backend application operated by this team can be exposed to external clients.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg-product
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/product-gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: eg
  namespace: product
spec:
  gatewayClassName: eg-product
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 8080
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: product
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: product
  labels:
    app: backend
    service: backend
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3000
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: product
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend
        version: v1
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: backend
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: product
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - "www.product.example.com"
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - group: ""
          kind: Service
          name: backend
          port: 3000
          weight: 1
      matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /
EOF

Lets port forward to the generated envoy proxy service in the product namespace and send a request to it

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n product --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=product,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl -n product port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8889:8080 &
curl --verbose --header "Host: www.product.example.com" http://localhost:8889/get
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:8889...
* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 8889 (#0)
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: www.product.example.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.86.0
> Accept: */*
> 
Handling connection for 8889
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< date: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 19:20:17 GMT
< content-length: 517
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
< 
{
 "path": "/get",
 "host": "www.product.example.com",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.86.0"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
   "15000"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Internal": [
   "true"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-For": [
   "10.1.0.156"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
   "http"
  ],
  "X-Request-Id": [
   "39196453-2250-4331-b756-54003b2853c2"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "product",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-74888f465f-64fjs"
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact

With the below command you can ensure that you are no able to access the marketing team’s backend exposed using the www.marketing.example.com hostname and the product team’s data plane.

curl --verbose --header "Host: www.marketing.example.com" http://localhost:8889/get
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:8889...
* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 8889 (#0)
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: www.marketing.example.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.86.0
> Accept: */*
>
Handling connection for 8889
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< date: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 19:22:13 GMT
< server: envoy
< content-length: 0
<
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact

2.4 - Envoy Patch Policy

This guide explains the usage of the EnvoyPatchPolicy API. Note: This API is meant for users extremely familiar with Envoy xDS semantics. Also before considering this API for production use cases, please be aware that this API is unstable and the outcome may change across versions. Use at your own risk.

Introduction

The EnvoyPatchPolicy API allows user to modify the output xDS configuration generated by Envoy Gateway intended for EnvoyProxy, using JSON Patch semantics.

Motivation

This API was introduced to allow advanced users to be able to leverage Envoy Proxy functionality not exposed by Envoy Gateway APIs today.

Quickstart

Prerequisites

  • Follow the steps from the Quickstart guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Enable EnvoyPatchPolicy

  • By default EnvoyPatchPolicy][] is disabled. Lets enable it in the EnvoyGateway startup configuration

  • The default installation of Envoy Gateway installs a default EnvoyGateway configuration and attaches it using a ConfigMap. In the next step, we will update this resource to enable EnvoyPatchPolicy.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: envoy-gateway-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
data:
  envoy-gateway.yaml: |
    apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyGateway
    provider:
      type: Kubernetes
    gateway:
      controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
    extensionApis:
      enableEnvoyPatchPolicy: true
EOF
  • After updating the ConfigMap, you will need to restart the envoy-gateway deployment so the configuration kicks in
kubectl rollout restart deployment envoy-gateway -n envoy-gateway-system

Testing

Customize Response

  • Lets use EnvoyProxy’s Local Reply Modification feature to return a custom response back to the client when the status code is 404

  • Lets apply the configuration

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyPatchPolicy
metadata:
  name: custom-response-patch-policy
  namespace: default
spec:
  targetRef:
    group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
    kind: Gateway
    name: eg
    namespace: default
  type: JSONPatch
  jsonPatches:
    - type: "type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener"
      # The listener name is of the form <GatewayNamespace>/<GatewayName>/<GatewayListenerName>
      name: default/eg/http
      operation:
        op: add
        path: "/default_filter_chain/filters/0/typed_config/local_reply_config"
        value:
          mappers:
          - filter:
              status_code_filter:
                comparison:
                 op: EQ
                 value:
                   default_value: 404
                   runtime_key: key_b
            status_code: 406
            body:
              inline_string: "could not find what you are looking for"
EOF
  • Lets edit the HTTPRoute resource from the Quickstart to only match on paths with value /get
kubectl patch httproute backend --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/rules/0/matches/0/path/value",
   "value": "/get",
}]'
  • Lets test it out by specifying a path apart from /get
$ curl --header "Host: www.example.com" http://localhost:8888/find
Handling connection for 8888
could not find what you are looking for

Debugging

Runtime

  • The Status subresource should have information about the status of the resource. Make sure Accepted=True and Programmed=True conditions are set to ensure that the policy has been applied to Envoy Proxy.
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvoyPatchPolicy
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1","kind":"EnvoyPatchPolicy","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"custom-response-patch-policy","namespace":"default"},"spec":{"jsonPatches":[{"name":"default/eg/http","operation":{"op":"add","path":"/default_filter_chain/filters/0/typed_config/local_reply_config","value":{"mappers":[{"body":{"inline_string":"could not find what you are looking for"},"filter":{"status_code_filter":{"comparison":{"op":"EQ","value":{"default_value":404}}}}}]}},"type":"type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener"}],"priority":0,"targetRef":{"group":"gateway.networking.k8s.io","kind":"Gateway","name":"eg","namespace":"default"},"type":"JSONPatch"}}
  creationTimestamp: "2023-07-31T21:47:53Z"
  generation: 1
  name: custom-response-patch-policy
  namespace: default
  resourceVersion: "10265"
  uid: a35bda6e-a0cc-46d7-a63a-cee765174bc3
spec:
  jsonPatches:
  - name: default/eg/http
    operation:
      op: add
      path: /default_filter_chain/filters/0/typed_config/local_reply_config
      value:
        mappers:
        - body:
            inline_string: could not find what you are looking for
          filter:
            status_code_filter:
              comparison:
                op: EQ
                value:
                  default_value: 404
    type: type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.listener.v3.Listener
  priority: 0
  targetRef:
    group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
    kind: Gateway
    name: eg
    namespace: default
  type: JSONPatch
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2023-07-31T21:48:19Z"
    message: EnvoyPatchPolicy has been accepted.
    observedGeneration: 1
    reason: Accepted
    status: "True"
    type: Accepted
  - lastTransitionTime: "2023-07-31T21:48:19Z"
    message: successfully applied patches.
    reason: Programmed
    status: "True"
    type: Programmed

Offline

Caveats

This API will always be an unstable API and the same outcome cannot be garunteed across versions for these reasons

  • The Envoy Proxy API might deprecate and remove API fields
  • Envoy Gateway might alter the xDS translation creating a different xDS output such as changing the name field of resources.

2.5 - Gateway Address

The Gateway API provides an optional Addresses field through which Envoy Gateway can set addresses for Envoy Proxy Service. The currently supported addresses are:

Installation

Install Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

External IPs

Using the addresses in Gateway.Spec.Addresses as the External IPs of Envoy Proxy Service, this will require the address to be of type IPAddress.

Install the GatewayClass, Gateway from quickstart:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/download/v0.5.0/quickstart.yaml -n default

Set the address of the Gateway, the address settings here are for reference only:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/addresses",
   "value": [{
      "type": "IPAddress",
      "value": "1.2.3.4"
   }]
}]'

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway

NAME   CLASS   ADDRESS   PROGRAMMED   AGE
eg     eg      1.2.3.4   True         14m

Verify the Envoy Proxy Service status:

kubectl get service -n envoy-gateway-system

NAME                            TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
envoy-default-eg-64656661       LoadBalancer   10.96.236.219   1.2.3.4       80:31017/TCP   15m
envoy-gateway                   ClusterIP      10.96.192.76    <none>        18000/TCP      15m
envoy-gateway-metrics-service   ClusterIP      10.96.124.73    <none>        8443/TCP       15m

Note: If the Gateway.Spec.Addresses is explicitly set, it will be the only addresses that populates the Gateway status.

2.6 - Gateway API Support

As mentioned in the system design document, Envoy Gateway’s managed data plane is configured dynamically through Kubernetes resources, primarily Gateway API objects. Envoy Gateway supports configuration using the following Gateway API resources.

GatewayClass

A GatewayClass represents a “class” of gateways, i.e. which Gateways should be managed by Envoy Gateway. Envoy Gateway supports managing a single GatewayClass resource that matches its configured controllerName and follows Gateway API guidelines for resolving conflicts when multiple GatewayClasses exist with a matching controllerName.

Note: If specifying GatewayClass parameters reference, it must refer to an EnvoyProxy resource.

Gateway

When a Gateway resource is created that references the managed GatewayClass, Envoy Gateway will create and manage a new Envoy Proxy deployment. Gateway API resources that reference this Gateway will configure this managed Envoy Proxy deployment.

HTTPRoute

An HTTPRoute configures routing of HTTP traffic through one or more Gateways. The following HTTPRoute filters are supported by Envoy Gateway:

  • requestHeaderModifier: RequestHeaderModifiers can be used to modify or add request headers before the request is proxied to its destination.
  • responseHeaderModifier: ResponseHeaderModifiers can be used to modify or add response headers before the response is sent back to the client.
  • requestMirror: RequestMirrors configure destinations where the requests should also be mirrored to. Responses to mirrored requests will be ignored.
  • requestRedirect: RequestRedirects configure policied for how requests that match the HTTPRoute should be modified and then redirected.
  • urlRewrite: UrlRewrites allow for modification of the request’s hostname and path before it is proxied to its destination.
  • extensionRef: ExtensionRefs are used by Envoy Gateway to implement extended filters. Currently, Envoy Gateway supports rate limiting and request authentication filters. For more information about these filters, refer to the rate limiting and request authentication documentation.

