What is Apigee Emulator

This page applies to Apigee and Apigee hybrid.

View Apigee Edge documentation.

Apigee Emulator is a customized Docker image provided publicly to developers to deploy and test API proxies in a local development environment. Docker images are published regularly in gcr.

When you are ready to deploy and test your first API proxy, you will need to use the emulators section to view and manage your emulator versions and the lifecycle of the emulators that are set up.

This section lets you:

Details of emulators section

Managing the Apigee Emulator

Manage the Apigee Emulator as described in the following sections. See also Exploring the Apigee Emulator.

Choosing the emulator version

Emulator view by default shows a version which is stable. However its simple to choose a different version based on your requirement.

  1. View a list of Apigee Emulator versions using one of the following methods and note the Tag value:

  2. To add an Apigee Emulator version to the Cloud Code extension, click Manage > Settings and then search for apigee emulators.

  3. Click Add item. Emulator settings

  4. Enter the Tag value obtained in step 1. For example: 1.10.0 or google/apigee-emulator:1.10.0

  5. Click OK.

  6. The newly added emulator will show up in the emulator view.

Installing the Apigee Emulator

To install the Apigee Emulator:

  1. Expand the emulators item under Local development to see the emulators listed there. Expand Apigee Emulators

  2. Position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator version that you want to install.

  3. Click Install Apigee Emulator.

    Install Apigee Emulator

    You are prompted to configure the Apigee Emulator container.

  4. Enter a unique name for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter.
    Enter alphanumeric characters, dashes (-), or underscores (_).

  5. Enter a unique numeric value to use as the control port for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter. The control port defaults to 8080.

  6. Enter a unique numeric value to use as the traffic port for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter.
    The traffic port defaults to 8998.

The latest image of the selected Apigee Emulator version is installed. After the installation completes, the following message displays, Emulator installed successfully, and the Apigee Emulator container status changes to Ready.

Install Apigee Emulator

Adding a container for the Apigee Emulator

To add a container for the Apigee Emulator using the UI:

  1. Expand the emulators section under Local development.

    Expand Apigee Emulators

  2. Position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator for which you want to add a container.

  3. Click +. You are prompted to configure the container.

  4. Enter the numeric value to use as the control port for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter.
    The control port must be unique across containers. It defaults to 8080.

  5. Enter the numeric value to use as the traffic port for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter.
    The traffic port must be unique across containers. It defaults to 8998.

  6. Enter a unique name for the Apigee Emulator container and press Enter. Enter alphanumeric characters, dashes (-), or underscores (_).

The container is added.

Viewing status information for the Apigee Emulator

View status information for the Apigee Emulator as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To view status information for the Apigee Emulator including its Docker and Runtime information, expand the container in the Apigee Emulators section. The information you see matches the Apigee Emulator version in use.

Apigee Emulator status information

Using the Docker CLI

To view container status information for the Apigee Emulator and its configured ports, run docker ps in the Terminal tab. The following provides an example response. The actual response you see depends on the Apigee Emulator version in use:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                COMMAND       CREATED        STATUS        PORTS                                      NAMES
33756b8c5c5b   ...apigee-emulator:1.11.0   "/usr/bin…"   10 hours ago   Up 10 hours   7000-7001/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp...   apigee-emulator

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Starting the Apigee Emulator

Start the Apigee Emulator as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To start the Apigee Emulator, position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator container that you want to start and click Start Apigee Emulator icon.

Using the Docker CLI

To start the Apigee Emulator, run docker start apigee-emulator in the Terminal tab.

The status set to Ready:

Apigee Emulator status information

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Resetting the Apigee Emulator

Reset the Apigee Emulator to remove all deployments and exported test resources as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To reset the Apigee Emulator, position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator container in the Apigee Emulators section and click Reset Apigee Emulator icon.

The Apigee Emulator is reset and the status is set to Ready:

Apigee Emulator status information

The following information is displayed in the Output tab:

Resetting the Apigee Emulator
Reset completed

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Restarting the Apigee Emulator

To restart the Apigee Emulator, run docker restart container-name in the Terminal tab. For example: docker restart MyContainer

The following provides an example of the response: MyContainer

Updating the Apigee Emulator

If the Apigee Emulator is out of sync with the latest version, you can update your installed version using the UI or Docker CLI, as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To update the Apigee Emulator, position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator in the Apigee Emulators section and click Update Apigee Emulator icon.

Using the Docker CLI

To update the Apigee Emulator, run the following Docker commands in the Terminal tab, using the latest appropriate version:

  • Run docker ps to obtain the image name.
    Example: gcr.io/apigee-release/hybrid/apigee-emulator:Emulator version

  • Run docker pull imagename to update the Apigee Emulator installation image.
    Example: docker pull gcr.io/apigee-release/hybrid/apigee-emulator:Emulator version

The Apigee Emulator is updated and the following message is displayed: Emulator version is up to date

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Stopping the Apigee Emulator

Stop the Apigee Emulator using the UI or Docker CLI as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To stop the Apigee Emulator, position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator container in the Apigee Emulators section and click Stop Apigee Emulator icon.

