# Kong Gateway 3.9 Installation on Ubuntu 24

Written by Imran Shaik
on February 19, 2025

Prerequisites

Ensure your system meets the following requirements before installation:

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (64-bit) (used for this installation procedure)

Launch an EC2 Instance for Kong:

1. Go to the AWS Management Console.

2. Launch a new EC2 instance (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04 LTS).

3. Assign a public IP address and ensure the instance is in the same VPC as your load balancer.

4. Open the necessary ports in the EC2 security group:

1. Port 8000 (HTTP traffic to Kong)

2. Port 8443 (HTTPS traffic to Kong)

3. Port 8001 (Admin API, optional and restrict access for security)

4. Port 22 ssh connection

Post installation installing dependencies of Kong:

> sudo apt-get install openssl procps perl libpcre3

If <libpcre3> is not available follow the below steps:

>sudo apt update

>sudo apt install -y libpcre3

If not installed search for this using below shared command

>apt-cache search libpcre3

>sudo add-apt-repository universe (this is to add the universe repo to fetch the missing depeden cy.)

>sudo apt update

Step 1: Download and Install Kong Gateway

Run the following command to download the Kong Gateway 3.9 package:

>curl -Lo kong-3.9.0.deb “https://packages.konghq.com/public/gateway-39/deb/ubuntu/pool/noble/main/k/ko/kong_3.9.0/kong_3.9.0_$(dpkg –print-architecture).deb”

Once downloaded, install Kong Gateway using:

>sudo apt install -y ./kong-3.9.0.deb

Step 2: Configure Kong

Initialize the default Kong configuration:

>sudo kong config init

Increase the open file limit (recommended for production use):

>ulimit -n 4096

Step 3: Install and Configure PostgreSQL

Kong requires a database to store its configurations. Install PostgreSQL using:

>sudo apt update

>sudo apt install postgresql -y

Ubuntu includes PostgreSQL by default. To install it, open a terminal and run:

>sudo apt update

>sudo apt install postgresql

Start and enable PostgreSQL:

>sudo systemctl start postgresql

>sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Switch to the PostgreSQL user:

>sudo passwd postgres

> add the custom passwd for this user

Eg: admin123

>sudo -i -u postgres

Access the PostgreSQL prompt:
>psql

Create a database and user for Kong:
>CREATE USER kong WITH PASSWORD ‘your_secure_password’;

>CREATE DATABASE kong OWNER kong;

Replace ‘your_secure_password’ with a strong password of your choice.

Exit the PostgreSQL prompt:
>\q

Return to your regular user:
>exit

Step 4: Configure Kong with PostgreSQL

Copy the default configuration file for Kong:

>sudo cp /etc/kong/kong.conf.default /etc/kong/kong.conf

Edit the configuration file:

>Sudo vi /etc/kong/kong.conf

Modify the database settings in kong.conf to use PostgreSQL:

database = postgres

pg_host = 127.0.0.1

pg_port = 5432

pg_user = kong

pg_password = <your_password>

pg_database = kong

Step 5: Run Database Migrations

Bootstrap the Kong database:

>kong migrations bootstrap -c /etc/kong/kong.conf

Step 6: Start Kong Gateway

Start Kong using:

>kong start -c /etc/kong/kong.conf

Step:7 Verify Kong is running:

>curl -i http://localhost:8001

If Kong is running, you should see an HTTP response with status 200 OK.

If everything is configured correctly, Kong Gateway should be up and running.

Testing by creating a Service

Step 8: Create a Service that forwards traffic to simple API

Run this command to create a service:

>curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8001/services/ \

–data “name=my-service” \

–data “url=http://httpbin.org”

This creates a service named my-service that forwards requests to http://httpbin.org.

REF! OUTPUT:

{

“name”: “my-service”,

“id”: “service_id”,

“created_at”: 1234567890,

“updated_at”: 1234567890,

“url”: “http://httpbin.org”

}

Step 9: Create a Route for the Service

This tells Kong which URL path to match and forward to your service.

For example, to create a route for /my-api:

>curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8001/services/my-service/routes \

–data “paths[]=/my-api”

This will route requests from http://localhost:8000/my-api to the my-service service.

Step 10: Test the Route

Once the service and route are set up, you can test it by sending a request to the route you just

>curl -i http://localhost:8000/my-api

You should get a response from http://httpbin.org, showing that Kong is properly forwarding the request.

Step 11: Verify the Service and Route

If you want to check that the service and route are created correctly, you can list them:

List services:
>curl -i http://localhost:8001/services

List routes:
>curl -i http://localhost:8001/routes

These commands should show the my-service and the /my-api route that you created.