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Using Tyk as a gRPC Proxy

Tyk supports gRPC passthrough proxying when using HTTP/2 as a transport (the most common way to deploy gRPC services). The gRPC over HTTP2 specification defines the rules on how the gRPC protocol maps to a HTTP request, for more information see. In the context of the API Gateway, we are interested in the following:
  • You can target specific methods of the gRPC service using the format: /{Service-Name}/{method name}, for example: /google.pubsub.v2.PublisherService/CreateTopic. You can use this feature to apply standard ACL rules via Keys and Policies, or use URL rewrite plugins in our Endpoint Desiger.
  • HTTP method is always POST. gRPC custom request metadata is added as HTTP headers, where metadata key is directly mapped to the HTTP header with the same name.
You can also perform gRPC load balancing. Prerequisites
  • Enable HTTP/2 support on the Gateway side, for both incoming and upstream connections, by setting http_server_options.enable_http2 and proxy_enable_http2 to true in your tyk.conf Gateway config file.
  • The listen path of the Api should be the same as the gRPC service name, so tyk can route it correctly.
  • Ensure that strip_listen_path is set to false in your API, so the route of the gRPC service method is build correctly following the standard: {service_name}/{service_method}.

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Secure gRPC Proxy

Tyk Supports secure gRPC proxy connections, in order to do so you only need to attach a certificate to the API that you want to expose just as you do for regular APIs, after that you can consume the service via HTTPS.

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Insecure gRPC Proxy (H2C)

For scenarios where you want to connect two services calling each other or just need an insecure connection you can use h2c (that is the non-TLS version of HTTP/2). Tyk supports h2c, this can be enabled at api level by setting h2c as protocol in the address of the gRPC server (target_url) e.g: h2c://my-grpc-server.com.

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gRPC streaming

Tyk supports all kinds of gRPC streaming (client streaming, server streaming and bidirectional streaming). It requires you to set a low value for flush_interval, this is required in order to forward data to the downstream target as soon as the upstream target replies. A high flush interval will delay this communication. We recommend the lowest possible value: 1 (1 millisecond). You set this value in your tyk.conf file in the http_server_options.flush_interval option.

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Mutual Authentication

Tyk supports Mutual Authentication in gRPC. See Mutual TLS to configure Mutual Authentication in Tyk.

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Basic Authentication

Tyk supports Basic Authentication in gRPC. See Basic Authentication to configure Basic Authentication in Tyk. After setting your Tyk configuration, all you need to do is to send credentials with the correct base64 format in an Authorization header from your gRPC client. Basic base64Encode(username:password)

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Token Based Authentication

Tyk supports Token Based Authentication in gRPC. See Bearer Tokens to configure Token Based Authentication in Tyk. After setting your Tyk configuration, all you need to do is to send a token in an Authorization header from your gRPC client.

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gRPC load balancing

Tyk is able to perform load balancing on gRPC traffic using an approach similar to our native Load Balancing functionality. For both secure and insecure gRPC scenarios, the steps above serve as a starting point. In a secure gRPC scenario For configuring multiple upstream targets in a secure gRPC scenario, follow these additional steps:
  • Check the “Enable round-robin load balancing” flag in the “Core Settings” section of your API.
  • Define each target as https://grpc.test.example.com:10000, https://grpc.test.example.com:10001 and so on.
In an insecure scenario (H2C) Use the same approach but use the H2C scheme instead: h2c://grpc.test.example.com:10000, h2c://grpc.test.example.com:10001, etc.

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Example of gRPC proxy using H2C

This is the simplest way to have a working gRPC proxy setup. You will need:
  • A gRPC server. For this example you can use this server
  • A gRPC client. You can use grpcurl which is basically curl but for gRPC
  • An instance of the Tyk Gateway and Dashboard
Steps for Configuration:
  • Execute the gRPC server (for this example you can expose it at port :50051)
  • Create the API via the Tyk dashboard with the following configuration:
    • Set HTTP as protocol
    • Uncheck strip listen path in the api
    • Set listen path: /helloworld.Greeter
    • Now set the target_url. In order for Tyk to detect that you will use h2c for this API we will need to write the URL with the prefix h2c://. For this example the URL can be h2c://localhost:50051
    • Hit save, and once the Gateway finishes reloading you can test the solution
  • From the command line you can consume the service via the Tyk Gateway. To test it, enter grpcurl -plaintext -proto helloworld.proto -d '{"name": "joe"}' tyk-gateway:8080 helloworld.Greeter/SayHello and you should get as a response: {"message": "Hello joe"} which means that everything is working as it should.

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Example of gRPC proxy using HTTPS

Prerequisites:
  • a gRPC server. For this example you can use this server as this example already supports TLS.
  • A gRPC client. You can use grpcurl which is basically curl but for gRPC (or you can use the client application)
  • A certificate to expose the API via HTTPS
  • An instance of Tyk Gateway and Dashboard
Steps for Configuration:
  1. Execute the gRPC server (for this example we can expose it at port :10000), the route_guide application receives a flag to use TLS (go run server.go -tls=true). It’s exposed in grpc.test.example.com:10000
  2. Create the API via dashboard with the next configuration:
    • Set HTTPS as protocol
    • Uncheck Strip listen path in the api
    • Add the certificate
    • Set a custom domain, for this example use tyk
    • Set as listen path: /routeguide.RouteGuide
    • Now in the target URL set the location of the service: https://grpc.test.example.com:10000
    • Click Save
  3. At this point you’re ready to test the solution, so, from the command line type: grpcurl -proto route_guide.proto -d '{"latitude": 1, "longitude":2}' tyk:8080 routeguide.RouteGuide/GetFeature and you should get a successful response. Note that you are not sending the flag -plaintext as the desire is to connect via HTTPS.

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Example of bidirectional data streaming using a gRPC service exposed via HTTPS but communicating Tyk to service via H2C

In this example you will expose a gRPC service via HTTPS using Tyk, but Tyk will consume the upstream via h2c. This situation is very common when using Kubernetes, where the internet traffic going through Tyk are TLS encrypted, but traffic in the inner cluster are in plain HTTP (h2c). Prerequisites
  • a gRPC server. For this example you can use this server.
  • a client application. You can use this client.
  • A certificate to expose the API via HTTPS
  • An instance of the Tyk Gateway and Dashboard.
Steps for Configuration:
  • Execute the gRPC server (for this example expose it at port :10000), the route_guide application receives a flag to enable/disable TLS (go run server.go -tls=false). It’s available in locahost:10000
  • In the Tyk Gateway config file set "http_server_options.flush_interval": 1 and run the Gateway (for this example will be running it in port 8000).
  • Create the API via the Tyk Dashboard with the following configuration:
    • Set HTTPS as the protocol
    • Add the certificate
    • Set a custom domain, for this example tyk
    • Set as listen path: /routeguide.RouteGuide. For testing purposes we will use the RouteChat service as this is a bidirectional service.
    • Now in the target URL set the location of the service: h2c://localhost:10000. This way Tyk will communicate with the upstream using h2c
    • Click Save
  • Ensure that the client application has the server address pointing to Tyk, for this example: https://tyk.com:8000.
  • Now you are ready to test the solution. Run the client application and it should send and receive data simultaneously.