Notes:

  • The only BackendRef kind supported by Envoy Gateway is a Service. Routing traffic to other destinations such as arbitrary URLs is not possible.
  • The filters field within HTTPBackendRef is not supported.

TCPRoute

A TCPRoute configures routing of raw TCP traffic through one or more Gateways. Traffic can be forwarded to the desired BackendRefs based on a TCP port number.

Note: A TCPRoute only supports proxying in non-transparent mode, i.e. the backend will see the source IP and port of the Envoy Proxy instance instead of the client.

UDPRoute

A UDPRoute configures routing of raw UDP traffic through one or more Gateways. Traffic can be forwarded to the desired BackendRefs based on a UDP port number.

Note: Similar to TCPRoutes, UDPRoutes only support proxying in non-transparent mode i.e. the backend will see the source IP and port of the Envoy Proxy instance instead of the client.

GRPCRoute

A GRPCRoute configures routing of gRPC requests through one or more Gateways. They offer request matching by hostname, gRPC service, gRPC method, or HTTP/2 Header. Envoy Gateway supports the following filters on GRPCRoutes to provide additional traffic processing:

  • requestHeaderModifier: RequestHeaderModifiers can be used to modify or add request headers before the request is proxied to its destination.
  • responseHeaderModifier: ResponseHeaderModifiers can be used to modify or add response headers before the response is sent back to the client.
  • requestMirror: RequestMirrors configure destinations where the requests should also be mirrored to. Responses to mirrored requests will be ignored.

Notes:

  • The only BackendRef kind supported by Envoy Gateway is a Service. Routing traffic to other destinations such as arbitrary URLs is not currently possible.
  • The filters field within HTTPBackendRef is not supported.

TLSRoute

A TLSRoute configures routing of TCP traffic through one or more Gateways. However, unlike TCPRoutes, TLSRoutes can match against TLS-specific metadata.

ReferenceGrant

A ReferenceGrant is used to allow a resource to reference another resource in a different namespace. Normally an HTTPRoute created in namespace foo is not allowed to reference a Service in namespace bar. A ReferenceGrant permits these types of cross-namespace references. Envoy Gateway supports the following ReferenceGrant use-cases:

  • Allowing an HTTPRoute, GRPCRoute, TLSRoute, UDPRoute, or TCPRoute to reference a Service in a different namespace.
  • Allowing an HTTPRoute’s requestMirror filter to include a BackendRef that references a Service in a different namespace.
  • Allowing a Gateway’s SecretObjectReference to reference a secret in a different namespace.

2.7 - GRPC Routing

The GRPCRoute resource allows users to configure gRPC routing by matching HTTP/2 traffic and forwarding it to backend gRPC servers. To learn more about gRPC routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

Prerequisites

Install Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Installation

Install the gRPC routing example resources:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/grpc-routing.yaml

The manifest installs a GatewayClass, Gateway, a Deployment, a Service, and a GRPCRoute resource. The GatewayClass is a cluster-scoped resource that represents a class of Gateways that can be instantiated.

Note: Envoy Gateway is configured by default to manage a GatewayClass with controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller.

Verification

Check the status of the GatewayClass:

kubectl get gc --selector=example=grpc-routing

The status should reflect “Accepted=True”, indicating Envoy Gateway is managing the GatewayClass.

A Gateway represents configuration of infrastructure. When a Gateway is created, Envoy proxy infrastructure is provisioned or configured by Envoy Gateway. The gatewayClassName defines the name of a GatewayClass used by this Gateway. Check the status of the Gateway:

kubectl get gateways --selector=example=grpc-routing

The status should reflect “Ready=True”, indicating the Envoy proxy infrastructure has been provisioned. The status also provides the address of the Gateway. This address is used later in the guide to test connectivity to proxied backend services.

Check the status of the GRPCRoute:

kubectl get grpcroutes --selector=example=grpc-routing -o yaml

The status for the GRPCRoute should surface “Accepted=True” and a parentRef that references the example Gateway. The example-route matches any traffic for “grpc-example.com” and forwards it to the “yages” Service.

Testing the Configuration

Before testing GRPC routing to the yages backend, get the Gateway’s address.

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/example-gateway -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Test GRPC routing to the yages backend using the grpcurl command.

grpcurl -plaintext -authority=grpc-example.com ${GATEWAY_HOST}:80 yages.Echo/Ping

You should see the below response

{
  "text": "pong"
}

Envoy Gateway also supports gRPC-Web requests for this configuration. The below curl command can be used to send a grpc-Web request with over HTTP/2. You should receive the same response seen in the previous command.

curl --http2-prior-knowledge -s ${GATEWAY_HOST}:80/yages.Echo/Ping -H 'Host: grpc-example.com'   -H 'Content-Type: application/grpc-web-text'   -H 'Accept: application/grpc-web-text' -XPOST -d'AAAAAAA=' | base64 -d

GRPCRoute Match

The matches field can be used to restrict the route to a specific set of requests based on GRPC’s service and/or method names. It supports two match types: Exact and RegularExpression.

Exact

Exact match is the default match type.

The following example shows how to match a request based on the service and method names for grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection/ServerReflectionInfo, as well as a match for all services with a method name Ping which matches yages.Echo/Ping in our deployment.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: GRPCRoute
metadata:
  name: yages
  labels:
    example: grpc-routing
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: example-gateway
  hostnames:
    - "grpc-example.com"
  rules:
    - matches:
      - method:
          method: ServerReflectionInfo
          service: grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection
      - method:
          method: Ping
      backendRefs:
        - group: ""
          kind: Service
          name: yages
          port: 9000
          weight: 1
EOF

Verify the GRPCRoute status:

kubectl get grpcroutes --selector=example=grpc-routing -o yaml

Test GRPC routing to the yages backend using the grpcurl command.

grpcurl -plaintext -authority=grpc-example.com ${GATEWAY_HOST}:80 yages.Echo/Ping

RegularExpression

The following example shows how to match a request based on the service and method names with match type RegularExpression. It matches all the services and methods with pattern /.*.Echo/Pin.+, which matches yages.Echo/Ping in our deployment.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: GRPCRoute
metadata:
  name: yages
  labels:
    example: grpc-routing
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: example-gateway
  hostnames:
    - "grpc-example.com"
  rules:
    - matches:
      - method:
          method: ServerReflectionInfo
          service: grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection
      - method:
          method: "Pin.+"
          service: ".*.Echo"
          type: RegularExpression
      backendRefs:
        - group: ""
          kind: Service
          name: yages
          port: 9000
          weight: 1
EOF

Verify the GRPCRoute status:

kubectl get grpcroutes --selector=example=grpc-routing -o yaml

Test GRPC routing to the yages backend using the grpcurl command.

grpcurl -plaintext -authority=grpc-example.com ${GATEWAY_HOST}:80 yages.Echo/Ping

2.8 - HTTP Redirects

The HTTPRoute resource can issue redirects to clients or rewrite paths sent upstream using filters. Note that HTTPRoute rules cannot use both filter types at once. Currently, Envoy Gateway only supports core HTTPRoute filters which consist of RequestRedirect and RequestHeaderModifier at the time of this writing. To learn more about HTTP routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Secure Gateways to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTPS.

Redirects

Redirects return HTTP 3XX responses to a client, instructing it to retrieve a different resource. A RequestRedirect filter instructs Gateways to emit a redirect response to requests that match the rule. For example, to issue a permanent redirect (301) from HTTP to HTTPS, configure requestRedirect.statusCode=301 and requestRedirect.scheme="https":

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-to-https-filter-redirect
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - redirect.example
  rules:
    - filters:
      - type: RequestRedirect
        requestRedirect:
          scheme: https
          statusCode: 301
          hostname: www.example.com
          port: 443
      backendRefs:
      - name: backend
        port: 3000
EOF

Note: 301 (default) and 302 are the only supported statusCodes.

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-to-https-filter-redirect -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying redirect.example/get should result in a 301 response from the example Gateway and redirecting to the configured redirect hostname.

$ curl -L -vvv --header "Host: redirect.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
...
< HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
< location: https://www.example.com/get
...

If you followed the steps in the Secure Gateways guide, you should be able to curl the redirect location.

Path Redirects

Path redirects use an HTTP Path Modifier to replace either entire paths or path prefixes. For example, the HTTPRoute below will issue a 302 redirect to all path.redirect.example requests whose path begins with /get to /status/200.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-filter-path-redirect
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - path.redirect.example
  rules:
    - matches:
      - path:
          type: PathPrefix
          value: /get
      filters:
      - type: RequestRedirect
        requestRedirect:
          path:
            type: ReplaceFullPath
            replaceFullPath: /status/200
          statusCode: 302
      backendRefs:
      - name: backend
        port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-filter-path-redirect -o yaml

Querying path.redirect.example should result in a 302 response from the example Gateway and a redirect location containing the configured redirect path.

Query the path.redirect.example host:

curl -vvv --header "Host: path.redirect.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"

You should receive a 302 with a redirect location of http://path.redirect.example/status/200.

