For more information about the feature, see External authentication and authorization.

What data gets stored

The external auth server stores the following data in the backing database. For an example of how to check the data that gets stored, see Review data in Redis.

  • API keys that end users can use to authenticate to destinations and routes that are protected by an external auth policy that the external auth server enforces.

Backing storage options

Review the following options for setting up backing storage with Redis®* 1 instances.

OptionUse caseBenefitsDrawbacks
Default (no backing storage)Local testing in single clusters
  • Complete control of where data is stored
  • Fast read/write speed as the instance is local to the management server
  • Updatable via Gloo Platform Helm chart
  • Data is not stored anywhere by default
  • If you also use the Portal server, you cannot apply external auth policies until you configure backing storage
  • Manual creation, error-prone
  • Not scalable, highly available, or recoverable
Built-in local RedisProof of concept and staging environments in single clusters
  • The Redis instance is deployed for you as part of the default installation
  • Fast read/write speed as the instance is local to the management server
  • Updatable via Gloo Platform Helm chart
  • Redis GUI- and CLI-based tools help you monitor data
  • Only as highly available as your cluster setup
  • Has the same disaster recovery as your cluster setup
  • Might not meet your organization’s compliance requirements
Bring your own RedisProduction-level, multicluster environments
  • Enhanced high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR)
  • Service level agreement (SLA) from your provider
  • Meet your organization’s compliance requirements
  • Redis GUI- and CLI-based tools help you monitor data
  • More complicated setup
  • Not covered by Solo support (contact your external Redis provider)

Shared or separate instances

In Gloo Mesh Enterprise, many components use Redis to store data. Several of these components must share the same instance in order to function properly, as follows:

  • Management server, UI, and insights engine (which is also used as part of the OTel pipeline).
  • External auth service and developer portal server.
  • Rate limiter, which is often shared with the external auth service and portal server, but does not have to be.

If you enable the default, Solo-provided, local Redis options, these Redis instances are created separately.

If you bring your own Redis, you can choose to share the Redis instances or not. For internal compliance or security purposes, you might want separate Redis instances for each of these use cases. As such, the following guide assumes a separate deployment, and uses separate secrets. However, you can also share a single external Redis instance and update the names accordingly.

Default (no backing storage)

By default, no backing storage is configured for the external auth server. For testing purposes, you can manually create backing storage, such as saving an API key’s details in a Kubernetes secret (for example steps, see Require API key external auth for Gloo Portal).

Otherwise, set up one of the backing storage options.

Built-in local Redis

When you install Gloo Mesh Enterprise, a local Redis instance redis is set up in the gloo-mesh namespace of the workload cluster. The rate limiting server automatically reads and writes to this Redis instance. However, you must manually configure the Gloo external auth server to read from and write data to this Redis instance.

  1. Include the same local Redis settings for the external auth and portal servers when you install or upgrade Gloo Mesh Enterprise. Review the following table to understand the settings. For more information, check the Helm reference.

    Ext auth settingDescription
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.nameUse Redis as the backing storage for API keys.
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKeyReplace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.hostThe host that the Redis instance is available on, set to the local redis service in the gloo-mesh namespace: redis.gloo-mesh:6379.
    • Helm command:
      helm upgrade --install gloo-agent-addons gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
   --namespace gloo-mesh \
   --create-namespace \
   --version $GLOO_VERSION \
   --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
   --set extAuthService.enabled=true \
   --set rateLimiter.enabled=true \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.name=redis \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.host="redis.gloo-mesh:6379" \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey="ThisIsSecret"
    • Helm values file: If you use a Helm values file, make sure that the following settings are enabled.
      extAuthService:
  enabled: true
  extAuth:
    apiKeyStorage:
      # Use the local gloo-mesh Redis for backing storage
      name: redis
      config:
        host: "redis.gloo-mesh:6379"
      # Replace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
      secretKey: "ThisIsSecret"

  2. Continue with the Install or Upgrade guides for more instructions to finish your installation or upgrade.

Bring your own Redis

Instead of using the built-in local Redis instance, you can achieve higher availability, disaster recovery, and enhanced control and security by bringing your own Redis cluster. Unlike for the Gloo management server or UI, do not install a local instance of Redis. Instead, create an instance outside your cluster environment, such as Redis Enterprise or a cloud provider service like AWS ElastiCache. Then, you include the settings for your external Redis instance when you install or upgrade your Gloo Helm chart. This way, you can support multicluster use cases to use the same external Redis for the API keys shared by the Gloo external auth and portal servers.