Using the Docker CLI

To stop the Apigee Emulator, run docker stop apigee-emulatorin the Terminal tab.

The Apigee Emulator is stopped and the status is changed to Not running:

Not running

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Deleting a container for the Apigee Emulator

Delete a container for the Apigee Emulator using the UI or Docker CL as described in the following sections.

Using the UI

To delete the Apigee Emulator, position your cursor over the Apigee Emulator container in the Apigee Emulators section and click .

Using the Docker CLI

To delete a container for the Apigee Emulator, run the following Docker commands in the Terminal tab:

  • Run docker stop container to stop the Apigee Emulator installation image (if it's not already stopped).
    For example: docker stop MyContainer

  • Run docker rm container to stop the Apigee Emulator installation image.
    For example: docker rm MyContainer

The container is deleted.

See also Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container

You can customize the Docker command line that is used to control the Apigee Emulator instances by using the following options.

Option Description
additionalArguments Add one or more arguments. The arguments are added to the docker run command exactly as provided. Defaults to "" (none).
detached Controls whether the --detached option is used while running the container. Defaults to true.
dns Controls the DNS service -dns flag, as described in DNS services. Defaults to 8.8.8.8.
environmentVariables Add environment variables to the docker run command, as described in Options. The values, if provided, are added to the docker run command using -e name=value. Default list includes "XTERM": "xterm-256color".
labels Add one or more labels to be attached with the container. The labels are added to the docker run command using -l label:value. Defaults to none.
privileged Controls whether --privileged option is used while running the container. Defaults to true.
volumes Add one or more volumes to be mounted on the container. The volumes are added to the docker run command using -v label:value. Defaults to none.

To customize the Apigee runtime Docker container:

  1. This feature is available as part of the Insiders build (v1.21.0 and higher). Install the Insiders build, as described in Installing Insiders builds.

  2. Click Manage > Settings and then search for apigee docker.

  3. Under Cloudcode > Apigee: Docker Options, click Edit in settings.json. The customizable options are displayed in the settings.json file, as shown:

    "cloudcode.apigee.dockerOptions": {
      "environmentVariables": {
          "XTERM": "xterm-256-color"
      },
      "dns": "8.8.8.8",
      "detached": true
      "privileged": true,
      "labels": {},
      "volumes": {},
      "additionalArguments":""
    }
  4. Edit the options, as required, and save the file.

Customizing the Apigee Emulator to support service account-based authentication

When testing the proxies that depend on Google Cloud service account-based authentication, Apigee Emulator needs access to the Google service account key. Follow the steps to configure your Apigee Emulator to support service account-based authentication.

Creating and downloading the service account key

Create a Google cloud service account with Service Account Token Creator role which is a requirement for the Apigee Emulator to support service accounts. Create a key for the service account, as described in Create a service account key..

Download the key to local file system, so that it can be provided to the Apigee emulator.

Configuring the Apigee Emulator

To configure the Apigee Emulator settings:

  1. Open the Docker options, as described in Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container above.

  2. In the volumes section of the Docker options add a new volume so that the downloaded service account key path can be made available in the container. Assuming the key was downloaded in the path /opt/apigee/keys/apigee-sa-key.json, the following setting mounts the contents of /opt/apigee/keys in the path /emulator/keys within the container:

    "volumes": {
      "/opt/apigee/keys":"/emulator/keys"
    }
  3. In the environmentVariables section of the Docker options add the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS variable that points to the file in the mounted path:

    "environmentVariables": {
      "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS":"/emulator/keys/apigee-sa-key.json"
    }

  4. Save the settings and create a new container instance which can be used for testing.

The following example shows how to associate a Google service account key with the Apigee Emulator.

"cloudcode.apigee.dockerOptions": {
      "environmentVariables": {
          "XTERM": "xterm-256-color",
          "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS":"/emulator/keys/apigee-sa-key.json"
      },
      "dns": "8.8.8.8",
      "detached": true
      "privileged": true,
      "labels": {},
      "volumes": {
         "/opt/apigee/keys":"/emulator/keys"
      },
      "additionalArguments":""
    }

Configuring the Apigee Emulator to support HTTP forward proxy

Many times the backend targets associated with a proxy can only be reached using an HTTP forward proxy. The Apigee emulator can be configured to use the forward proxy while connecting to targets using an environment variable named FORWARD_PROXY.

To configure the Apigee Emulator settings:

  1. Open the Docker options, as described in Customizing the Apigee runtime Docker container.

  2. In the environmentVariables section of the Docker options, add the FORWARD_PROXY variable that points to the forward proxy address as an HTTP URL

    "environmentVariables": {
      "FORWARD_PROXY":"http://proxy_host:proxy_port"
    }

  3. Save the settings and create a new container instance for testing.