2.9 - HTTP Request Headers

The HTTPRoute resource can modify the headers of a request before forwarding it to the upstream service. HTTPRoute rules cannot use both filter types at once. Currently, Envoy Gateway only supports core HTTPRoute filters which consist of RequestRedirect and RequestHeaderModifier at the time of this writing. To learn more about HTTP routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

A RequestHeaderModifier filter instructs Gateways to modify the headers in requests that match the rule before forwarding the request upstream. Note that the RequestHeaderModifier filter will only modify headers before the request is sent from Envoy to the upstream service and will not affect response headers returned to the downstream client.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Adding Request Headers

The RequestHeaderModifier filter can add new headers to a request before it is sent to the upstream. If the request does not have the header configured by the filter, then that header will be added to the request. If the request already has the header configured by the filter, then the value of the header in the filter will be appended to the value of the header in the request.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: RequestHeaderModifier
      requestHeaderModifier:
        add:
        - name: "add-header"
          value: "foo"
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-headers -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the upstream example app received the header add-header with the value: something,foo

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" --header "add-header: something"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
...
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "Add-Header": [
   "something",
   "foo"
  ],
...

Setting Request Headers

Setting headers is similar to adding headers. If the request does not have the header configured by the filter, then it will be added, but unlike adding request headers which will append the value of the header if the request already contains it, setting a header will cause the value to be replaced by the value configured in the filter.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: RequestHeaderModifier
      requestHeaderModifier:
        set:
        - name: "set-header"
          value: "foo"
EOF

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the upstream example app received the header add-header with the original value something replaced by foo.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" --header "set-header: something"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "Set-Header": [
   "foo"
  ],
...

Removing Request Headers

Headers can be removed from a request by simply supplying a list of header names.

Setting headers is similar to adding headers. If the request does not have the header configured by the filter, then it will be added, but unlike adding request headers which will append the value of the header if the request already contains it, setting a header will cause the value to be replaced by the value configured in the filter.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: RequestHeaderModifier
      requestHeaderModifier:
        remove:
        - "remove-header"
EOF

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the upstream example app received the header add-header, but the header remove-header that was sent by curl was removed before the upstream received the request.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" --header "add-header: something" --header "remove-header: foo"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<

 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "Add-Header": [
   "something"
  ],
...

Combining Filters

Headers can be added/set/removed in a single filter on the same HTTPRoute and they will all perform as expected

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: RequestHeaderModifier
      requestHeaderModifier:
        add:
        - name: "add-header-1"
          value: "foo"
        set:
        - name: "set-header-1"
          value: "bar"
        remove:
        - "removed-header"
EOF

2.10 - HTTP Response Headers

The HTTPRoute resource can modify the headers of a response before responding it to the downstream service. To learn more about HTTP routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

A ResponseHeaderModifier filter instructs Gateways to modify the headers in responses that match the rule before responding to the downstream. Note that the ResponseHeaderModifier filter will only modify headers before the response is returned from Envoy to the downstream client and will not affect request headers forwarding to the upstream service.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Adding Response Headers

The ResponseHeaderModifier filter can add new headers to a response before it is sent to the upstream. If the response does not have the header configured by the filter, then that header will be added to the response. If the response already has the header configured by the filter, then the value of the header in the filter will be appended to the value of the header in the response.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: ResponseHeaderModifier
      responseHeaderModifier:
        add:
        - name: "add-header"
          value: "foo"
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-headers -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the downstream client received the header add-header with the value: foo

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" -H 'X-Echo-Set-Header: X-Foo: value1'
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> X-Echo-Set-Header: X-Foo: value1
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
< x-foo: value1
< add-header: foo
<
...
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "X-Echo-Set-Header": [
   "X-Foo: value1"
  ]
...

Setting Response Headers

Setting headers is similar to adding headers. If the response does not have the header configured by the filter, then it will be added, but unlike adding response headers which will append the value of the header if the response already contains it, setting a header will cause the value to be replaced by the value configured in the filter.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ResponseHeaderModifier
      responseHeaderModifier:
        set:
        - name: "set-header"
          value: "foo"
EOF

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the downstream client received the header set-header with the original value value1 replaced by foo.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" -H 'X-Echo-Set-Header: set-header: value1'
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> X-Echo-Set-Header: set-header: value1
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
< set-header: foo
<
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "X-Echo-Set-Header": [
    "set-header": value1"
  ]
...

Removing Response Headers

Headers can be removed from a response by simply supplying a list of header names.

Setting headers is similar to adding headers. If the response does not have the header configured by the filter, then it will be added, but unlike adding response headers which will append the value of the header if the response already contains it, setting a header will cause the value to be replaced by the value configured in the filter.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: ResponseHeaderModifier
      responseHeaderModifier:
        remove:
        - "remove-header"
EOF

Querying headers.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate that the header remove-header that was sent by curl was removed before the upstream received the response.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: headers.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get" -H 'X-Echo-Set-Header: remove-header: value1'
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: headers.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> X-Echo-Set-Header: remove-header: value1
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<

 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "X-Echo-Set-Header": [
    "remove-header": value1"
  ]
...

Combining Filters

Headers can be added/set/removed in a single filter on the same HTTPRoute and they will all perform as expected

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - headers.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - type: ResponseHeaderModifier
      responseHeaderModifier:
        add:
        - name: "add-header-1"
          value: "foo"
        set:
        - name: "set-header-1"
          value: "bar"
        remove:
        - "removed-header"
EOF

2.11 - HTTP Routing

The HTTPRoute resource allows users to configure HTTP routing by matching HTTP traffic and forwarding it to Kubernetes backends. Currently, the only supported backend supported by Envoy Gateway is a Service resource. This guide shows how to route traffic based on host, header, and path fields and forward the traffic to different Kubernetes Services. To learn more about HTTP routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

Prerequisites

Install Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Installation

Install the HTTP routing example resources:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/http-routing.yaml

The manifest installs a GatewayClass, Gateway, four Deployments, four Services, and three HTTPRoute resources. The GatewayClass is a cluster-scoped resource that represents a class of Gateways that can be instantiated.

Note: Envoy Gateway is configured by default to manage a GatewayClass with controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller.

Verification

Check the status of the GatewayClass:

kubectl get gc --selector=example=http-routing

The status should reflect “Accepted=True”, indicating Envoy Gateway is managing the GatewayClass.

A Gateway represents configuration of infrastructure. When a Gateway is created, Envoy proxy infrastructure is provisioned or configured by Envoy Gateway. The gatewayClassName defines the name of a GatewayClass used by this Gateway. Check the status of the Gateway:

kubectl get gateways --selector=example=http-routing

The status should reflect “Ready=True”, indicating the Envoy proxy infrastructure has been provisioned. The status also provides the address of the Gateway. This address is used later in the guide to test connectivity to proxied backend services.

The three HTTPRoute resources create routing rules on the Gateway. In order to receive traffic from a Gateway, an HTTPRoute must be configured with parentRefs which reference the parent Gateway(s) that it should be attached to. An HTTPRoute can match against a single set of hostnames. These hostnames are matched before any other matching within the HTTPRoute takes place. Since example.com, foo.example.com, and bar.example.com are separate hosts with different routing requirements, each is deployed as its own HTTPRoute - example-route, ``foo-route, and bar-route.

Check the status of the HTTPRoutes:

kubectl get httproutes --selector=example=http-routing -o yaml

The status for each HTTPRoute should surface “Accepted=True” and a parentRef that references the example Gateway. The example-route matches any traffic for “example.com” and forwards it to the “example-svc” Service.

Testing the Configuration

Before testing HTTP routing to the example-svc backend, get the Gateway’s address.

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/example-gateway -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Test HTTP routing to the example-svc backend.

curl -vvv --header "Host: example.com" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/"

A 200 status code should be returned and the body should include "pod": "example-backend-*" indicating the traffic was routed to the example backend service. If you change the hostname to a hostname not represented in any of the HTTPRoutes, e.g. “www.example.com”, the HTTP traffic will not be routed and a 404 should be returned.

The foo-route matches any traffic for foo.example.com and applies its routing rules to forward the traffic to the “foo-svc” Service. Since there is only one path prefix match for /login, only foo.example.com/login/* traffic will be forwarded. Test HTTP routing to the foo-svc backend.

curl -vvv --header "Host: foo.example.com" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/login"

A 200 status code should be returned and the body should include "pod": "foo-backend-*" indicating the traffic was routed to the foo backend service. Traffic to any other paths that do not begin with /login will not be matched by this HTTPRoute. Test this by removing /login from the request.

curl -vvv --header "Host: foo.example.com" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/"

The HTTP traffic will not be routed and a 404 should be returned.

Similarly, the bar-route HTTPRoute matches traffic for bar.example.com. All traffic for this hostname will be evaluated against the routing rules. The most specific match will take precedence which means that any traffic with the env:canary header will be forwarded to bar-svc-canary and if the header is missing or not canary then it’ll be forwarded to bar-svc. Test HTTP routing to the bar-svc backend.

curl -vvv --header "Host: bar.example.com" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/"

A 200 status code should be returned and the body should include "pod": "bar-backend-*" indicating the traffic was routed to the foo backend service.

Test HTTP routing to the bar-canary-svc backend by adding the env: canary header to the request.

curl -vvv --header "Host: bar.example.com" --header "env: canary" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/"

A 200 status code should be returned and the body should include "pod": "bar-canary-backend-*" indicating the traffic was routed to the foo backend service.

