Getting started with Cloud Endpoints for GKE with ESP

---

OpenAPI   |  gRPC

This tutorial shows you how to configure and deploy a sample API and the Extensible Service Proxy (ESP) to a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster.

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 when sending requests to the API.

The tutorial uses prebuilt container images of the sample code and ESP, which are stored in Artifact Registry.

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

Objectives

Use the following high-level task list as you work through the tutorial. All tasks in Part 1 are required to successfully send requests to the API.

Part 1

1. Set up a Google Cloud project. See Before you begin.
2. Create a container cluster on GKE. See Creating a container cluster.
3. Install and configure software used in the tutorial. See Installing and configuring required software.
4. Download the sample code. See Getting the sample code.
5. Configure the openapi.yaml file, which is used to configure Cloud Endpoints. See Configuring Endpoints.
6. Deploy the Endpoints configuration to create a Endpoints service. See Deploying the Endpoints configuration.
7. Deploy the API and ESP to the cluster. See Deploying the API backend.
8. Get the cluster's IP address. See Getting the cluster's external IP address.
9. Send a request to the API by using an IP address. See Sending a request by using an IP address.
10. Track API activity. See Tracking API activity.

Part 2

1. Configure a DNS record for the sample API. See Configuring DNS for Endpoints.
2. Send a request to the API using the fully qualified domain name. See Sending a request by using FQDN.

Cleanup

When you're finished, see Cleaning up to avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account.

Costs

In this document, you use the following billable components of Google Cloud:

• GKE
• Endpoints

To generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage, use the pricing calculator. New Google Cloud users might be eligible for a free trial.

When you finish the tasks that are described in this document, you can avoid continued billing by deleting the resources that you created. For more information, see Clean up.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

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

4. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

5. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

6. Make a note of the Google Cloud project ID, because it's needed later.

Creating a container cluster

You must create a container cluster on GKE for the sample API backend code to run on.

To create a container cluster for the sample API:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the GKE clusters page.
   

   Go to the Kubernetes clusters page

2. Click Create cluster.

3. Accept the defaults and click Create. This step can take a few minutes to complete.

4. Make a note the cluster name and zone because they are needed when you authenticate kubectl to the container cluster.

Installing and configuring required software

In this tutorial, you install the gcloud CLI so that you can use the Google Cloud CLI to manage your project. You use kubectl to run commands against GKE clusters. You also need a way to test the API.

In the following procedure, if you already have the required software installed, continue with the next step.

To install and configure required software:

1. You need an application to send requests to the sample API.

   • Linux and macOS users: This tutorial provides an example of 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.
2. Install and initialize the gcloud CLI.
3. Update the gcloud CLI and install the Endpoints components:

   gcloud components update

4. Make sure that the Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) is authorized to access your data and services on Google Cloud:

   gcloud auth login

   In the new browser tab that opens, select an account.
5. Set the default project to your project ID:

   gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

   Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your project ID. If you have other Google Cloud projects, and you want to use gcloud to manage them, see Managing gcloud CLI configurations.

6. Install kubectl:

   gcloud components install kubectl

7. Acquire new user credentials to use for Application Default Credentials. The user credentials are needed to authorize kubectl.

   gcloud auth application-default login

   In the new browser tab that opens, select an account.

Downloading the sample code

To help you get up and running quickly, sample code is provided in several languages.

To 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 -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.
   Java

   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

   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

   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

   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

   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

   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 the openapi.yaml file to Endpoints, the complete OpenAPI document is required.
   • The example openapi.yaml file contains a section for configuring authentication that isn't needed for this tutorial. You don't 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 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 Google Cloud project ID. 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 isn't 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 Endpoints requires, see Configuring Endpoints.

After you finish 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 Service Management to create a managed service.

To deploy the Endpoints configuration:

1. Make sure you are in the endpoints/getting-started directory.
2. Upload the configuration and create a managed service:

   gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi.yaml
   

The gcloud command then calls the Service Management API to create a managed service with the name that you specified in the host field of the openapi.yaml file. Service Management configures the service according to the settings in the openapi.yaml file. When you make changes to openapi.yaml, you must redeploy the file to update the Endpoints service.

As it is creating and configuring the service, Service Management outputs information to the terminal. You can safely ignore the warnings about the paths in the openapi.yaml file not requiring an API key. When it finishes configuring the service, Service Management displays a message with the service configuration ID and the service name, similar to the following:

Service Configuration [2017-02-13r0] uploaded for service [echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.cloud.goog]

In the preceding example, 2017-02-13r0 is the service configuration ID, and echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.cloud.goog is the Endpoints service. The service configuration ID consists of a date stamp followed by a revision number. If you deploy the openapi.yaml file again on the same day, the revision number is incremented in the service configuration ID. You can view the Endpoints service configuration on the Endpoints > Services page in the Google Cloud console.

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting Endpoints configuration deployment.

