Getting Started with Endpoints on Compute Engine with Docker

This tutorial shows you how to configure, deploy, and send requests to a sample API running in a Docker container in Google Compute Engine. The sample code's REST API is described using the OpenAPI Specification. The tutorial also shows you how to create an API key and use it in the request to the API.

For an overview of Cloud Endpoints, see About Cloud Endpoints and Cloud Endpoints Architecture.

Task List

Use the following high-level task list as you work through the tutorial. All tasks are required to successfully send requests to the API.

  1. Set up a Cloud Platform project. See Before you begin.
  2. Download the sample code. See Getting the sample code.
  3. Configure the openapi.yaml file, which is used to configure Endpoints. See Configuring Endpoints.
  4. Deploy the Endpoints configuration to create a Cloud Endpoints service. See Deploying the Endpoints configuration.
  5. Create a backend to serve the API and deploy the API. See Deploying the API backend.
  6. Send a request to the API via IP address. See Sending a request via IP address.
  7. Configure a DNS record for the sample API. See Configuring DNS for Endpoints.
  8. Send a request to the API via IP address. See Sending a request via FQDN.
  9. Track API activity. See Tracking API activity.
  10. Avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud Platform account. See Clean up.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google account.

    If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.

  2. Select or create a Cloud Platform project.

    Go to the Manage resources page

  3. Enable billing for your project.

    Enable billing

  4. Note the project ID, because you'll need it later.
  5. Install cURL for testing purposes. On Windows, this tutorial uses PowerShell's built in WebRequest support.
  6. Download the Google Cloud SDK.
  7. Update the Cloud SDK and install the Endpoints components. 
    gcloud components update
  8. Make sure that Cloud SDK (gcloud) is authorized to access your data and services on Google Cloud Platform: 
    gcloud auth login
    A new browser tab opens and you are prompted to choose an account.
  9. Set the default project to your project ID. 
    gcloud config set project [YOUR-PROJECT-ID]

    Replace [YOUR-PROJECT-ID] with your project ID. Do not include the square brackets. If you have other Cloud Platform projects, and you want to use gcloud to manage them, see Managing Cloud SDK Configurations.

Getting the sample code

Java

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/java-docs-samples

    Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

  2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd java-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started
Python

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/python-docs-samples

    Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

  2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd python-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started
Go

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Make sure your GOPATH environment variable is set.
  2. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    go get -u -d github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/golang-samples/endpoints/getting-started
  3. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/golang-samples/endpoints/getting-started
PHP

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/php-docs-samples

    Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

  2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd php-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started
Ruby

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/ruby-docs-samples

    Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

  2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd ruby-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started
NodeJS

To clone or download the sample API:

  1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine: 
    git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/nodejs-docs-samples

    Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

  2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code: 
    cd nodejs-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

Configuring Endpoints

The sample code includes the OpenAPI configuration file, openapi.yaml, which is based on OpenAPI Specification v2.0.

To configure Endpoints:
  1. In the sample code directory, open the openapi.yaml configuration file.

    Note: The configuration sample displays the lines that need to be edited. To run Cloud Endpoints, the complete configuration file is required.

  2. In the host field, replace the text with the Cloud Endpoints service name, which should be in the following format: 
    host: "echo-api.endpoints.[YOUR-PROJECT-ID].cloud.goog"

    Replace [YOUR-PROJECT-ID] with your project ID. Do not include the square brackets. For example:

    host: "echo-api.endpoints.example-project.cloud.goog"

Note that echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog is the Endpoints service name. It is not the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that you use for sending requests to the API.

After you have finished all the following configuration steps such that you can successfully send requests to the sample API using an IP address, see Configuring Endpoints DNS for information on how to configure echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog to be the FQDN.

Deploying the Endpoints configuration

To deploy the Endpoints configuration, you use Google Service Management, an infrastructure service of Google Cloud Platform that manages other APIs and services, including services created using Cloud Endpoints.

To deploy the Endpoints configuration:

  1. Go to the endpoints/getting-started directory.

  2. Invoke the following command:

    gcloud service-management deploy openapi.yaml

Service Management uses the text that you specified in the host field in the openapi.yaml file to create a new Cloud Endpoints service with the name echo-api.endpoints.[YOUR-PROJECT-ID].cloud.goog (if it does not exist), and then configures the service according to your OpenAPI configuration file.

As it is creating and configuring the service, Service Management outputs a great deal of information to the terminal. You can safely ignore the warnings about the paths in openapi.yaml not requiring an API key. On successful completion, you will see a line like the following that displays the service configuration ID and the service name:

Service Configuration [2017-02-13-r2] uploaded for service [echo-api.endpoints.example-project.cloud.goog]

Deploying the API backend

So far you have deployed the OpenAPI configuration to Service Management, but you have not yet deployed the code that will serve the API backend. This section walks you through creating a Compute Engine instance to host the API backend and deploying the API.

Creating a Compute Engine instance

To create a Compute Engine instance to run the sample API server and the required Extensible Service Proxy:

  1. Open the Create VM Instance page in the Google Cloud Platform Console.

    Create VM instance

  2. Check Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS traffic to the Firewall rules.

  3. Leave all other default values as they are.

  4. Click Create to create the instance.

  5. Make a note of the instance name, zone, and external IP address because you'll need them later. It can take a few minutes before the external IP address appears.

