Ensure that the environment you are deploying Consul API Gateway in meets the requirements listed in the [Technical Specifications][tech-specs]. This includes validating that the requirements for minimum versions of software are met. See the [Release Notes][rel-notes] for the version of API Gateway you are deploying.
1. Set the version of Consul API Gateway you are installing as an environment variable. The following steps use this environment variable in commands and configurations.
1. Create a `values.yaml` file for your Consul API Gateway deployment by copying the following content and running it in the environment where you set the `VERSION` environment variable. The Consul Helm chart uses this `values.yaml` file to deploy the API Gateway. Available versions of the [Consul](https://hub.docker.com/r/hashicorp/consul/tags) and [Consul API Gateway](https://hub.docker.com/r/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/tags) Docker images can be found on DockerHub, with additional context on version compatibility published in [GitHub releases](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/releases). For more options to configure your Consul API Gateway deployment through the Helm chart, refer to [Helm Chart Configuration - apiGateway](https://www.consul.io/docs/k8s/helm#apigateway).
1. Install Consul API Gateway using the standard Consul Helm chart and specify the custom values file. Available versions of the [Consul Helm chart](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-k8s/releases) can be found in GitHub releases.
| `-ca-file` | String value that specifies the path to the CA for the Consul server. | Required | none |
| `-ca-secret` | String value that specifies the CA secret for the Consul server. | Required | none |
| `-ca-secret-namespace` | String value that specifies the CA secret namespace for the Consul server. | Required | none |
| `-k8-context` | String value that specifies the Kubernetes context to use when starting the Consul server. | Optional | current context |
| `-k8-namespace` | String value that specifies the Kubernetes namespace to use when starting the Consul server. | Optional | `default` |
| `-log-json` | Boolean value that enables or disables JSON format for the log output. | Required | `false` |
| `-log-level` | String value that specifies the logging level. The following values are supported: <br/>- `trace` (highest level of detail) <br/>- `debug` <br/>- `info` <br/>- `warn` <br/>- `error` | Optional | `info` |
| `-metrics-port` | Integer value that specifies the port number for collecting metrics. | Optional | none |
| `-pprof` | Integer value that specifies the Go pprof port number for collecting metrics. | Optional | none |
| `-sds-server-host` | String value that specifies the host server for the secret discovery service (SDS). | Optional | `consul-api-gateway-controller.default.`<br/>`svc.cluster.`<br/>`local` |
| `-sds-server-host` | Integer value that specifies the port number for the secret discovery service (SDS). | Optional | `9090` |
You can also issue the `version` command to print the Consul API Gateway version to the console:
```shell-session
$ ./consul-api-gateway version
consul-api-gateway 0.1.0
```
--->
## Configuration
Configure the following artifacts to facilitate ingress into your Consul service mesh:
- [GatewayClassConfig](#gatewayclassconfig): Describes additional Consul API Gateway-related configuration parameters for the `GatewayClass` resource.
- [GatewayClass](#gatewayclass): Defines a class of gateway resources that you can use as a template for creating gateways.
- [Gateway](#gateway): Defines the main infrastructure resource that links API gateway components. It specifies the name of the `GatewayClass` and one or more `listeners` (see [Listeners](#listeners)), which specify the logical endpoints bound to the gateway's addresses.
- [Routes](#routes): Specifies the path from the client to the listener.
-> **Note:** Add the following `managedGatewayClass` configuration to the `values.yaml` Helm configuration to enable the `GatewayClassConfig` and `GatewayClass` to be created automatically. The gateway, listeners, and routes will need to be configured manually. When `managedGatewayClass` is enabled, the [`serviceType`](/docs/k8s/helm#v-apigateway-managedgatewayclass-servicetype) for a managed `GatewayClass` will also default to `LoadBalancer`, which is appropriate for most deployments to managed Kubernetes cloud offerings (i.e., EKS, GKE, AKS). Other deployments, such as to a [kind](https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/) cluster, may require specifying `NodePort` or `ClusterIP`, instead.