Checking required services

At a minimum, Endpoints and ESP require the following Google services to be enabled:

Name	Title
servicemanagement.googleapis.com	Service Management API
servicecontrol.googleapis.com	Service Control API

In most cases, the gcloud endpoints services deploy command enables these required services. However, the gcloud command completes successfully but doesn't enable the required services in the following circumstances:

• If you used a third-party application such as Terraform, and you don't include these services.

• You deployed the Endpoints configuration to an existing Google Cloud project in which these services were explicitly disabled.

Use the following command to confirm that the required services are enabled:

gcloud services list

If you do not see the required services listed, enable them:

gcloud services enable servicemanagement.googleapis.com
gcloud services enable servicecontrol.googleapis.com

Also enable your Endpoints service:

gcloud services enable ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME

To determine the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME you can either:

• After deploying the Endpoints configuration, go to the Endpoints page in the Cloud console. The list of possible ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME are shown under the Service name column.

• For OpenAPI, the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME is what you specified in the host field of your OpenAPI spec. For gRPC, the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME is what you specified in the name field of your gRPC Endpoints configuration.

For more information about the gcloud commands, see gcloud services.

Deploying the API backend

So far you have deployed the OpenAPI document to Service Management, but you haven't yet deployed the code that serves the API backend. This section walks you through deploying prebuilt containers for the sample API and ESP to the cluster.

Checking required permissions

ESP and ESPv2 calls Google services which use IAM to verify if the calling identity has enough permissions to access the used IAM resources. The calling identity is the attached service account deploying ESP and ESPv2.

When deployed in GKE pod, the attached service account is the node service account. Usually it is the Compute Engine default service account. Please follow this permission recommendation to choose a proper node service account.

If Workload Identity is used, a separate service account other than the node service account can be used to talk to Google services. You can create a Kubernetes service account for the pod to run ESP and ESPv2, create a Google service account and associate the Kubernetes service account to the Google service account.

Follow these steps to associate a Kubernetes service account with a Google service account. This Google service account is the attached service account.

If the attached service account is the Compute Engine default service account of the project and the endpoint service configuration is deployed in the same project, the service account should have enough permissions to access the IAM resources, following IAM roles setup step can be skipped. Otherwise following IAM roles should be added to the attached service account.

Add required IAM roles:

This section describes the IAM resources used by ESP and ESPv2 and the IAM roles required for the attached service account to access these resources.

Endpoint Service Configuration

ESP and ESPv2 call Service Control which uses the endpoint service configuration. The endpoint service configuration is an IAM resource and ESP and ESPv2 need the Service Controller role to access it.

The IAM role is on the endpoint service configuration, not on the project. A project may have multiple endpoint service configurations.

Use the following gcloud command to add the role to the attached service account for the endpoint service configuration.

gcloud endpoints services add-iam-policy-binding SERVICE_NAME \
  --member serviceAccount:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@DEPLOY_PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --role roles/servicemanagement.serviceController

Where
* SERVICE_NAME is the endpoint service name
* SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@DEPLOY_PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com is the attached service account.

Cloud Trace

ESP and ESPv2 call Cloud Trace service to export Trace to a project. This project is called the tracing project. In ESP, the tracing project and the project that owns the endpoint service configuration are the same. In ESPv2, the tracing project can be specified by the flag --tracing_project_id, and defaults to the deploying project.

ESP and ESPv2 require the Cloud Trace Agent role to enable Cloud Trace.

Use the following gcloud command to add the role to the attached service account:

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding TRACING_PROJECT_ID \
  --member serviceAccount:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@DEPLOY_PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --role roles/cloudtrace.agent

Where
* TRACING_PROJECT_ID is the tracing project ID
* SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@DEPLOY_PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com is the attached service account. For more information, see What are roles and permissions?

Deploying the containers to the cluster

Containers offer a logical packaging mechanism in which you can abstract applications from the environment in which they actually run. You use the following procedure to deploy the sample API and ESP to the cluster.

To deploy the containers to the cluster:

1. Get cluster credentials and make them available to kubectl:

   gcloud container clusters get-credentials NAME 
   
       --zone ZONE

   Replace NAME with the cluster name and ZONE with the cluster zone.
2. Deploy a Kubernetes service to the GKE cluster. The Kubernetes service implements the API. Edit the Kubernetes configuration file /endpoints/getting-started/deployment.yaml, and replace SERVICE_NAME in the ESP startup options with the name of your service.
   Java

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port=8081",
       "--backend=127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service=SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy=managed",
     ]

   Python

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port=8081",
       "--backend=127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service=SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy=managed",
     ]

   Go

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port", "8081",
       "--backend", "127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service", "SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy", "managed",
     ]

   PHP

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port", "8081",
       "--backend", "127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service", "SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy", "managed",
     ]

   Ruby

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port", "8081",
       "--backend", "127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service", "SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy", "managed",
     ]

   NodeJS

   - name: esp
     image: gcr.io/endpoints-release/endpoints-runtime:1
     args: [
       "--http_port", "8081",
       "--backend", "127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service", "SERVICE_NAME",
       "--rollout_strategy", "managed",
     ]

   For example:

     args: [
       "--http_port=8081",
       "--backend=127.0.0.1:8080",
       "--service=echo-api.endpoints.example-project-12345.cloud.goog ",
       "--rollout_strategy=managed",
     ]

   The --rollout_strategy=managed option configures ESP to use the latest deployed service configuration. When you specify this option, up to 5 minutes 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, see ESP startup options.