Running the API and Extensible Service Proxy in a Docker container

The Extensible Service Proxy is an nginx-based proxy that sits in front of your backend code. It processes incoming traffic to provide auth, API Key management, logging, and other Endpoints API Management features.

To install and run the sample API and the Extensible Service Proxy in a Docker container:

  1. Connect to your instance using SSH from the console.
    List instances and connect

    1. Click the SSH icon for your instance to open a terminal window into the instance:

    Connect to your instance using SSH

  2. Install Docker in the instance.

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker.io

  3. Run the sample Echo server that serves the sample API:

Java

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-java:1.0

Python

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-python:1.0

Go

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-go:1.0

PHP

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-php:1.0

Ruby

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-ruby:1.0

NodeJS

sudo docker run -d --name=echo gcr.io/google-samples/echo-node:1.0

  1. Display the service configuration ID and service name with the following command: 
    gcloud service-management configs list --service=echo-api.endpoints.[PROJECT-ID].cloud.goog

    Replace [PROJECT-ID]with your project ID. Do not include the square brackets.

  2. Run the pre-packaged public Extensible Service Proxy Docker container: 
    sudo docker run --name=esp -d -p 80:8080 --link=echo:echo gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1 -s [SERVICE_NAME] -v [SERVICE_CONFIG_ID] -a echo:8080

    Replace [SERVICE_NAME] and [SERVICE_CONFIG_ID] with the service name and service configuration ID returned from the previous step. Do not include the square brackets.

Sending a request via IP address

After the sample API and the Extensible Service Proxy are running on the Compute Engine instance, you can send requests to the API.

To send a request to the API

  1. Create an API key in the API credentials page.

    Create an API Key.

    1. Click Create credentials, then select API key.

    2. Copy the key, then paste it into the following environment variable statement:

      • In Linux or Mac OS: export ENDPOINTS_KEY=AIza...
      • In Windows PowerShell: $Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY="AIza..."

  2. Send an HTTP request using curl or Invoke-WebRequest:

    • In Linux or Mac OS: 
      curl -d '{"message":"hello world"}' -H "content-type:application/json" "http://[IP_ADDRESS]:80/echo?key=${ENDPOINTS_KEY}"
    • In Windows PowerShell: 
      (Invoke-WebRequest -Method POST -Body '{"message": "hello world"}' -Headers @{"content-type"="application/json"} -URI "http://[IP_ADDRESS]:80/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content

    Replace [IP_ADDRESS] with the external IP address of your instance. Do not include the square brackets.

Configuring DNS for Endpoints

Because the Cloud Endpoints service name for the API is in the .endpoints.PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog domain, you can use it as the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) by making a small configuration change in your openapi.yaml file. This way, you can send requests to the sample API using echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog instead of the IP address.

To configure Endpoints DNS:

  1. Open your OpenAPI configuration file, openapi.yaml, and add the x-google-endpoints property at the top level of the file (not indented or nested) as shown in the following snippet: 
        host: "echo-api.endpoints.[PROJECT_ID].cloud.goog"
    x-google-endpoints:
    - name: "echo-api.endpoints.[PROJECT_ID].cloud.goog"
      target: "[IP_ADDRESS]"
  2. In the name property, replace [PROJECT_ID] with your project ID. Do not include the square brackets.
  3. In the target property, replace [IP_ADDRESS] with the IP address that you used when you sent a request to the sample API. Do not include the square brackets.
  4. Deploy your updated OpenAPI configuration file to Service Management using the following command: 
        gcloud service-management deploy openapi.yaml

For example, assume openapi.yaml has the following configured: 

    host: "echo-api.endpoints.example-project.cloud.goog"
    x-google-endpoints:
    - name: "echo-api.endpoints.example-project.cloud.goog"
      target: "192.0.2.1"

When you deploy the openapi.yaml using the above gcloud command, Service Management creates a DNS A-record, echo-api.endpoints.my-project-id.cloud.goog, which resolves to the target IP address, 192.0.2.1. Note that it could take a few minutes for the new DNS configuration to propagate.

Sending a request via FQDN

Now that you've got the DNS record configured for the sample API, send a request to it using the FQDN (replace [PROJECT_ID] with your project ID):
  • In Linux or Mac OS: 
    curl -d '{"message":"hello world"}' -H "content-type:application/json" "http://echo-api.endpoints.[PROJECT_ID].cloud.goog:80/echo?key=${ENDPOINTS_KEY}"
  • In Windows PowerShell: 
    (Invoke-WebRequest -Method POST -Body '{"message": "hello world"}' -Headers @{"content-type"="application/json"} -URI "http://echo-api.endpoints.[PROJECT_ID]:80/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content

You just deployed and tested an API in Cloud Endpoints!

Tracking API activity

To track API activity:

  1. Look at the activity graphs for your API in the Endpoints page.
    View Endpoints activity graphs
    It may take a few moments for the request to be reflected in the graphs.

  2. Look at the request logs for your API in the Logs Viewer page.
    View Endpoints request logs

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud Platform account for the resources used in this quickstart:

See Deleting an API and API Instances for information on stopping the services used by this tutorial.

What's next

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