2.12 - HTTP URL Rewrite

HTTPURLRewriteFilter defines a filter that modifies a request during forwarding. At most one of these filters may be used on a Route rule. This MUST NOT be used on the same Route rule as a HTTPRequestRedirect filter.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Rewrite URL Prefix Path

You can configure to rewrite the prefix in the url like below. In this example, any curls to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/xxx will be rewritten to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/replace/xxx.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-filter-url-rewrite
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - path.rewrite.example
  rules:
    - matches:
      - path:
          value: "/get"
      filters:
      - type: URLRewrite
        urlRewrite:
          path:
            type: ReplacePrefixMatch
            replacePrefixMatch: /replace
      backendRefs:
      - name: backend
        port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-filter-url-rewrite -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/origin/path should rewrite to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/replace/origin/path.

$ curl -L -vvv --header "Host: path.rewrite.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/origin/path"
...
> GET /get/origin/path HTTP/1.1
> Host: path.rewrite.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.85.0
> Accept: */*
>

< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< date: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:03:28 GMT
< content-length: 503
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
{
 "path": "/replace/origin/path",
 "host": "path.rewrite.example",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.85.0"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
   "15000"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Original-Path": [
   "/get/origin/path"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
   "http"
  ],
  "X-Request-Id": [
   "fd84b842-9937-4fb5-83c7-61470d854b90"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-6fdd4b9bd8-8vlc5"
...

You can see that the X-Envoy-Original-Path is /get/origin/path, but the actual path is /replace/origin/path.

Rewrite URL Full Path

You can configure to rewrite the fullpath in the url like below. In this example, any request sent to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/origin/path/xxxx will be rewritten to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/force/replace/fullpath.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-filter-url-rewrite
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - path.rewrite.example
  rules:
    - matches:
      - path:
          type: PathPrefix
          value: "/get/origin/path"
      filters:
      - type: URLRewrite
        urlRewrite:
          path:
            type: ReplaceFullPath
            replaceFullPath: /force/replace/fullpath
      backendRefs:
      - name: backend
        port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-filter-url-rewrite -o yaml

Querying http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/origin/path/extra should rewrite the request to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/force/replace/fullpath.

$ curl -L -vvv --header "Host: path.rewrite.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get/origin/path/extra"
...
> GET /get/origin/path/extra HTTP/1.1
> Host: path.rewrite.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.85.0
> Accept: */*
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< date: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:09:31 GMT
< content-length: 512
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
{
 "path": "/force/replace/fullpath",
 "host": "path.rewrite.example",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.85.0"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
   "15000"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Original-Path": [
   "/get/origin/path/extra"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
   "http"
  ],
  "X-Request-Id": [
   "8ab774d6-9ffa-4faa-abbb-f45b0db00895"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-6fdd4b9bd8-8vlc5"
...

You can see that the X-Envoy-Original-Path is /get/origin/path/extra, but the actual path is /force/replace/fullpath.

Rewrite Host Name

You can configure to rewrite the hostname like below. In this example, any requests sent to http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get with --header "Host: path.rewrite.example" will rewrite host into envoygateway.io.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-filter-url-rewrite
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
  hostnames:
    - path.rewrite.example
  rules:
    - matches:
      - path:
          type: PathPrefix
          value: "/get"
      filters:
      - type: URLRewrite
        urlRewrite:
          hostname: "envoygateway.io"
      backendRefs:
      - name: backend
        port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-filter-url-rewrite -o yaml

Querying http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get with --header "Host: path.rewrite.example" will rewrite host into envoygateway.io.

$ curl -L -vvv --header "Host: path.rewrite.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: path.rewrite.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.85.0
> Accept: */*
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< date: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:15:15 GMT
< content-length: 481
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
{
 "path": "/get",
 "host": "envoygateway.io",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.85.0"
  ],
  "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
   "15000"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Host": [
   "path.rewrite.example"
  ],
  "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
   "http"
  ],
  "X-Request-Id": [
   "39aa447c-97b9-45a3-a675-9fb266ab1af0"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-6fdd4b9bd8-8vlc5"
...

You can see that the X-Forwarded-Host is path.rewrite.example, but the actual host is envoygateway.io.

2.13 - HTTPRoute Request Mirroring

The HTTPRoute resource allows one or more backendRefs to be provided. Requests will be routed to these upstreams. It is possible to divide the traffic between these backends using Traffic Splitting, but it is also possible to mirror requests to another Service instead. Request mirroring is accomplished using Gateway API’s HTTPRequestMirrorFilter on the HTTPRoute.

When requests are made to a HTTPRoute that uses a HTTPRequestMirrorFilter, the response will never come from the backendRef defined in the filter. Responses from the mirror backendRef are always ignored.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Mirroring the Traffic

Next, create a new Deployment and Service to mirror requests to. The following example will use a second instance of the application deployed in the quickstart.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: backend-2
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: backend-2
  labels:
    app: backend-2
    service: backend-2
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3000
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend-2
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend-2
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend-2
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend-2
        version: v1
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: backend-2
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend-2
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
EOF

Then create an HTTPRoute that uses a HTTPRequestMirrorFilter to send requests to the original service from the quickstart, and mirror request to the service that was just deployed.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-mirror
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          kind: Service
          name: backend-2
          port: 3000
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-mirror -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying backends.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate which pod handled the request. There is only one pod in the deployment for the example app from the quickstart, so it will be the same on all subsequent requests.

$ curl -v --header "Host: backends.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: backends.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
...
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-79665566f5-s589f"
...

Check the logs of the pods and you will see that the original deployment and the new deployment each got a request:

$ kubectl logs deploy/backend && kubectl logs deploy/backend-2
...
Starting server, listening on port 3000 (http)
Echoing back request made to /get to client (10.42.0.10:41566)
Starting server, listening on port 3000 (http)
Echoing back request made to /get to client (10.42.0.10:45096)

Multiple BackendRefs

When an HTTPRoute has multiple backendRefs and an HTTPRequestMirrorFilter, traffic splitting will still behave the same as it normally would for the main backendRefs while the backendRef of the HTTPRequestMirrorFilter will continue receiving mirrored copies of the incoming requests.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-mirror
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          kind: Service
          name: backend-2
          port: 3000
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend-3
      port: 3000
EOF

Multiple HTTPRequestMirrorFilters

Multiple HTTPRequestMirrorFilters are not supported on the same HTTPRoute rule. When attempting to do so, the admission webhook will reject the configuration.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-mirror
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          kind: Service
          name: backend-2
          port: 3000
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          kind: Service
          name: backend-3
          port: 3000
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF
Error from server: error when creating "STDIN": admission webhook "validate.gateway.networking.k8s.io" denied the request: spec.rules[0].filters: Invalid value: "RequestMirror": cannot be used multiple times in the same rule

2.14 - HTTPRoute Traffic Splitting

The HTTPRoute resource allows one or more backendRefs to be provided. Requests will be routed to these upstreams if they match the rules of the HTTPRoute. If an invalid backendRef is configured, then HTTP responses will be returned with status code 500 for all requests that would have been sent to that backend.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Single backendRef

When a single backendRef is configured in a HTTPRoute, it will receive 100% of the traffic.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-headers -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Querying backends.example/get should result in a 200 response from the example Gateway and the output from the example app should indicate which pod handled the request. There is only one pod in the deployment for the example app from the quickstart, so it will be the same on all subsequent requests.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: backends.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: backends.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
...
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-79665566f5-s589f"
...

Multiple backendRefs

If multiple backendRefs are configured, then traffic will be split between the backendRefs equally unless a weight is configured.

First, create a second instance of the example app from the quickstart:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: backend-2
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: backend-2
  labels:
    app: backend-2
    service: backend-2
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3000
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend-2
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend-2
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend-2
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend-2
        version: v1
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: backend-2
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend-2
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
EOF

Then create an HTTPRoute that uses both the app from the quickstart and the second instance that was just created

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend-2
      port: 3000
EOF

Querying backends.example/get should result in 200 responses from the example Gateway and the output from the example app that indicates which pod handled the request should switch between the first pod and the second one from the new deployment on subsequent requests.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: backends.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
...
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: backends.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
> add-header: something
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< content-type: application/json
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< content-length: 474
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
< server: envoy
<
...
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "",
 "pod": "backend-75bcd4c969-lsxpz"
...

Weighted backendRefs

If multiple backendRefs are configured and an un-even traffic split between the backends is desired, then the weight field can be used to control the weight of requests to each backend. If weight is not configured for a backendRef it is assumed to be 1.

The weight field in a backendRef controls the distribution of the traffic split. The proportion of requests to a single backendRef is calculated by dividing its weight by the sum of all backendRef weights in the HTTPRoute. The weight is not a percentage and the sum of all weights does not need to add up to 100.

The HTTPRoute below will configure the gateway to send 80% of the traffic to the backend service, and 20% to the backend-2 service.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 8
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend-2
      port: 3000
      weight: 2
EOF

Invalid backendRefs

backendRefs can be considered invalid for the following reasons:

  • The group field is configured to something other than "". Currently, only the core API group (specified by omitting the group field or setting it to an empty string) is supported
  • The kind field is configured to anything other than Service. Envoy Gateway currently only supports Kubernetes Service backendRefs
  • The backendRef configures a service with a namespace not permitted by any existing ReferenceGrants
  • The port field is not configured or is configured to a port that does not exist on the Service
  • The named Service configured by the backendRef cannot be found

Modifying the above example to make the backend-2 backendRef invalid by using a port that does not exist on the Service will result in 80% of the traffic being sent to the backend service, and 20% of the traffic receiving an HTTP response with status code 500.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-headers
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - backends.example
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 8
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend-2
      port: 9000
      weight: 2
EOF

Querying backends.example/get should result in 200 responses 80% of the time, and 500 responses 20% of the time.