The following table describes the allowed parameters for the `spec` array:
| Parameter | Description | Type | Default |
| --- | --- | ---- | ------- |
| `consul.address` | Specifies the address of the Consul server to communicate with in the gateway pod. If unspecified, the pod will attempt to use a local agent on the host on which the pod is running. | String | N/A |
| `consul.authentication.account` | Specifies the Kubernetes service account to use for authentication. | String | N/A |
| `consul.authentication.managed` | Set to `true` to enable deployments to run with managed service accounts created by the gateway controller. The `consul.authentication.account` field is ignored when this option is enabled. | Boolean | `false` |
| `consul.authentication.method` | Specifies the Consul auth method used for initial authentication by Consul API Gateway. | String | N/A |
| `consul.authentication.namespace` | Specifies the Consul namespace to use for authentication. | String | N/A |
| `consul.ports.grpc` | Specifies the gRPC port for Consul's xDS server. | Integer | `8502` |
| `consul.ports.http` | Specifies the port for Consul's HTTP server. | Integer | `8500` |
| `consul.scheme` | Specifies the scheme to use for connecting to Consul. The supported values are `"http"` and `"https"`. | String | `"http"` |
| `copyAnnotations.service` | List of annotations to copy to the gateway service. | Array | `["external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname"]` |
| `deployment.defaultInstances` | Specifies the number of instances to deploy by default for each gateway. | Integer | 1 |
| `deployment.maxInstances` | Specifies the maximum allowed number of instances per gateway. | Integer | 8 |
| `deployment.minInstances` | Specifies the minimum allowed number of instances per gateway. | Integer | 1 |
| `image.consulAPIGateway` | The image to use for consul-api-gateway. View available image tags on [DockerHub](https://hub.docker.com/r/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/tags). | String | `"hashicorp/consul-api-gateway:RELEASE_VERSION"` |
| `image.envoy` | Specifies the container image to use for Envoy. View available image tags on [DockerHub](https://hub.docker.com/r/envoyproxy/envoy/tags). | String | `"envoyproxy/envoy:RELEASE_VERSION"` |
| `logLevel` | Specifies the error reporting level for logs. You can specify the following values: `error`, `warning`, `info`, `debug`, `trace`. | String | `"info"` |
| `nodeSelector` | Specifies a set of parameters that constrain the nodes on which the pod can run. Defining nodes with the `nodeSelector` enables the pod to fit on a node. The selector must match a node's labels for the pod to be scheduled on that node. Refer to the [Kubernetes documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/assign-pod-node/) for additional information. | Object | N/A |
| `serviceType` | Specifies the ingress methods for a service. The following values are supported: <br/>`ClusterIP` <br/>`NodePort` <br/>`LoadBalancer`. | String | N/A |
| `useHostPorts` | If set to `true`, then the Envoy container ports are mapped to host ports. | Boolean | `false` |
Refer to the [Consul API Gateway repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/blob/main/config/crd/bases/api-gateway.consul.hashicorp.com_gatewayclassconfigs.yaml) for the complete specification.
### GatewayClass
The `GatewayClass` resource is used as a template for creating `Gateway` resources.
The specification includes the name of the controller (`controllerName`) and an API object containing controller-specific configuration resources within the cluster (`parametersRef`).
The value of the `controllerName` field must be set to `hashicorp.com/consul-api-gateway-controller`.
When gateways are created from a `GatewayClass`, they use the parameters specified in the `GatewayClass` at the time of instantiation.
Add the `kind: GatewayClass` option to the the gateway values file to declare a gateway class.
The following example creates a gateway class called `test-gateway-class`:
Refer to the [Kubernetes Gateway API documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.GatewayClass) for details about configuring gateway classes.
### Gateway
The gateway configuration is the main infrastructure resource that links API gateway components. It specifies the name of the `GatewayClass` and one or more `listeners`.
Add the `kind: Gateway` option to the configuration file to declare a gateway.
The following example creates a gateway called `example-gateway`.
The gateway is based on the `test-gateway-class` and includes a listener called `https` (see [Listeners](#listeners) for details about the `listener` configuration).