   We recommend that you set the imagePullPolicy in the container spec above to Always. This will allow newly created pods to always pull the latest version of ESP. Read about configuration best practices for more details. When a new version of ESP is released, you can perform a rolling restart of all pods to ensure the newest version is used.

3. Start the Kubernetes service using the kubectl apply command:

   kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Note: If your GKE cluster is private, you need to use the Compute Engine metadata server as the DNS resolver to resolve Google service host names. Add this ESP flag: --dns=169.254.169.254

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting Endpoints in GKE.

See Deploying the API backend for additional information.

Getting the cluster's external IP address

To send requests to the API, you need the external IP of the service. It can take a few minutes after you start your service in the container before the external IP address is ready.

1. View the external IP address:

   kubectl get service
   

2. Make a note of the value for EXTERNAL-IP. You use that IP address when you send a request to the sample API.

Sending a request by using an IP address

Now that the service is running in the container cluster, and you have the external IP address, you can send requests to the API.

Create an API key and set an environment variable

The sample code requires an API key. To simplify the request, you set an environment variable for the API key.

1. In the same Google Cloud project that you used for your API, create an API key on the API credentials page. If you want to create an API key in a different Google Cloud project, see Enabling an API in your Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Credentials page

2. Click Create credentials, and then select API key.
3. Copy the key to the clipboard.
4. Click Close.
5. On your local computer, paste the API key to assign it to an environment variable:
   • In Linux or macOS: export ENDPOINTS_KEY=AIza...
   • In Windows PowerShell: $Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY="AIza..."

Send the request

Linux or mac OS

Use curl to send an HTTP request by using the ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variable you set previously. Replace IP_ADDRESS with the external IP address of your instance.

curl --request POST \
   --header "content-type:application/json" \
   --data '{"message":"hello world"}' \
   "http://IP_ADDRESS:80/echo?key=${ENDPOINTS_KEY}"

In the preceding curl:

• The --data option specifies the data to post to the API.
• The --header option specifies that the data is in JSON format.

PowerShell

Use Invoke-WebRequest to send an HTTP request by using the ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variable you set previously. Replace IP_ADDRESS with the external IP address of your instance.

(Invoke-WebRequest -Method POST -Body '{"message": "hello world"}' `
    -Headers @{"content-type"="application/json"} `
    -URI "http://IP_ADDRESS:80/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content

In the previous example, the first two lines end in a backtick. When you paste the example into PowerShell, make sure there isn't a space following the backticks. For information about the options used in the example request, see Invoke-WebRequest in the Microsoft documentation.

Third-party app

You can use a third-party application such as the Chrome browser extension Postman to send the request:

• 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=AIza...

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

{
  "message": "hello world"
}

If you didn't get a successful response, see Troubleshooting response errors.

You just deployed and tested an API in Endpoints!

Note: If you want to let us know what you liked about this tutorial, feel free to provide feedback at the bottom of this page. Your feedback helps us improve these tutorials.
If you got an error, join the google-cloud-endpoints Google group and let us know what went wrong. This group receives responses from other Endpoints users and from Google engineers, who monitor the group.

Tracking API activity

To track API activity:

1. Look at the activity graphs for your API in the Endpoints > Services page.
   

   Go to the Endpoints Services page

   
   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 Explorer page.
   

   Go to the Logs Explorer page

Configuring DNS for Endpoints

Because the Endpoints service name for the API is in the .endpoints.YOUR_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 by 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.
3. In the target property, replace IP_ADDRESS with the IP address that you used when you sent a request to the sample API.
4. Deploy your updated OpenAPI configuration file to Service Management:

   gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi.yaml
   

For example, assume the openapi.yaml file 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 file by using the preceding 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. It might take a few minutes for the new DNS configuration to propagate.

Configuring SSL

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

Sending a request by using FQDN

Now that you have the DNS record configured for the sample API, send a request to it by 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].cloud.goog:80/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content

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 account for the resources used in this tutorial, either delete the project that contains the resources, or keep the project and delete the individual resources.

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

What's next

• Learn how to build a Docker image.
• Learn how to deploy Endpoints on Kubernetes.
• Share your API with another developer.
• Learn more about authentication.
• Learn about community support options.
• Troubleshooting GKE deployment.