$ curl -vvv --header "Host: backends.example" "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get"
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
> Host: backends.example
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Accept: */*
>
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error
< server: envoy
< content-length: 0
<

2.15 - Proxy Observability

Envoy Gateway provides observability for the ControlPlane and the underlying EnvoyProxy instances. This guide show you how to config proxy observability, includes metrics, logs, and traces.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

FluentBit is used to collect logs from the EnvoyProxy instances and forward them to Loki. Install FluentBit:

helm repo add fluent https://fluent.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install fluent-bit fluent/fluent-bit -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/fluent-bit/helm-values.yaml -n monitoring --create-namespace --version 0.30.4

Loki is used to store logs. Install Loki:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/loki/loki.yaml -n monitoring 

Tempo is used to store traces. Install Tempo:

helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install tempo grafana/tempo -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/tempo/helm-values.yaml -n monitoring --create-namespace --version 1.3.1

OpenTelemetry Collector offers a vendor-agnostic implementation of how to receive, process and export telemetry data. Install OTel-Collector:

helm repo add open-telemetry https://open-telemetry.github.io/opentelemetry-helm-charts
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install otel-collector open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/otel-collector/helm-values.yaml -n monitoring --create-namespace --version 0.60.0

Expose endpoints:

LOKI_IP=$(kubectl get svc loki -n monitoring -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
TEMPO_IP=$(kubectl get svc tempo -n monitoring -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')

Metrics

By default, Envoy Gateway doesn’t expose metrics of the EnvoyProxy instances. You can enable metrics by setting the telemetry.metrics.prometheus in the EnvoyProxy CRD.

Expose prometheus metrics endpoints:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/kubernetes/metric/prometheus.yaml

Verify metrics:

export ENVOY_POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pod -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl port-forward pod/$ENVOY_POD_NAME -n envoy-gateway-system 19001:19001

# check metrics 
curl localhost:19001/stats/prometheus  | grep "default/backend/rule/0/match/0-www"

Envoy Gateway can send metrics to OpenTelemetry Sink. Send metrics to OTel-Collector:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/kubernetes/metric/otel-sink.yaml

Verify OTel-Collector metrics:

export OTEL_POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pod -n monitoring --selector=app.kubernetes.io/name=opentelemetry-collector -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl port-forward pod/$OTEL_POD_NAME -n monitoring 19001:19001

# check metrics 
curl localhost:19001/metrics  | grep "default/backend/rule/0/match/0-www"

Logs

By default, Envoy Gateway send logs to stdout in default text format. Verify logs from loki:

curl -s "http://$LOKI_IP:3100/loki/api/v1/query_range" --data-urlencode "query={job=\"fluentbit\"}" | jq '.data.result[0].values'

If you want to disable it, set the telemetry.accesslog.disable to true in the EnvoyProxy CRD.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/kubernetes/accesslog/disable-accesslog.yaml

Envoy Gateway can send logs to OpenTelemetry Sink.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/kubernetes/accesslog/otel-accesslog.yaml

Verify logs from loki:

curl -s "http://$LOKI_IP:3100/loki/api/v1/query_range" --data-urlencode "query={exporter=\"OTLP\"}" | jq '.data.result[0].values'

Traces

By default, Envoy Gateway doesn’t send traces to OpenTelemetry Sink. You can enable traces by setting the telemetry.tracing in the EnvoyProxy CRD.

Note: Envoy Gateway use 100% sample rate, which means all requests will be traced. This may cause performance issues.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/latest/examples/kubernetes/tracing/default.yaml

Verify traces from tempo:

curl -s "http://$TEMPO_IP:3100/api/search" --data-urlencode "q={ component=envoy }" | jq .traces
curl -s "http://$TEMPO_IP:3100/api/traces/<trace_id>" | jq

2.16 - Rate Limit

Rate limit is a feature that allows the user to limit the number of incoming requests to a predefined value based on attributes within the traffic flow.

Here are some reasons why you may want to implements Rate limits

  • To prevent malicious activity such as DDoS attacks.
  • To prevent applications and its resources (such as a database) from getting overloaded.
  • To create API limits based on user entitlements.

Envoy Gateway supports Global rate limiting, where the rate limit is common across all the instances of Envoy proxies where its applied i.e. if the data plane has 2 replicas of Envoy running, and the rate limit is 10 requests/second, this limit is common and will be hit if 5 requests pass through the first replica and 5 requests pass through the second replica within the same second.

Envoy Gateway introduces a new CRD called RateLimitFilter that allows the user to describe their rate limit intent. This instantiated resource can be linked to a HTTPRoute resource using an ExtensionRef filter.

Prerequisites

Install Envoy Gateway

  • Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Install Redis

  • The global rate limit feature is based on Envoy Ratelimit which requires a Redis instance as its caching layer. Lets install a Redis deployment in the redis-system namespce.
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
kind: Namespace
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: redis-system 
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: redis
  namespace: redis-system
  labels:
    app: redis
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: redis
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: redis
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: redis:6.0.6
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        name: redis
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu: 1500m
            memory: 512Mi
          requests:
            cpu: 200m
            memory: 256Mi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: redis
  namespace: redis-system 
  labels:
    app: redis
  annotations:
spec:
  ports:
  - name: redis
    port: 6379
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 6379
  selector:
    app: redis
---

EOF

Enable Global Rate limit in Envoy Gateway

  • The default installation of Envoy Gateway installs a default EnvoyGateway configuration and attaches it using a ConfigMap. In the next step, we will update this resource to enable rate limit in Envoy Gateway as well as configure the URL for the Redis instance used for Global rate limiting.
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: envoy-gateway-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
data:
  envoy-gateway.yaml: |
    apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyGateway
    provider:
      type: Kubernetes
    gateway:
      controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
    rateLimit:
      backend:
        type: Redis
        redis:
          url: redis.redis-system.svc.cluster.local:6379
EOF
  • After updating the ConfigMap, you will need to restart the envoy-gateway deployment so the configuration kicks in
kubectl rollout restart deployment envoy-gateway -n envoy-gateway-system

Rate Limit Specific User

Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer to limit a specific user by matching on a custom x-user-id header with a value set to one.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-specific-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - name: x-user-id
          value: one
      limit:
        requests: 3
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-ratelimit
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - ratelimit.example 
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-specific-user
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF

The HTTPRoute status should indicate that it has been accepted and is bound to the example Gateway.

kubectl get httproute/http-ratelimit -o yaml

Get the Gateway’s address:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Lets query ratelimit.example/get 4 times. We should receive a 200 response from the example Gateway for the first 3 requests and then receive a 429 status code for the 4th request since the limit is set at 3 requests/Hour for the request which contains the header x-user-id and value one.

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "x-user-id: one" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:31 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 4
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:32 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 2
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:33 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:34 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

You should be able to send requests with the x-user-id header and a different value and receive successful responses from the server.

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "x-user-id: two" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:34:36 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:34:37 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:34:38 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:34:39 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

Rate Limit Distinct Users

Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer to limit distinct users who can be differentiated based on the value in the x-user-id header. Here, user one (recognised from the traffic flow using the header x-user-id and value one) will be rate limited at 3 requests/hour and so will user two (recognised from the traffic flow using the header x-user-id and value two).

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-distinct-users
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - type: Distinct
          name: x-user-id
      limit:
        requests: 3
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-ratelimit
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - ratelimit.example 
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-distinct-users
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF

Lets run the same command again with the header x-user-id and value one set in the request. We should the first 3 requests succeeding and the 4th request being rate limited.

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "x-user-id: one" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:31 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 4
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:32 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 2
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:33 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:34 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

You should see the same behavior when the value for header x-user-id is set to two and 4 requests are sent.

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "x-user-id: two" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:31 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 4
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:32 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 2
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:33 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:34 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

Rate Limit All Requests

This example shows you how to rate limit all requests matching the HTTPRoute rule at 3 requests/Hour by leaving the clientSelectors field unset.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-all-requests
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - limit:
        requests: 3
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-ratelimit
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - ratelimit.example 
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-all-requests
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF
for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:31 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 4
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:32 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 2
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:33 GMT
content-length: 460
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:33:34 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

Rate Limit Client IP Addresses

Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer to limit distinct users who can be differentiated based on their IP address (also reflected in the X-Forwarded-For header).

Note: EG supports two kinds of rate limit for the IP address: exact and distinct.

