By default, Gloo Gateway automatically spins up gateway proxies when you create a Gateway resource. To do that, a default gateway proxy template is used as well as the settings in the GatewayParameters and Settings resources. For more information, see Default gateway proxy setup.

You can choose to not leverage the automatic gateway management capabilities in Gloo Gateway, and instead, manage the gateway lifecycle yourself. This setup can be useful if you want to deploy a gateway proxy in a non-Kubernetes environment such as a virtual machine (VM), or if you want to have full control over the lifecycle of your gateway proxy.

Before you begin

Follow the Get started guide to install Gloo Gateway. You do not need to create a Gateway resource, because you create a self-managed Gateway as part of this guide.

Create a self-managed gateway proxy

  1. Create a GatewayParameters resource that allows you to create self-managed gateway proxies.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.gloo.solo.io/v1alpha1
kind: GatewayParameters
metadata:
  name: self-managed
  namespace: gloo-system
spec:
  selfManaged: {}
EOF

  2. Create a Gateway that references the GatewayParameters resource that you created.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
kind: Gateway
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: self-managed
  namespace: gloo-system
  annotations:
    gateway.gloo.solo.io/gateway-parameters-name: "self-managed"
spec:
  gatewayClassName: gloo-gateway
  listeners:
  - protocol: HTTP
    port: 80
    name: http
    allowedRoutes:
      namespaces:
        from: All
EOF

  3. Verify that the Gateway is created.

      kubectl get gateway self-managed -n gloo-system -o yaml

  4. Verify that no gateway proxy deployment and service were created for your Gateway.

      kubectl get pods -n gloo-system | grep self-managed
kubectl get services -n gloo-system | grep self-managed

  5. Create your own gateway proxy deployment. Note that this deployment needs to have valid Envoy configuration that includes the correct name and namespace of your Gateway resource to successfully bootstrap your gateway proxy and bind it to the Gateway resource. You can use the following template as a starting point to build your own Envoy configuration. To bind your gateway proxy with the Gateway resource, ensure that you replace $GATEWAY_NAME and $GATEWAY_NAMESPACE with the name of the Gateway that you created earlier.

      admin:
  address:
    socket_address: { address: 127.0.0.1, port_value: 19000 }
node:
  cluster: gloo-proxy-$GATEWAY_NAME.$GATEWAY_NAMESPACE
  metadata:
    role: gloo-kube-gateway-api~$GATEWAY_NAMESPACE~$GATEWAY_NAMESPACE-$GATEWAY_NAME
static_resources:
  listeners:
  - name: read_config_listener
    address:
      socket_address: { address: 0.0.0.0, port_value: 8082 }
    filter_chains:
      - 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: ingress_http
            codec_type: AUTO
            route_config:
              name: main_route
              virtual_hosts:
                - name: local_service
                  domains: ["*"]
                  routes:
                    - match:
                        path: "/ready"
                        headers:
                          - name: ":method"
                            string_match:
                              exact: GET
                      route:
                        cluster: admin_port_cluster
            http_filters:
              - name: envoy.filters.http.router
                typed_config:
                  "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.router.v3.Router
  clusters:
    - name: xds_cluster
      alt_stat_name: xds_cluster
      connect_timeout: 5.000s
      load_assignment:
        cluster_name: xds_cluster
        endpoints:
        - lb_endpoints:
          - endpoint:
              address:
                socket_address:
                  address: $CONTROLLER_HOST
                  port_value: 9977
      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: {}
      upstream_connection_options:
        tcp_keepalive:
          keepalive_time: 10
      type: STRICT_DNS
      respect_dns_ttl: true
    - name: admin_port_cluster
      connect_timeout: 5.000s
      type: STATIC
      lb_policy: ROUND_ROBIN
      load_assignment:
        cluster_name: admin_port_cluster
        endpoints:
        - lb_endpoints:
          - endpoint:
              address:
                socket_address:
                  address: 127.0.0.1
                  port_value: 19000
dynamic_resources:
  ads_config:
    transport_api_version: V3
    api_type: GRPC
    rate_limit_settings: {}
    grpc_services:
    - envoy_grpc:
        cluster_name: xds_cluster
  cds_config:
    resource_api_version: V3
    ads: {}
  lds_config:
    resource_api_version: V3
    ads: {}

Cleanup

You can optionally remove the resources that you set up as part of this guide.
  kubectl delete gatewayparameters self-managed -n gloo-system
kubectl delete gateway self-managed -n gloo-system