Configure the Kong Gateway datastore on Linux

Uses: Kong Gateway

Incompatible with

konnect

Prerequisites

Install Kong Gateway

Install PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL using the following steps:

Update the package list:
```
sudo apt update
```
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Install PostgreSQL:

sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

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Enable PostgreSQL to start on boot:
```
sudo systemctl enable postgresql
```
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Enable the PostgreSQL module and install PostgreSQL 15:

 sudo dnf module list postgresql
 sudo dnf module enable postgresql:15 -y

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Install PostgreSQL server and contrib packages:
```
 sudo dnf install -y postgresql-server
```
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Initialize the PostgreSQL database:

 sudo systemctl enable postgresql
 sudo systemctl start postgresql

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Configure PostgreSQL authentication (RHEL only)

On Red Hat–based distributions, PostgreSQL defaults to ident or peer authentication. Kong Gateway requires password-based authentication.

Edit the active pg_hba.conf file and update local and localhost rules to use md5, then restart PostgreSQL:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql

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By default, the pg_hba.conf file is located at /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.

Configure environment variables

Set the following variables so that kong.conf can interact with the datastore:

  export KONG_DATABASE=postgres
  export KONG_PG_HOST=127.0.0.1
  export KONG_PG_PORT=5432
  export KONG_PG_USER=kong
  export KONG_PG_PASSWORD=super_secret
  export KONG_PG_DATABASE=kong

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Configure PostgreSQL

Switch to the default PostgreSQL user:
```
 sudo -i -u postgres
```
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Start the PostgreSQL shell:
```
 psql
```
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Create a kong user and password:

 CREATE USER kong WITH PASSWORD 'super_secret';

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Create a database titled kong and assign the user as an owner:
```
 CREATE DATABASE kong OWNER kong;
```
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Exit PostgreSQL:
```
 \quit
```
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Exit the PostgreSQL shell:
```
 exit
```
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Run a Kong Gateway database migration

kong migrations is used to configure the database for the first time. Running bootstrap forces Kong Gateway to bootstrap the database set up in the previous step and run all of the migrations:

sudo -E kong migrations bootstrap

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This command must be run as the root user.

This command must be run with sudo -E to preserve the environment variables set in the prerequisites. If the kong command is not found when running with sudo, you can create a symlink so it is available from the default PATH: sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/kong /usr/bin/kong

Validate

You can validate that the datastore was configured correctly by starting Kong Gateway.

Start Kong Gateway:
```
 sudo -E kong start
```
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Verify the installation:
```
 curl -i http://localhost:8001
```
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If you receive a 200 status code, Kong Gateway was configured correctly. You can now start to configure your API gateway with plugins and other entities.