APISIX API Gateway setup for web application

API Gateway Setup (APISIX) for Web Application

Apache APISIX is a high-performance API Gateway based on nginx/OpenResty with ETCD for configuration storage. Supports dynamic configuration updates without restart, 80+ plugins, and works in Kubernetes via Ingress Controller.

Architecture

Client → APISIX Gateway (nginx/OpenResty) → Upstream Services
                    ↕
              ETCD (config store)
                    ↕
              APISIX Dashboard

ETCD is required — it stores all configuration (routes, upstreams, plugins). Changes are applied in real-time via watch.

Docker Compose Installation

version: '3.8'
services:
  etcd:
    image: bitnami/etcd:3.5
    environment:
      ALLOW_NONE_AUTHENTICATION: "yes"
      ETCD_ADVERTISE_CLIENT_URLS: http://etcd:2379
      ETCD_LISTEN_CLIENT_URLS: http://0.0.0.0:2379

  apisix:
    image: apache/apisix:3.9.1-debian
    volumes:
      - ./apisix_conf/config.yaml:/usr/local/apisix/conf/config.yaml
    ports:
      - "9080:9080"   # HTTP
      - "9443:9443"   # HTTPS
      - "9180:9180"   # Admin API
      - "9091:9091"   # Prometheus metrics
    depends_on: [etcd]

  apisix-dashboard:
    image: apache/apisix-dashboard:3.0.1-alpine
    volumes:
      - ./dashboard_conf/conf.yaml:/usr/local/apisix-dashboard/conf/conf.yaml
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    depends_on: [etcd]

# apisix_conf/config.yaml
apisix:
  node_listen: 9080
  enable_ipv6: false
  enable_admin: true
  admin_key:
    - name: admin
      key: supersecret-admin-key
      role: admin

deployment:
  admin:
    admin_listen:
      ip: 0.0.0.0
      port: 9180

etcd:
  host:
    - "http://etcd:2379"
  prefix: "/apisix"
  timeout: 30

plugin_attr:
  prometheus:
    export_addr:
      ip: 0.0.0.0
      port: 9091

Creating a Route via Admin API

BASE_URL="http://localhost:9180/apisix/admin"
KEY="supersecret-admin-key"

# Create upstream
curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/upstreams/1 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "roundrobin",
    "nodes": {
      "users-service:3000": 1,
      "users-service-2:3000": 1
    },
    "checks": {
      "active": {
        "http_path": "/health",
        "interval": 5,
        "healthy": { "successes": 2 },
        "unhealthy": { "http_failures": 3 }
      }
    }
  }'

# Create route
curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/1 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v1/users/*",
    "methods": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"],
    "upstream_id": "1",
    "plugins": {
      "jwt-auth": {},
      "rate-limiting": {
        "count": 100,
        "time_window": 60,
        "key": "remote_addr",
        "policy": "redis",
        "redis_host": "redis",
        "redis_port": 6379
      },
      "cors": {
        "allow_origins": "https://app.company.com",
        "allow_methods": "GET,POST,PUT,DELETE",
        "allow_headers": "Authorization,Content-Type",
        "allow_credential": true
      }
    }
  }'

JWT Plugin

# Create consumer
curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/consumers/mobile-app \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "username": "mobile-app",
    "plugins": {
      "jwt-auth": {
        "key": "mobile-app-key",
        "algorithm": "RS256",
        "public_key": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\n..."
      }
    }
  }'

Serverless Plugin (Custom Lua Logic)

curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/2 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v1/transformed",
    "upstream_id": "1",
    "plugins": {
      "serverless-pre-function": {
        "phase": "rewrite",
        "functions": [
          "return function(conf, ctx)\n  local headers = ngx.req.get_headers()\n  ngx.req.set_header(\"X-Tenant-ID\", headers[\"X-User-Tenant\"])\n  ngx.req.set_header(\"X-Internal-Key\", \"secret\")\nend"
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

Canary Deployments via Traffic Split

curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/3 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v2/feature",
    "plugins": {
      "traffic-split": {
        "rules": [
          {
            "match": [
              { "vars": [["http_x-canary", "==", "true"]] }
            ],
            "weighted_upstreams": [
              { "upstream_id": "2", "weight": 100 }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "weighted_upstreams": [
          { "upstream_id": "1", "weight": 90 },
          { "upstream_id": "2", "weight": 10 }
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

OpenID Connect (OIDC)

{
  "openid-connect": {
    "client_id": "myapp",
    "client_secret": "secret",
    "discovery": "https://auth.company.com/.well-known/openid-configuration",
    "redirect_uri": "https://api.company.com/callback",
    "scope": "openid profile email",
    "token_signing_alg_values_expected": ["RS256"],
    "set_access_token_header": true,
    "access_token_in_authorization_header": true
  }
}

Monitoring

# prometheus.yml scrape config
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: apisix
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['apisix:9091']
    metrics_path: /apisix/prometheus/metrics

Grafana dashboard ID 11719 is the official APISIX dashboard.

Timeline

Installing APISIX with Dashboard, basic plugins (JWT, rate-limit, CORS), and health checks — 2–3 days. Full configuration with OIDC, traffic split, and Kubernetes Ingress — 5–7 days.