This tutorial was updated in August 2022 and is based on Flex Gateway 1.1.0.
You can use Flex Gateway locally or in connected mode. If you use it locally, you will only be able to run it from your local machine, but you can’t manage the APIs from Anypoint Platform. In connected mode, you can view your gateways, your API instances, and policy configurations in API Manager. In this case, we’ll register and run Flex Gateway in connected mode using the Flex Gateway Docker image.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:
1 - Log in to Anypoint Platform and navigate to Runtime Manager. Click on the Flex Gateways tab on the left and select Add Gateway.
If this is the first time you access Anypoint Platform, it may ask you to select an environment. Choose Sandbox.
2 - You will see different options to select where to set up your Flex Gateway. Let’s select Docker.
1 - Download the Flex Gateway Docker image by running the following command. We will be using the latest version in this tutorial.
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docker pull mulesoft/flex-gateway:latest
You can browse the repository in DockerHub (here) to find any version you want to use instead. To use a different version, run docker pull mulesoft/flex-gateway:<version>. For example, docker pull mulesoft/flex-gateway:1.0.0.
2 - Verify the image was correctly installed by running docker images or checking your images from the Docker Desktop app. You should see the new mulesoft/flex-gateway image.
Command-line output:
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REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
mulesoft/flex-gateway latest 4ba042860c8f 7 days ago 273MB
Docker Desktop preview:
1 - Copy the command from Runtime Manager to register your gateway. It already contains the token and organization ID you need to authenticate and connect the gateway with your Anypoint Platform account. You need to replace <gateway-name> with your own name (i.e. my-gateway) and remove the version from the flex-gateway image to use the one you previously downloaded.
It’s better to run this command in a new folder or in a known location to quickly identify the files that will be created.
You should end up with something like the following (with your own token and organization):
Command:
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docker run --entrypoint flexctl \
-v "$(pwd)":/registration mulesoft/flex-gateway \
register --organization=e04b331c-a0d3-4b0b-b40c-55254205c981 \
--token=4c3fa08c-5d08-431f-ba9a-cb4416db7dc7 \
--output-directory=/registration \
--connected=true \
my-gateway
Output:
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Starting registration, please be patient.
Registration completed, the configuration files were written in directory "/registration". For security, modify the file permissions to restrict production scenario access to the user running flex.
This is using Auth Token as the authentication mechanism for registering the gateway. You can also choose to connect it using a Connected App or your Anypoint Platform Username and Password.
2 - Verify there is a new registration.yaml file in the same directory you executed the command.
3 - If you check the Flex Gateway list in Runtime Manager, your should now see your new gateway (my-gateway) listed with a status of Disconnected.
1 - Run the following command to start your gateway using port 8081.
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docker run --rm \
-v "$(pwd)":/usr/local/share/mulesoft/flex-gateway/conf.d \
-p 8081:8081 \
mulesoft/flex-gateway
You should see an output similar to the following. Note that the command doesn’t finish running. If you kill the process from your local, your gateway will be disconnected.
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...
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Validating gateway
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Generating config
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Gateway default/9fd77888f949: Adding Service default/internal-pe-anypoint-metrics http://127.0.0.1:15100/
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Writing envoy bootstrap configuration to /tmp/envoy.json
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Gateway: Platform=https://anypoint.mulesoft.com OrgID=e04b331c-a0d3-4b0b-b40c-55254205c981 EnvID=36df410e-a800-44ab-be86-853820d277b2 Name=3952d507-3044-4a28-be97-1d89c5d97418 Mode=connected ReplicaName=9fd77888f949.default
[flex-gateway-envoy][info] cds: add 1 cluster(s), remove 3 cluster(s)
[flex-gateway-envoy][info] cds: added/updated 1 cluster(s), skipped 0 unmodified cluster(s)
To run the Docker container in a detached mode, you can add -d at the beginning of the command. Like so: docker run --rm -d ...
2 - If you check the Flex Gateways list in Runtime Manager, you should now see your new gateway (my-gateway) with a status of Connected.
3 - You can also verify that the container is running in your local with docker container ls in a new command line, or check if there’s a running container in Docker Desktop.
Command-line output:
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CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
2d55079f848e mulesoft/flex-gateway "/init" 6 minutes ago Up 6 minutes 0.0.0.0:8081->8081/tcp stupefied_kalam
Docker Desktop preview:
1 - Open a new terminal and run the following command to add a new replica on port 8082.
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docker run --rm \
-v "$(pwd)":/usr/local/share/mulesoft/flex-gateway/conf.d \
-p 8082:8081 \
mulesoft/flex-gateway
You should see an output similar to the previous command we ran. Same as before, the command doesn’t finish running. If you kill the process from your local, your replica will be disconnected.
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...
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Validating gateway
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Generating config
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Gateway default/35cfc6ea53ed: Adding Service default/internal-pe-anypoint-metrics http://127.0.0.1:15100/
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Writing envoy bootstrap configuration to /tmp/envoy.json
[flex-gateway-agent][info] Gateway: Platform=https://anypoint.mulesoft.com OrgID=e04b331c-a0d3-4b0b-b40c-55254205c981 EnvID=36df410e-a800-44ab-be86-853820d277b2 Name=3952d507-3044-4a28-be97-1d89c5d97418 Mode=connected ReplicaName=35cfc6ea53ed.default
[flex-gateway-envoy][info] cds: add 1 cluster(s), remove 3 cluster(s)
[flex-gateway-envoy][info] cds: added/updated 1 cluster(s), skipped 0 unmodified cluster(s)
To run the Docker container in a detached mode, you can add -d at the beginning of the command. Like so: docker run --rm -d ...
2 - If you check the Flex Gateways list in Runtime Manager, you should now see 2 replicas listed in your gateway (my-gateway), both with a status of Connected.
3 - You can also verify that the new container is running in your local with docker container ls in a new command line, or check if there’s a new running container in Docker Desktop.
Command-line output:
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CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
392073434dcf mulesoft/flex-gateway "/init" 4 minutes ago Up 4 minutes 0.0.0.0:8082->8082/tcp xenodochial_dubinsky
2d55079f848e mulesoft/flex-gateway "/init" 16 minutes ago Up 16 minutes 0.0.0.0:8081->8081/tcp stupefied_kalam
Docker Desktop preview:
4 - You can continue adding more replicas with the same command but changing the port number for each replica.
1 - To remove a replica, you can stop running the docker run command (if you didn’t use detached mode) and this will remove the container. Alternatively, you can run docker container stop <container-name> (i.e., docker container stop stupefied_kalam) or stop the container from Docker Desktop by clicking on the Stop button on the right side of the container.
2 - If you remove all replicas, you can verify no replicas are running with docker container ls or in Docker Desktop.
Command-line output:
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CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
Docker Desktop preview:
3 - The gateway might still be listed in Runtime Manager but will have a status of Disconnected if no replicas are connected.
4 - To delete a gateway from Runtime Manager, click on the 3-dot button next to the gateway and select Delete gateway.
The gateway will now have a status of Deleted and will be removed from the UI in 30 days. For more information, see Anypoint Flex Gateway.
In this tutorial, you learned how to:
In the next tutorial, you’ll learn how to manage your APIs from API Manager using the Flex Gateway you created in this tutorial.
Click on the Next button below to continue to the next tutorial.
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