  • exact means that all IP addresses within the specified Source IP CIDR share the same rate limit bucket.
  • distinct means that each IP address within the specified Source IP CIDR has its own rate limit bucket.
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-all-ips
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - sourceCIDR: 
          value: 0.0.0.0/0
          type: distinct
      limit:
        requests: 3
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-ratelimit
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - ratelimit.example 
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /
    filters:
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-all-ips
    backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
EOF
for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/get ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:28:45 GMT
content-length: 512
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:28:46 GMT
content-length: 512
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:28:48 GMT
content-length: 512
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:28:48 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

Rate Limit Jwt Claims

Here is an example of a rate limit implemented by the application developer to limit distinct users who can be differentiated based on the value of the Jwt claims carried.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: AuthenticationFilter
metadata:
  name: jwt-example
spec:
  type: JWT
  jwtProviders:
  - name: example
    remoteJWKS:
      uri: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/main/examples/kubernetes/jwt/jwks.json
    claimToHeaders:
    - claim: name
      header: x-claim-name
---
apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: RateLimitFilter
metadata:
  name: ratelimit-specific-user
spec:
  type: Global
  global:
    rules:
    - clientSelectors:
      - headers:
        - name: x-claim-name
          value: John Doe
      limit:
        requests: 3
        unit: Hour
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: eg
  hostnames:
  - ratelimit.example
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - group: ""
      kind: Service
      name: backend
      port: 3000
      weight: 1
    filters:
    - extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: AuthenticationFilter
        name: jwt-example
      type: ExtensionRef
    - type: ExtensionRef
      extensionRef:
        group: gateway.envoyproxy.io
        kind: RateLimitFilter
        name: ratelimit-specific-user
    matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /foo
EOF

Get the JWT used for testing request authentication:

TOKEN=$(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/main/examples/kubernetes/authn/test.jwt -s) && echo "$TOKEN" | cut -d '.' -f2 - | base64 --decode
TOKEN1=$(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/main/examples/kubernetes/authn/with-different-claim.jwt -s) && echo "$TOKEN1" | cut -d '.' -f2 - | base64 --decode

Rate limit by carrying TOKEN

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/foo ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:25 GMT
content-length: 561
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:26 GMT
content-length: 561
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:27 GMT
content-length: 561
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy


HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
x-envoy-ratelimited: true
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:28 GMT
server: envoy
transfer-encoding: chunked

No Rate Limit by carrying TOKEN1

for i in {1..4}; do curl -I --header "Host: ratelimit.example" --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN1" http://${GATEWAY_HOST}/foo ; sleep 1; done
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:02:34 GMT
content-length: 556
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:02:35 GMT
content-length: 556
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:02:36 GMT
content-length: 556
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 1
server: envoy

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
x-content-type-options: nosniff
date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:02:37 GMT
content-length: 556
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 0
server: envoy

(Optional) Editing Kubernetes Resources settings for the Rate Limit Service

  • The default installation of Envoy Gateway installs a default EnvoyGateway configuration and provides the initial rate limit kubernetes resources settings. such as replicas is 1, requests resources cpu is 100m, memory is 512Mi. the others like container image, securityContext, env and pod annotations and securityContext can be modified by modifying the ConfigMap.

  • tls.certificateRef set the client certificate for redis server TLS connections.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: envoy-gateway-config
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
data:
  envoy-gateway.yaml: |
    apiVersion: config.gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
    kind: EnvoyGateway
    provider:
      type: Kubernetes
      kubernetes:
        rateLimitDeployment:
          replicas: 1
          container:
            image: envoyproxy/ratelimit:master
            env:
            - name: CACHE_KEY_PREFIX
              value: "eg:rl:"
            resources:
              requests:
                cpu: 100m
                memory: 512Mi
            securityContext:
              runAsUser: 2000
              allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          pod:
            annotations:
              key1: val1
              key2: val2
            securityContext:
              runAsUser: 1000
              runAsGroup: 3000
              fsGroup: 2000
              fsGroupChangePolicy: "OnRootMismatch"
    gateway:
      controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
    rateLimit:
      backend:
        type: Redis
        redis:
          url: redis.redis-system.svc.cluster.local:6379
          tls:
            certificateRef:
              name: ratelimit-cert
EOF
  • After updating the ConfigMap, you will need to restart the envoy-gateway deployment so the configuration kicks in
kubectl rollout restart deployment envoy-gateway -n envoy-gateway-system

2.17 - Request Authentication

This guide provides instructions for configuring JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication. JWT authentication checks if an incoming request has a valid JWT before routing the request to a backend service. Currently, Envoy Gateway only supports validating a JWT from an HTTP header, e.g. Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Configuration

Allow requests with a valid JWT by creating an AuthenticationFilter and referencing it from the example HTTPRoute.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/authn/jwt.yaml

The HTTPRoute is now updated to authenticate requests for /foo and allow unauthenticated requests to /bar. The /foo route rule references an AuthenticationFilter that provides the JWT authentication configuration.

Verify the HTTPRoute configuration and status:

kubectl get httproute/backend -o yaml

The AuthenticationFilter is configured for JWT authentication and uses a single JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) provider for authenticating the JWT.

Verify the AuthenticationFilter configuration:

kubectl get authenticationfilter/jwt-example -o yaml

Testing

Ensure the GATEWAY_HOST environment variable from the Quickstart guide is set. If not, follow the Quickstart instructions to set the variable.

echo $GATEWAY_HOST

Verify that requests to /foo are denied without a JWT:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -H "Host: www.example.com" -w "%{http_code}\n" http://$GATEWAY_HOST/foo

A 401 HTTP response code should be returned.

Get the JWT used for testing request authentication:

TOKEN=$(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/main/examples/kubernetes/authn/test.jwt -s) && echo "$TOKEN" | cut -d '.' -f2 - | base64 --decode

Note: The above command decodes and returns the token’s payload. You can replace f2 with f1 to view the token’s header.

Verify that a request to /foo with a valid JWT is allowed:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -H "Host: www.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -w "%{http_code}\n" http://$GATEWAY_HOST/foo

A 200 HTTP response code should be returned.

Verify that requests to /bar are allowed without a JWT:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -H "Host: www.example.com" -w "%{http_code}\n" http://$GATEWAY_HOST/bar

Clean-Up

Follow the steps from the Quickstart guide to uninstall Envoy Gateway and the example manifest.

Delete the AuthenticationFilter:

kubectl delete authenticationfilter/jwt-example

Next Steps

Checkout the Developer Guide to get involved in the project.

2.18 - Secure Gateways

This guide will help you get started using secure Gateways. The guide uses a self-signed CA, so it should be used for testing and demonstration purposes only.

Prerequisites

  • OpenSSL to generate TLS assets.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

TLS Certificates

Generate the certificates and keys used by the Gateway to terminate client TLS connections.

Create a root certificate and private key to sign certificates:

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -subj '/O=example Inc./CN=example.com' -keyout example.com.key -out example.com.crt

Create a certificate and a private key for www.example.com:

openssl req -out www.example.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout www.example.com.key -subj "/CN=www.example.com/O=example organization"
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -CA example.com.crt -CAkey example.com.key -set_serial 0 -in www.example.com.csr -out www.example.com.crt

Store the cert/key in a Secret:

kubectl create secret tls example-cert --key=www.example.com.key --cert=www.example.com.crt

Update the Gateway from the Quickstart guide to include an HTTPS listener that listens on port 443 and references the example-cert Secret:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "https",
      "protocol": "HTTPS",
      "port": 443,
      "tls": {
        "mode": "Terminate",
        "certificateRefs": [{
          "kind": "Secret",
          "group": "",
          "name": "example-cert",
        }],
      },
    },
}]'

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Testing

Clusters without External LoadBalancer Support

Get the name of the Envoy service created the by the example Gateway:

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

Port forward to the Envoy service:

kubectl -n envoy-gateway-system port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8443:443 &

Query the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get

Clusters with External LoadBalancer Support

Get the External IP of the Gateway:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Query the example app through the Gateway:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:443:${GATEWAY_HOST}" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com/get

Multiple HTTPS Listeners

Create a TLS cert/key for the additional HTTPS listener:

openssl req -out foo.example.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout foo.example.com.key -subj "/CN=foo.example.com/O=example organization"
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -CA example.com.crt -CAkey example.com.key -set_serial 0 -in foo.example.com.csr -out foo.example.com.crt

Store the cert/key in a Secret:

kubectl create secret tls foo-cert --key=foo.example.com.key --cert=foo.example.com.crt

Create another HTTPS listener on the example Gateway:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "https-foo",
      "protocol": "HTTPS",
      "port": 443,
      "hostname": "foo.example.com",
      "tls": {
        "mode": "Terminate",
        "certificateRefs": [{
          "kind": "Secret",
          "group": "",
          "name": "foo-cert",
        }],
      },
    },
}]'

Update the HTTPRoute to route traffic for hostname foo.example.com to the example backend service:

kubectl patch httproute backend --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/hostnames/-",
   "value": "foo.example.com",
}]'

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Follow the steps in the Testing section to test connectivity to the backend app through both Gateway listeners. Replace www.example.com with foo.example.com to test the new HTTPS listener.

Cross Namespace Certificate References

A Gateway can be configured to reference a certificate in a different namespace. This is allowed by a ReferenceGrant created in the target namespace. Without the ReferenceGrant, a cross-namespace reference is invalid.

Before proceeding, ensure you can query the HTTPS backend service from the Testing section.

To demonstrate cross namespace certificate references, create a ReferenceGrant that allows Gateways from the “default” namespace to reference Secrets in the “envoy-gateway-system” namespace:

$ cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: ReferenceGrant
metadata:
  name: example
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  from:
  - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
    kind: Gateway
    namespace: default
  to:
  - group: ""
    kind: Secret
EOF

Delete the previously created Secret:

kubectl delete secret/example-cert

The Gateway HTTPS listener should now surface the Ready: False status condition and the example HTTPS backend should no longer be reachable through the Gateway.

