Getting Started with Endpoints on Compute Engine with Docker

This tutorial shows you how to configure and deploy a sample API and the Extensible Service Proxy (ESP) running in prebuilt Docker containers on 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 requests 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. Create a Compute Engine VM instance. See Creating a Compute Engine instance.
3. Download the sample code. See Getting the sample code.
4. Configure the openapi.yaml file, which is used to configure Endpoints. See Configuring Endpoints.
5. Deploy the Endpoints configuration to create a Cloud Endpoints service. See Deploying the Endpoints configuration.
6. Deploy the API and ESP on the Compute Engine VM. See Deploying the API backend.
7. Send a request to the API via IP address. See Sending a request via IP address.
8. Configure a DNS record for the sample API. See Configuring DNS for Endpoints.
9. Send a request to the API using the domain name. See Sending a request via FQDN.
10. Track API activity. See Tracking API activity.
11. 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 GCP project.

   Go to the Manage resources page

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your project.

   Learn how to enable billing

4. Note the project ID, because you'll need it later.

5. You will need an application to send requests to the sample API.

   • Linux and Mac users: This tutorial provides an example using curl, which typically comes pre-installed on your operating system. If you don't have curl, you can download it from the curl Releases and Downloads page.
   • Windows users: This tutorial provides an example using Invoke-WebRequest, which is supported in PowerShell 3.0 and later.
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.

Creating a Compute Engine instance

To create a Compute Engine instance:

1. In the GCP Console, go to the VM Instances page.

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Click Create instance.
3. In the Firewall section, select Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS traffic.
4. Click Create to create the instance.



Allow a short time for the instance to start up. Once ready, it will be listed on the VM Instances page with a green status icon.

5. Make sure you that you can connect to your VM instance.
   1. In the list of virtual machine instances, click SSH in the row of the instance that you want to connect to.
   2. You can now use the terminal to run Linux commands on your Debian instance.
   3. Enter exit to disconnect from the instance.
6. Note the instance Name, Zone, and External IP address because you'll need them later.

Downloading the sample code

Download the sample code to your local machine.

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. You configure and deploy openapi.yaml on your local machine.

To configure Endpoints:

1. In the sample code directory, open the openapi.yaml configuration file.
   Java

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   Python

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   Go

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   PHP

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   Ruby

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   NodeJS

   endpoints/getting-started/openapi.yaml

   View on GitHub

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "echo-api.endpoints.YOUR-PROJECT-ID.cloud.goog"

   Note the following:

   • The configuration sample displays the lines near the host field, which you need to modify. To deploy openapi.yaml to Cloud Endpoints, the complete OpenAPI document is required.
   • The example openapi.yaml contains a section for configuring authentication that is not needed for this tutorial. You do not need to configure the lines with YOUR-SERVICE-ACCOUNT-EMAIL and YOUR-CLIENT-ID.
   • OpenAPI is a language-agnostic specification. The same openapi.yaml file is in the getting-started sample in each language GitHub repository for convenience.

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-12345.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.

For information about the fields in the OpenAPI document that Cloud Endpoints requires, see Configuring Endpoints.

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 the gcloud endpoints services deploy command. This command uses Google Service Management, an infrastructure service of GCP 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 endpoints services deploy openapi.yaml
   

The first time you deploy, a new Cloud Endpoints service is created with the name that you specified in the host field of the openapi.yaml file. The service is configured according to the settings in the openapi.yaml file. When you make changes to openapi.yaml, you must redeploy the file to update the Cloud Endpoints service.

As the service is being configured, you will see a great deal of information on 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 [2017-02-13r0] uploaded for service [echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.cloud.goog]

In the example above, 2017-02-13r0 is the service configuration ID. The service configuration ID consists of a date stamp followed by a revision number. If you deploy openapi.yaml again on the same day, the revision number is incremented in the service configuration ID.

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting Endpoints Configuration Deployment.

See Deploying the Endpoints Configuration for additional information.

Deploying the API backend

So far you have deployed the OpenAPI document to Service Management, but you have not yet deployed the code that will serve the API backend. This section walks you through getting Docker set up on your VM instance and running the API backend code and the Extensible Service Proxy in a Docker container.

Install Docker on the VM Instance

To install Docker on the VM instance

1. Set the zone for your project by invoking the command:

   gcloud config set compute/zone [YOUR_INSTANCE_ZONE]
   

   Replace [YOUR_INSTANCE_ZONE] with the zone where your instance is running. Do not include the square brackets.

