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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.

Planning to use the external auth server with Gloo Platform Portal? The details for the backing storage database must match for both components. For more information, see Portal server in the Gloo Gateway docs.

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 ext auth server enforces.

Backing storage options

Review the following options for setting up backing storage.

Option	Use case	Benefits	Drawbacks
Default (no backing storage)	Local testing in single clusters	Complete control of where data is stored Fast read/write speed as the database is local to the management server Updatable via Gloo Platform Helm chart	Data is not stored anywhere by default Manual creation, error-prone Not scalable, highly available, or recoverable
Built-in local Redis	Proof 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 database 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 Redis	Production-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)

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.

Using a local Redis instance is not a recommended practice for production. To achieve higher availability, disaster recovery and add other security features, bring your own Redis instance instead.

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"

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.

Using a Redis or AWS ElastiCache instance in cluster mode is currently not supported.

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.

Keep in mind that your external Redis database usually must be in the same cloud provider as your Gloo cluster, such as AWS ElastiCache and EC2 instances.

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

Create a Kubernetes secret to store your Redis auth credentials. If you use Gloo Platform 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-addons
data:
  username: "<username>"
  password: "<password>"
EOF

Setting	Description
name	The name for the secret.
namespace	Create the secret in the same namespace as the server that the secret is for, such as `gloo-mesh-addons`.
username	The base64-encoded username of your Redis credentials. If your instance does not have a username, you can omit this field.
password	The base64-encoded password of your Redis credentials.

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`.
extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.enabled	Optionally add this section to authenticate with your Redis cluster by using a username and password.
extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.secretName	Specify the name of the secret that is in the same namespace as the external auth or portal server deployment, such as `gloo-mesh-addons`.

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" \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.enabled=true \
   --set extAuthService.extAuth.apiKeyStorage.redis.auth.secretName=extauth-redis-auth-secret

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"
      # Optionally enable authentication for Redis with the username and password in the referenced secret.
      redis:
        auth:
          enabled: true
          secretName: extauth-redis-auth-secret

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