External auth server

Review how the Gloo external authentication server backs up data and your setup options to make the backing database more resilient. For more information about the feature, see External authentication and authorization.

What data gets stored

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

Review data in Redis

To review the data, you can connect to the Redis instance. The following examples use the default local Redis instance (redis deployment) that is installed for you in the gloo-mesh-addons namespace. If you bring your own Redis, you must use those connection values.

Backing storage options

Review the following options for setting up backing storage.

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 Platform Portal.

Otherwise, set up one of the backing storage options.

Built-in local Redis

When you install Gloo Platform, a local Redis instance redis is set up in the gloo-mesh-addons 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 Platform. Review the following table to understand the settings. For more information, check the Helm reference.

   Ext auth setting	Description
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.name	Use Redis as the backing storage for API keys.
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey	Replace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.host	The host that the Redis instance is available on, set to the local redis service in the gloo-mesh-addons namespace: redis.gloo-mesh-addons:6379.
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.db	The Redis database to use. The default value is 0.

   • Helm command
   • Helm values file

   helm upgrade --install gloo-agent-addons gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
      --namespace gloo-mesh-addons \
      --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.connection.host="redis.gloo-mesh-addons:6379" \
      --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.db=0 \
      --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey="ThisIsSecret"
   

   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-addons Redis for backing storage
         name: redis
         config:
           connection:
             host: "redis.gloo-mesh-addons:6379"
             # Set to 0 to match the default database for the 'glooPortalServer.apiKeyStorage' configuration
             db: 0
         # 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. This external Redis cluster is hosted outside your cluster, such as by using a cloud provider service like AWS ElastiCache. 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.

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

   Ext auth setting	Description
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.name	Use Redis as the backing storage for API keys.
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey	Replace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
   extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.host	Replace $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.config.connection.db	The Redis database to use. The default value is 0.

   • Helm command
   • Helm values file

   helm upgrade --install gloo-agent-addons gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
      --namespace gloo-mesh-addons \
      --create-namespace \
      --version $GLOO_VERSION \
      --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
      --set extAuthService.enabled=true \
      --set rateLimiter.enabled=true \
      --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.host="$REDIS_HOST" \
      --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.config.connection.db=0 \
      --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.secretKey="ThisIsSecret"
   

   If you use a Helm values file, make sure that the following settings are enabled.

   extAuthService
     enabled: true
     extAuth:
       apiKeyStorage:
         # Use an external Redis database for backing storage
         name: redis
         config:
           connection:
             # Provide the host to your external Redis database, such as AWS ElastiCache or Google Cloud Memorystore
             host: "$REDIS_HOST"
             # Set to 0 to match the default database for the 'glooPortalServer.apiKeyStorage' configuration
             db: 0
         # Replace with a random string to use to generate hash values for other keys
         secretKey: "ThisIsSecret"
   

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

5. Optional: Verify that the external auth server is configured with your external Redis database details.

   1. Verify that the secrets are created.

      kubectl get secrets -n gloo-mesh-addons
      

      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-addons 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 database ($REDIS_HOST).
      4. To log out of the pod, enter exit.