If you configure a listener's `certificateRefs` to reference a secret in a different namespace, you must also create a [ReferencePolicy](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.ReferencePolicy) in the same namespace as the secret. The `ReferencePolicy` grants the listener the permission to read the secret.
The listener can use the certificate because `reference-policy` in `secret-namespace` is configured to allow `Gateways` in `gateway-namespace` to reference `Secrets` in `secret-namespace`.
Refer to the [Kubernetes Gateway API documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.Gateway) for further details about configuring gateways.
| `hostname` | Specifies the virtual hostname to match for protocol types. | String | none |
| `port` | Specifies the network port number. | Integer | none |
| `protocol` | Specifies the network protocol expected by the listener. | String | `http` |
| `tls` | Collection of parameters that specify TLS options for the listener. Refer to the [`GatewayTLSConfig`](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.GatewayTLSConfig) documentation for additional information about configuring TLS. | Object | N/A |
| `tls.mode` | Specifies a mode for operating Consul API Gateway listeners over TLS. <br/>You can only specify the `Terminate` mode, which configures the TLS session between the downstream client and the gateway to terminate at the gateway. <br/>Refer to the [`TLSModeType` documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.TLSModeType) for additional information. | String | `Terminate` |
| `tls.certificateRefs` | Specifies the name of secret object used for Envoy SDS (Secret Discovery Service) to support terminating TLS. Refer to the [`[]*SecretObjectReference` documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.SecretObjectReference) for additional information. | String | N/A |
| `tls.options` | Specifies key/value pairs to enable extended TLS configuration specific to an implementation. | Object | N/A |
| `tls.options.tls_min_version` | Specifies the minimum TLS version supported for the listener. The following values are supported: `TLS_AUTO`, `TLSv1_0`, `TLSv1_1`, `TLSv1_2`, `TLSv1_3`. | String | `TLS 1.2` |
| `tls.options.tls_max_version` | Specifies the maximum TLS version supported for the listener. The specified version must be greater than or equal to `TLSMinVersion`. The following values are supported: `TLS_AUTO`, `TLSv1_0`, `TLSv1_1`, `TLSv1_2`, `TLSv1_3`. | String | `TLS 1.3` |
| `tls.options.tls_cipher_suites` | Specifies the list of TLS cipher suites to support when negotiating connections using TLS 1.2 or earlier. <br/>If unspecified, a [more secure set of cipher suites](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/blob/main/internal/common/tls.go#L3-L10) than Envoy's current [default server cipher list](https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/api-v3/extensions/transport_sockets/tls/v3/common.proto#envoy-v3-api-field-extensions-transport-sockets-tls-v3-tlsparameters-cipher-suites) will be used. <br/>The full list of supported cipher suites can seen in [`internal/common/tls.go`](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/blob/main/internal/common/tls.go) and is dependent on underlying support in Envoy. | String | See description |
Refer to the [Kubernetes Gateway API documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.Listener) for details about configuring listeners.
You can scale a logical gateway object to multiple instances with the [`kubectl scale`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/#scaling-a-deployment) command. The object scales according to the bounds set in `GatewayClassConfig`.
To create a route for a `backendRef` in a different namespace, you must also
create a [ReferencePolicy](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1alpha2/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1alpha2.ReferencePolicy).
The following example creates a route named `example-route` in namespace `gateway-namespace`. This route has a `backendRef` in namespace `service-namespace`. Traffic is allowed because the `ReferencePolicy`, named `reference-policy` in namespace `service-namespace`, allows traffic from `HTTPRoutes` in `gateway-namespace` to `Services` in `service-namespace`.
The `MeshService` configuration holds a reference to an externally-managed Consul service mesh service and can be used as a `backendRef` for a [`Route`](#route).
| `name` | Specifies the service name for a Consul service. It is assumed this service will exist in either the `consulDestinationNamespace` or mirrored Consul namespace from where this custom resource is defined, depending on the Helm configuration.
Refer to the [Consul API Gateway repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul-api-gateway/blob/main/config/crd/bases/api-gateway.consul.hashicorp.com_meshservices.yaml) for the complete specification.