When you bring your own Redis cluster, you can also customize the following aspects:

  • Authentication: To authenticate with your Redis instance, you can configure Gloo Mesh to use a username and password when connecting to Redis. Depending on your Redis provider, you might only need to specify a password to authenticate with Redis. You store these credentials in a Kubernetes secret in the same namespace as the external auth server deployment.

  1. Create or use an existing Redis cluster, such as AWS ElastiCache or Google Cloud Memorystore.

  2. Make sure that you can connect to your instance from the Gloo management cluster. For example, your cloud provider might require for the cluster and Redis instance to share the same virtual private network (VPC). For more information, consult your cloud provider documentation, such as AWS ElastiCache or Google Cloud Memorystore.

  3. Choose how to authenticate with your Redis cluster. Depending on your Redis provider, you might be required to use a specific authentication method, such as a username and password.

  4. Create a Kubernetes secret to store your Redis auth credentials. If you use Gloo Portal, you must create separate secrets with the same credentials for the portal and external auth servers.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: Opaque
metadata:
   name: extauth-redis-auth-secret
   namespace: gloo-mesh
data:
  username: "<username>"
  password: "<password>"
EOF
    SettingDescription
    nameThe name for the secret.
    namespaceCreate the secret in the same namespace as the server that the secret is for, such as gloo-mesh.
    usernameThe base64-encoded username of your Redis credentials. If your instance does not have a username, you can omit this field.
    passwordThe base64-encoded password of your Redis credentials.

  5. Include the external Redis settings for the external auth server when you install or upgrade Gloo Mesh Enterprise. Review the following table to understand the matching settings. For more information, check the Helm reference.

    Ext auth settingDescription
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.nameUse Redis as the backing storage for API keys.
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKeyReplace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.hostReplace $REDIS_HOST with the host and port that the Redis instance is available on. This host might need to be on the same virtual private network as your cluster or need to have a VPN connection.
    • An example Amazon ElastiCache host might look like redis-cluster.ameaqx.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com. For more information, see the Amazon ElastiCache docs.
    • An example Google Cloud Memorystore host might look like 10.xxx.xx.xx:6379 in the same VPC as your cluster. For more information, see the Google Cloud Memorystore docs.
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.enabledOptionally add this section to authenticate with your Redis cluster by using a username and password.
    extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.secretNameSpecify the name of the secret that is in the same namespace as the external auth or portal server deployment, such as gloo-mesh.
    • Helm command:
      helm upgrade --install gloo-agent-addons gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
   --namespace gloo-mesh \
   --create-namespace \
   --version $GLOO_VERSION \
   --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
   --set extAuthService.enabled=true \
   --set rateLimiter.enabled=true \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.host="$REDIS_HOST" \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.db=0 \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey="ThisIsSecret" \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.enabled=true \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.secretName=extauth-redis-auth-secret
    • Helm values file: If you use a Helm values file, make sure that the following settings are enabled.
      extAuthService:
  enabled: true
  extAuth:
    apiKeyStorage:
      # Use an external Redis instance for backing storage
      name: redis
      enabled: true
      config:
        # Provide the host to your external Redis instance, such as AWS ElastiCache or Google Cloud Memorystore
        host: "$REDIS_HOST"
      # Replace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
      secretKey: "ThisIsSecret"
      # Optionally enable authentication for Redis with the username and password in the referenced secret.
      redis:
        auth:
          enabled: true
          secretName: extauth-redis-auth-secret

  6. Continue with the Install or Upgrade guides or Upgrade guides for more instructions to finish your installation or upgrade.

  7. Optional: Verify that the external auth server is configured with your external Redis instance details.

    1. Verify that the secrets are created.

        kubectl get secrets -n gloo-mesh

      Example output:

        NAME                                      TYPE                    DATA   AGE
ext-auth-service-api-key-secret-key       Opaque                  1      47s
ext-auth-service-api-key-storage          Opaque                  1      47s
ext-auth-service-signing-key              Opaque                  1      47s

    2. Log in to the external auth server pod, and verify that the host information is stored along the config path that you set.

      1. Log in to the external auth server pod.
          kubectl exec -it -n gloo-mesh pods/$(kubectl get pod -l app=ext-auth-service -A -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- /bin/sh
      2. Check the file contents at the config path that you set, such as /etc/apikeys/storage-config.yaml.
          cat /etc/apikeys/storage-config.yaml
      3. Confirm that the value matches the host address for your external Redis instance ($REDIS_HOST).
      4. To log out of the pod, enter exit.

  1. * Redis is a registered trademark of Redis Ltd. Any rights therein are reserved to Redis Ltd. Any use by Solo.io, Inc. is for referential purposes only and does not indicate any sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation between Redis and Solo.io. ↩︎