2. Connect to your instance using the following command:

   gcloud compute ssh [INSTANCE_NAME]
   

   Replace [INSTANCE_NAME] with your VM instance name. Do not include the square brackets.

3. See the Docker documentation to set up the Docker repository. Make sure to follow the steps that match the version and architecture of your VM instance:
   • Jessie or newer
   • x86_64 / amd64

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. Create your own container network called esp_net.

   sudo docker network create --driver bridge esp_net
   

2. Run the sample Echo server that serves the sample API:
   Java

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

   Python

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

   Go

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

   PHP

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

   Ruby

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

   NodeJS

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

3. Run the pre-packaged public Extensible Service Proxy Docker container. In the ESP startup options, replace [SERVICE_NAME] with the name of your service. This is the same name that you configured in the host field of your OpenAPI document.

   sudo docker run \
       --name=esp \
       --detach \
       --publish=80:8080 \
       --net=esp_net \
       gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1 \
       --service=[SERVICE_NAME] \
       --rollout_strategy=managed \
       --backend=echo:8080
   

   The --rollout_strategy=managed option configures ESP to use the latest deployed service configuration. When you specify this option, within a minute after you deploy a new service configuration, ESP detects the change and automatically begins using it. We recommend that you specify this option instead of a specific configuration ID for ESP to use. For information about the other ESP options used above, see ESP Startup Options.

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting Cloud Endpoints on Compute Engine.

See Deploying the API Backend for additional information.

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 from your local machine.

To send a request to the API

1. In the same GCP project that you used for your API, create an API key on the API credentials page. (See Enabling an API in Your Cloud Project if you want to create an API key in a different GCP project.).
   

   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 using the ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variable set previously:

   • In Linux or Mac OS:

       curl --request POST \
           --header "content-type:application/json" \
           --data '{"message":"hello world"}' \
           "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.

The API echoes back the message that you send it, and responds with the following:

{
  "message": "hello world"
}

In the above curl:

• The --data option specifies the data to post to the API.
• The --header option specifies the header.
• The query parameter key is set to the API key. The example uses the environment variable ${ENDPOINTS_KEY}. If you did not set the environment variable, you can copy/paste the API key as the value for the key query parameter. In that case, do not surround it with ${}.

If you would prefer to use an application such as Postman to send the request, you would configure it as follows:

• Select POST as the HTTP verb.
• For the header, select the key content-type and the value application/json.
• For the body, enter the following:

  {"message":"hello world"}

• In the URL, use the actual API key rather than the environment variable. For example:

  http://192.0.2.0:80/echo?key=AIzaSyBmDH4jBQhbR7yxKJ9IAq-Dmlio5Wh3rD0

If you did not get a successful response, see Troubleshooting Response Errors.

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.[YOUR_PROJECT_ID].cloud.goog"
       x-google-endpoints:
       - name: "echo-api.endpoints.[YOUR_PROJECT_ID].cloud.goog"
         target: "[IP_ADDRESS]"
   

2. In the name property, replace [YOUR_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 endpoints services deploy openapi.yaml
   

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

    host: "echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.cloud.goog"
    x-google-endpoints:
    - name: "echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.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.

Configuring SSL

For more details on how to configure DNS & SSL, see Enabling SSL for Cloud Endpoints.

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 [YOUR_PROJECT_ID] with your project ID) and the ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variable set previously:

• In Linux or Mac OS:

          curl --request POST \
              --header "content-type:application/json" \
              --data '{"message":"hello world"}' \
              "http://echo-api.endpoints.[YOUR_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.[YOUR_PROJECT_ID]:80/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content

You just deployed and tested an API in Cloud Endpoints!

It worked!

Great! If you want to let us know what you liked about this Quickstart, feel free to provide feedback.

I got an error

Bummer. Let us know what went wrong and we'll work to fix this Quickstart.

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

Creating a developer portal for the API

You can use Cloud Endpoints Portal to create a developer portal, a website that you can use to interact with the sample API. To learn more, see Cloud Endpoints Portal Overview.

Clean up

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

1. Delete the API:

   gcloud endpoints services delete [SERVICE_NAME]
   

   Replace [SERVICE_NAME] with the name of your service.

2. In the GCP Console, go to the VM Instances page.

   Go to the VM Instances page

3. Click the checkbox next to the instance you want to delete.
4. Click the Delete button at the top of the page to delete the instance.

What's next

• Share your API with another developer
• Learn more about Authentication
• Learn about community support options