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Recreate the example Secret in the envoy-gateway-system namespace:

kubectl create secret tls example-cert -n envoy-gateway-system --key=www.example.com.key --cert=www.example.com.crt

Update the Gateway HTTPS listener with namespace: envoy-gateway-system, for example:

$ cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  gatewayClassName: eg
  listeners:
    - name: http
      protocol: HTTP
      port: 80
    - name: https
      protocol: HTTPS
      port: 443
      tls:
        mode: Terminate
        certificateRefs:
          - kind: Secret
            group: ""
            name: example-cert
            namespace: envoy-gateway-system
EOF

The Gateway HTTPS listener status should now surface the Ready: True condition and you should once again be able to query the HTTPS backend through the Gateway.

Lastly, test connectivity using the above Testing section.

Clean-Up

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to uninstall Envoy Gateway and the example manifest.

Delete the Secrets:

kubectl delete secret/example-cert
kubectl delete secret/foo-cert

RSA + ECDSA Dual stack certificates

This section gives a walkthrough to generate RSA and ECDSA derived certificates and keys for the Server, which can then be configured in the Gateway listener, to terminate TLS traffic.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Follow the steps in the TLS Certificates section in the guide to generate self-signed RSA derived Server certificate and private key, and configure those in the Gateway listener configuration to terminate HTTPS traffic.

Pre-checks

While testing in Cluster without External LoadBalancer Support, we can query the example app through Envoy proxy while enforcing an RSA cipher, as shown below:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get  -Isv --ciphers ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 --tlsv1.2 --tls-max 1.2

Since the Secret configured at this point is an RSA based Secret, if we enforce the usage of an ECDSA cipher, the call should fail as follows

$ curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get  -Isv --ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 --tlsv1.2 --tls-max 1.2

* Added www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1 to DNS cache
* Hostname www.example.com was found in DNS cache
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:8443...
* Connected to www.example.com (127.0.0.1) port 8443 (#0)
* ALPN: offers h2
* ALPN: offers http/1.1
* Cipher selection: ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
*  CAfile: example.com.crt
*  CApath: none
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* error:1404B410:SSL routines:ST_CONNECT:sslv3 alert handshake failure
* Closing connection 0

Moving forward in the doc, we will be configuring the existing Gateway listener to accept both kinds of ciphers.

TLS Certificates

Reuse the the CA certificate and key pair generated in the Secure Gateways guide and use this CA to sign both RSA and ECDSA Server certificates. Note the CA certificate and key names are example.com.crt and example.com.key respectively.

Create an ECDSA certificate and a private key for www.example.com:

openssl ecparam -noout -genkey -name prime256v1 -out www.example.com.ecdsa.key
openssl req -new -SHA384 -key www.example.com.ecdsa.key -nodes -out www.example.com.ecdsa.csr -subj "/CN=www.example.com/O=example organization"
openssl x509 -req -SHA384  -days 365 -in www.example.com.ecdsa.csr -CA example.com.crt -CAkey example.com.key -CAcreateserial -out www.example.com.ecdsa.crt

Store the cert/key in a Secret:

kubectl create secret tls example-cert-ecdsa --key=www.example.com.ecdsa.key --cert=www.example.com.ecdsa.crt

Patch the Gateway with this additional ECDSA Secret:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/1/tls/certificateRefs/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "example-cert-ecdsa",
    },
}]'

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Testing

Again, while testing in Cluster without External LoadBalancer Support, we can query the example app through Envoy proxy while enforcing an RSA cipher, which should work as it did before:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get  -Isv --ciphers ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 --tlsv1.2 --tls-max 1.2
...
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
...

Additionally, querying the example app while enforcing an ECDSA cipher should also work now:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get  -Isv --ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 --tlsv1.2 --tls-max 1.2
...
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
...

SNI based Certificate selection

This sections gives a walkthrough to generate multiple certificates corresponding to different FQDNs. The same Gateway listener can then be configured to terminate TLS traffic for multiple FQDNs based on the SNI matching.

Prerequisites

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

Follow the steps in the TLS Certificates section in the guide to generate self-signed RSA derived Server certificate and private key, and configure those in the Gateway listener configuration to terminate HTTPS traffic.

Additional Configurations

Using the TLS Certificates section in the guide we first generate additional Secret for another Host www.sample.com.

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -subj '/O=sample Inc./CN=sample.com' -keyout sample.com.key -out sample.com.crt

openssl req -out www.sample.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout www.sample.com.key -subj "/CN=www.sample.com/O=sample organization"
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -CA sample.com.crt -CAkey sample.com.key -set_serial 0 -in www.sample.com.csr -out www.sample.com.crt

kubectl create secret tls sample-cert --key=www.sample.com.key --cert=www.sample.com.crt

Note that all occurrences of example.com were just replaced with sample.com

Next we update the Gateway configuration to accommodate the new Certificate which will be used to Terminate TLS traffic:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/1/tls/certificateRefs/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "sample-cert",
    },
}]'

Finally, we update the HTTPRoute to route traffic for hostname www.sample.com to the example backend service:

kubectl patch httproute backend --type=json --patch '[{
  "op": "add",
  "path": "/spec/hostnames/-",
  "value": "www.sample.com",
}]'

Testing

Clusters without External LoadBalancer Support

Get the name of the Envoy service created the by the example Gateway:

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

Port forward to the Envoy service:

kubectl -n envoy-gateway-system port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8443:443 &

Query the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get -I

Similarly, query the sample app through the same Envoy proxy:

curl -v -HHost:www.sample.com --resolve "www.sample.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert sample.com.crt https://www.sample.com:8443/get -I

Since the multiple certificates are configured on the same Gateway listener, Envoy was able to provide the client with appropriate certificate based on the SNI in the client request.

Clusters with External LoadBalancer Support

Refer to the steps mentioned earlier in the guide under Testing in clusters with External LoadBalancer Support

Next Steps

Checkout the Developer Guide to get involved in the project.

2.19 - TCP Routing

TCPRoute provides a way to route TCP requests. When combined with a Gateway listener, it can be used to forward connections on the port specified by the listener to a set of backends specified by the TCPRoute. To learn more about HTTP routing, refer to the Gateway API documentation.

Installation

Install Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Configuration

In this example, we have one Gateway resource and two TCPRoute resources that distribute the traffic with the following rules:

All TCP streams on port 8088 of the Gateway are forwarded to port 3001 of foo Kubernetes Service. All TCP streams on port 8089 of the Gateway are forwarded to port 3002 of bar Kubernetes Service. In this example two TCP listeners will be applied to the Gateway in order to route them to two separate backend TCPRoutes, note that the protocol set for the listeners on the Gateway is TCP:

Install the GatewayClass and a tcp-gateway Gateway first.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
kind: GatewayClass
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: tcp-gateway
spec:
  gatewayClassName: eg
  listeners:
  - name: foo
    protocol: TCP
    port: 8088
    allowedRoutes:
      kinds:
      - kind: TCPRoute
  - name: bar
    protocol: TCP
    port: 8089
    allowedRoutes:
      kinds:
      - kind: TCPRoute
EOF

Install two services foo and bar, which are binded to backend-1 and backend-2.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: foo
  labels:
    app: backend-1
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3001
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend-1
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: bar
  labels:
    app: backend-2
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 3002
      targetPort: 3000
  selector:
    app: backend-2
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend-1
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend-1
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend-1
        version: v1
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend-1
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: SERVICE_NAME
              value: foo
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend-2
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend-2
      version: v1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend-2
        version: v1
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: gcr.io/k8s-staging-ingressconformance/echoserver:v20221109-7ee2f3e
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          name: backend-2
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: SERVICE_NAME
              value: bar
EOF

Install two TCPRoutes tcp-app-1 and tcp-app-2 with different sectionName:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: TCPRoute
metadata:
  name: tcp-app-1
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: tcp-gateway
    sectionName: foo
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - name: foo
      port: 3001
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: TCPRoute
metadata:
  name: tcp-app-2
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: tcp-gateway
    sectionName: bar
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - name: bar
      port: 3002
EOF

In the above example we separate the traffic for the two separate backend TCP Services by using the sectionName field in the parentRefs:

spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: tcp-gateway
    sectionName: foo

This corresponds directly with the name in the listeners in the Gateway:

  listeners:
  - name: foo
    protocol: TCP
    port: 8088
  - name: bar
    protocol: TCP
    port: 8089

In this way each TCPRoute “attaches” itself to a different port on the Gateway so that the foo service is taking traffic for port 8088 from outside the cluster and bar service takes the port 8089 traffic.

Before testing, please get the tcp-gateway Gateway’s address first:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/tcp-gateway -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

You can try to use nc to test the TCP connections of envoy gateway with different ports, and you can see them succeeded:

nc -zv ${GATEWAY_HOST} 8088

nc -zv ${GATEWAY_HOST} 8089

You can also try to send requests to envoy gateway and get responses as shown below:

curl -i "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}:8088"

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2023 10:18:36 GMT
Content-Length: 267

{
 "path": "/",
 "host": "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8088",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.85.0"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "foo",
 "pod": "backend-1-c6c5fb958-dl8vl"
}

You can see that the traffic routing to foo service when sending request to 8088 port.

curl -i "http://${GATEWAY_HOST}:8089"

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2023 10:19:28 GMT
Content-Length: 267

{
 "path": "/",
 "host": "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8089",
 "method": "GET",
 "proto": "HTTP/1.1",
 "headers": {
  "Accept": [
   "*/*"
  ],
  "User-Agent": [
   "curl/7.85.0"
  ]
 },
 "namespace": "default",
 "ingress": "",
 "service": "bar",
 "pod": "backend-2-98fcff498-hcmgb"
}                                            

You can see that the traffic routing to bar service when sending request to 8089 port.

