Backend MTLS with Application Gateway for Containers - Gateway API
This document helps set up an example application that uses the following resources from Gateway API. Steps are provided to:
- Create a Gateway resource with one HTTPS listener.
- Create an HTTPRoute resource that references a backend service.
- Create a BackendTLSPolicy resource that has a client and CA certificate for the backend service referenced in the HTTPRoute.
Background
Mutual Transport Layer Security (MTLS) is a process that relies on certificates to encrypt communications and identify clients to a service. This enables backend workloads to further increase its security posture by only trusting connections from authenticated devices.
See the following figure:
Prerequisites
If following the BYO deployment strategy, ensure you set up your Application Gateway for Containers resources and ALB Controller.
If following the ALB managed deployment strategy, ensure you provision your ALB Controller and provision the Application Gateway for Containers resources via the ApplicationLoadBalancer custom resource.
Deploy sample HTTP application:
Apply the following deployment.yaml file on your cluster to create a sample web application and deploy sample secrets to demonstrate backend mutual authentication (mTLS).
kubectl apply -f https://trafficcontrollerdocs.blob.core.windows.net/examples/https-scenario/end-to-end-ssl-with-backend-mtls/deployment.yaml
This command creates the following on your cluster:
- A namespace called
test-infra
- One service called
mtls-app
in thetest-infra
namespace - One deployment called
mtls-app
in thetest-infra
namespace - One config map called
mtls-app-nginx-cm
in thetest-infra
namespace - Four secrets called
backend.com
,frontend.com
,gateway-client-cert
, andca.bundle
in thetest-infra
namespace
- A namespace called
Deploy the required Gateway API resources
Create a gateway
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
name: gateway-01
namespace: test-infra
annotations:
alb.networking.azure.io/alb-namespace: alb-test-infra
alb.networking.azure.io/alb-name: alb-test
spec:
gatewayClassName: azure-alb-external
listeners:
- name: https-listener
port: 443
protocol: HTTPS
allowedRoutes:
namespaces:
from: Same
tls:
mode: Terminate
certificateRefs:
- kind : Secret
group: ""
name: frontend.com
EOF
Note
When the ALB Controller creates the Application Gateway for Containers resources in ARM, it'll use the following naming convention for a frontend resource: fe-<8 randomly generated characters>
If you would like to change the name of the frontend created in Azure, consider following the bring your own deployment strategy.
Once the gateway resource is created, ensure the status is valid, the listener is Programmed, and an address is assigned to the gateway.
kubectl get gateway gateway-01 -n test-infra -o yaml
Example output of successful gateway creation:
status:
addresses:
- type: IPAddress
value: xxxx.yyyy.alb.azure.com
conditions:
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T21:04:55Z"
message: Valid Gateway
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Accepted
status: "True"
type: Accepted
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T21:04:55Z"
message: Application Gateway For Containers resource has been successfully updated.
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Programmed
status: "True"
type: Programmed
listeners:
- attachedRoutes: 0
conditions:
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T21:04:55Z"
message: ""
observedGeneration: 1
reason: ResolvedRefs
status: "True"
type: ResolvedRefs
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T21:04:55Z"
message: Listener is accepted
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Accepted
status: "True"
type: Accepted
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T21:04:55Z"
message: Application Gateway For Containers resource has been successfully updated.
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Programmed
status: "True"
type: Programmed
name: https-listener
supportedKinds:
- group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
kind: HTTPRoute
Once the gateway is created, create an HTTPRoute resource.
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
name: https-route
namespace: test-infra
spec:
parentRefs:
- name: gateway-01
rules:
- backendRefs:
- name: mtls-app
port: 443
EOF
Once the HTTPRoute resource is created, ensure the route is Accepted and the Application Gateway for Containers resource is Programmed.
kubectl get httproute https-route -n test-infra -o yaml
Verify the status of the Application Gateway for Containers resource is successfully updated.
status:
parents:
- conditions:
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T22:18:23Z"
message: ""
observedGeneration: 1
reason: ResolvedRefs
status: "True"
type: ResolvedRefs
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T22:18:23Z"
message: Route is Accepted
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Accepted
status: "True"
type: Accepted
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-19T22:18:23Z"
message: Application Gateway For Containers resource has been successfully updated.
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Programmed
status: "True"
type: Programmed
controllerName: alb.networking.azure.io/alb-controller
parentRef:
group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
kind: Gateway
name: gateway-01
namespace: test-infra
Create a BackendTLSPolicy
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: alb.networking.azure.io/v1
kind: BackendTLSPolicy
metadata:
name: mtls-app-tls-policy
namespace: test-infra
spec:
targetRef:
group: ""
kind: Service
name: mtls-app
namespace: test-infra
default:
sni: backend.com
ports:
- port: 443
clientCertificateRef:
name: gateway-client-cert
group: ""
kind: Secret
verify:
caCertificateRef:
name: ca.bundle
group: ""
kind: Secret
subjectAltName: backend.com
EOF
Once the BackendTLSPolicy object is created, check the status on the object to ensure that the policy is valid:
kubectl get backendtlspolicy -n test-infra mtls-app-tls-policy -o yaml
Example output of valid BackendTLSPolicy object creation:
status:
conditions:
- lastTransitionTime: "2023-06-29T16:54:42Z"
message: Valid BackendTLSPolicy
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Accepted
status: "True"
type: Accepted
Test access to the application
Now we're ready to send some traffic to our sample application, via the FQDN assigned to the frontend. Use the following command to get the FQDN:
fqdn=$(kubectl get gateway gateway-01 -n test-infra -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')
Curling this FQDN should return responses from the backend as configured on the HTTPRoute.
curl --insecure https://$fqdn/
Congratulations, you have installed ALB Controller, deployed a backend application and routed traffic to the application via the ingress on Application Gateway for Containers.