2.20 - TLS Passthrough

This guide will walk through the steps required to configure TLS Passthrough via Envoy Gateway. Unlike configuring Secure Gateways, where the Gateway terminates the client TLS connection, TLS Passthrough allows the application itself to terminate the TLS connection, while the Gateway routes the requests to the application based on SNI headers.

Prerequisites

  • OpenSSL to generate TLS assets.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway and the example manifest. Before proceeding, you should be able to query the example backend using HTTP.

TLS Certificates

Generate the certificates and keys used by the Service to terminate client TLS connections. For the application, we’ll deploy a sample echoserver app, with the certificates loaded in the application Pod.

Note: These certificates will not be used by the Gateway, but will remain in the application scope.

Create a root certificate and private key to sign certificates:

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -subj '/O=example Inc./CN=example.com' -keyout example.com.key -out example.com.crt

Create a certificate and a private key for passthrough.example.com:

openssl req -out passthrough.example.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout passthrough.example.com.key -subj "/CN=passthrough.example.com/O=some organization"
openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 365 -CA example.com.crt -CAkey example.com.key -set_serial 0 -in passthrough.example.com.csr -out passthrough.example.com.crt

Store the cert/keys in A Secret:

kubectl create secret tls server-certs --key=passthrough.example.com.key --cert=passthrough.example.com.crt

Deployment

Deploy TLS Passthrough application Deployment, Service and TLSRoute:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/tls-passthrough.yaml

Patch the Gateway from the Quickstart guide to include a TLS listener that listens on port 6443 and is configured for TLS mode Passthrough:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "tls",
      "protocol": "TLS",
      "hostname": "passthrough.example.com",
      "tls": {"mode": "Passthrough"}, 
      "port": 6443,
    },
}]'

Testing

Clusters without External LoadBalancer Support

Get the name of the Envoy service created the by the example Gateway:

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

Port forward to the Envoy service:

kubectl -n envoy-gateway-system port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 6043:6443 &

Curl the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl -v --resolve "passthrough.example.com:6043:127.0.0.1" https://passthrough.example.com:6043 \
--cacert passthrough.example.com.crt

Clusters with External LoadBalancer Support

You can also test the same functionality by sending traffic to the External IP of the Gateway:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Curl the example app through the Gateway, e.g. Envoy proxy:

curl -v -HHost:passthrough.example.com --resolve "passthrough.example.com:6443:${GATEWAY_HOST}" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://passthrough.example.com:6443/get

Clean-Up

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to uninstall Envoy Gateway and the example manifest.

Delete the Secret:

kubectl delete secret/server-certs

Next Steps

Checkout the Developer Guide to get involved in the project.

2.21 - TLS Termination for TCP

This guide will walk through the steps required to configure TLS Terminate mode for TCP traffic via Envoy Gateway. The guide uses a self-signed CA, so it should be used for testing and demonstration purposes only.

Prerequisites

  • OpenSSL to generate TLS assets.

Installation

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to install Envoy Gateway.

TLS Certificates

Generate the certificates and keys used by the Gateway to terminate client TLS connections.

Create a root certificate and private key to sign certificates:

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -subj '/O=example Inc./CN=example.com' -keyout example.com.key -out example.com.crt

Create a certificate and a private key for www.example.com:

openssl req -out www.example.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout www.example.com.key -subj "/CN=www.example.com/O=example organization"
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -CA example.com.crt -CAkey example.com.key -set_serial 0 -in www.example.com.csr -out www.example.com.crt

Store the cert/key in a Secret:

kubectl create secret tls example-cert --key=www.example.com.key --cert=www.example.com.crt

Install the TLS Termination for TCP example resources:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/tls-termination.yaml

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Testing

Clusters without External LoadBalancer Support

Get the name of the Envoy service created the by the example Gateway:

export ENVOY_SERVICE=$(kubectl get svc -n envoy-gateway-system --selector=gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-namespace=default,gateway.envoyproxy.io/owning-gateway-name=eg -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

Port forward to the Envoy service:

kubectl -n envoy-gateway-system port-forward service/${ENVOY_SERVICE} 8443:443 &

Query the example app through Envoy proxy:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com:8443/get

Clusters with External LoadBalancer Support

Get the External IP of the Gateway:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Query the example app through the Gateway:

curl -v -HHost:www.example.com --resolve "www.example.com:443:${GATEWAY_HOST}" \
--cacert example.com.crt https://www.example.com/get

2.22 - UDP Routing

The UDPRoute resource allows users to configure UDP routing by matching UDP traffic and forwarding it to Kubernetes backends. This guide will use CoreDNS example to walk you through the steps required to configure UDPRoute on Envoy Gateway.

Note: UDPRoute allows Envoy Gateway to operate as a non-transparent proxy between a UDP client and server. The lack of transparency means that the upstream server will see the source IP and port of the Gateway instead of the client. For additional information, refer to Envoy’s UDP proxy documentation.

Prerequisites

Install Envoy Gateway:

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v0.5.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Installation

Install CoreDNS in the Kubernetes cluster as the example backend. The installed CoreDNS is listening on UDP port 53 for DNS lookups.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envoyproxy/gateway/v0.5.0/examples/kubernetes/udp-routing-example-backend.yaml

Wait for the CoreDNS deployment to become available:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m deployment/coredns --for=condition=Available

Update the Gateway from the Quickstart guide to include a UDP listener that listens on UDP port 5300:

kubectl patch gateway eg --type=json --patch '[{
   "op": "add",
   "path": "/spec/listeners/-",
   "value": {
      "name": "coredns",
      "protocol": "UDP",
      "port": 5300,
      "allowedRoutes": {
         "kinds": [{
            "kind": "UDPRoute"
          }]
      }
    },
}]'

Verify the Gateway status:

kubectl get gateway/eg -o yaml

Configuration

Create a UDPRoute resource to route UDP traffic received on Gateway port 5300 to the CoredDNS backend.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: UDPRoute
metadata:
  name: coredns
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: eg
      sectionName: coredns
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - name: coredns
          port: 53
EOF

Verify the UDPRoute status:

kubectl get udproute/coredns -o yaml

Testing

Get the External IP of the Gateway:

export GATEWAY_HOST=$(kubectl get gateway/eg -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')

Use dig command to query the dns entry foo.bar.com through the Gateway.

dig @${GATEWAY_HOST} -p 5300 foo.bar.com

You should see the result of the dns query as the below output, which means that the dns query has been successfully routed to the backend CoreDNS.

Note: 49.51.177.138 is the resolved address of GATEWAY_HOST.

; <<>> DiG 9.18.1-1ubuntu1.1-Ubuntu <<>> @49.51.177.138 -p 5300 foo.bar.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58125
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232
; COOKIE: 24fb86eba96ebf62 (echoed)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;foo.bar.com.			IN	A

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
foo.bar.com.		0	IN	A	10.244.0.19
_udp.foo.bar.com.	0	IN	SRV	0 0 42376 .

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 49.51.177.138#5300(49.51.177.138) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Fri Jan 13 10:20:34 UTC 2023
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 114

Clean-Up

Follow the steps from the Quickstart Guide to uninstall Envoy Gateway.

Delete the CoreDNS example manifest and the UDPRoute:

kubectl delete deploy/coredns
kubectl delete service/coredns
kubectl delete cm/coredns
kubectl delete udproute/coredns

Next Steps

Checkout the Developer Guide to get involved in the project.

2.23 - Use egctl

egctl is a command line tool to provide additional functionality for Envoy Gateway users.

Installing egctl

This guide shows how to install the egctl CLI. egctl can be installed either from source, or from pre-built binary releases.

From The Envoy Gateway Project

The Envoy Gateway project provides two ways to fetch and install egctl. These are the official methods to get egctl releases. Installation through those methods can be found below the official methods.

From the Binary Releases

Every release of egctl provides binary releases for a variety of OSes. These binary versions can be manually downloaded and installed.

  1. Download your desired version
  2. Unpack it (tar -zxvf egctl_v0.5.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz)
  3. Find the egctl binary in the unpacked directory, and move it to its desired destination (mv bin/linux/amd64/egctl /usr/local/bin/egctl)

From there, you should be able to run: egctl help.

From Script

egctl now has an installer script that will automatically grab the v0.5.0 release version of egctl and install it locally.

You can fetch that script, and then execute it locally. It’s well documented so that you can read through it and understand what it is doing before you run it.

curl -fsSL -o get-egctl.sh https://gateway.envoyproxy.io/get-egctl.sh

chmod +x get-egctl.sh

# get help info of the 
bash get-egctl.sh --help

# install the v0.5.0 development version of egctl
bash VERSION=v0.5.0 get-egctl.sh

Yes, you can just use the below command if you want to live on the edge.

curl https://gateway.envoyproxy.io/get-egctl.sh | VERSION=v0.5.0 bash 

egctl experimental translate

This subcommand allows users to translate from an input configuration type to an output configuration type.

In the below example, we will translate the Kubernetes resources (including the Gateway API resources) into xDS resources.

cat <<EOF | egctl x translate --from gateway-api --to xds -f -
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: eg
spec:
  controllerName: gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller
---
apiVersion: gateway.netw