Control Kong Gateway through systemd

    Note that some of the supported GNU/Linux distributions for Kong Gateway may not have adopted systemd as their default init system (for example, CentOS 6 and RHEL 6). For the following instructions, it is assumed that Kong Gateway has already been installed and configured on a systemd-supported GNU/Linux distribution.

    Stop Kong Gateway

    2. sudo systemctl stop kong-enterprise-edition
    3. # For Kong Gateway (OSS)
    4. sudo systemctl stop kong

    Start Kong Gateway at system boot

    Enable starting Kong Gateway automatically at system boot

    1. # For Kong Gateway
    2. sudo systemctl enable kong-enterprise-edition
    4. # For Kong Gateway (OSS)
    5. sudo systemctl enable kong

    Disable starting Kong Gateway automatically at system boot

    1. # For Kong Gateway
    2. sudo systemctl disable kong-enterprise-edition
    4. # For Kong Gateway (OSS)
    5. sudo systemctl disable kong

    Query Kong Gateway status

    1. # For Kong Gateway
    3. # For Kong Gateway (OSS)
    4. sudo systemctl status kong

    Customize the Kong Gateway unit file

    The official systemd service is located at for Kong Gateway, or at /lib/systemd/system/kong.service for Kong Gateway (OSS).

    All environment variables prefixed with KONG_ and capitalized will override the settings specified in the /etc/kong/kong.conf.default file. For example: log_level = debug in the .conf file translates to the KONG_LOG_LEVEL=debug environment variable.

    You can also choose use a configuration file instead of environment variables. In this case, modify the ExecStartPre systemd directive to execute kong prepare with the -c argument to point to your configuration file. For example, if you have a custom configuration file at /etc/kong/kong.conf, modify the ExecStartPre directive as follows:

    1. ExecStartPre=/usr/local/bin/kong prepare -p /usr/local/kong -c /etc/kong/kong.conf

    When linking non environment files using the EnvironmentFile systemd directive, note that the systemd parser will only recognize environment variables assignments. For example, if one of the Kong’s default configuration files are linked (/etc/kong/kong.conf.default and /etc/kong.conf), non environment variables assignments in the file could lead to systemd errors. In this case, systemd will not allow the Kong service to be started. For this reason, we recommend specifying an EnvironmentFile other than the default ones:

    1. EnvironmentFile=/etc/kong/kong_env.conf

    Logging to syslog and journald

    In this case, adding the below Environment systemd directives to your customized systemd service file at will do it:

    1. # For Kong Gateway
    2. journalctl -u kong-enterprise-edition
    4. # For Kong Gateway (OSS)
    5. journalctl -u kong

    To view the syslog logs:

    1. tail -F /var/log/syslog

    To use the injection system with environment variables, add the below Environment systemd directive to your custom service at /etc/systemd/system/kong-enterprise-edition.service (Kong Gateway) or /etc/systemd/system/kong.service (Kong Gateway (OSS)). Note the quoting rules defined by systemd to specify an environment variable containing spaces:

    1. Environment="KONG_NGINX_HTTP_OUTPUT_BUFFERS=4 64k"

    Customize Kong’s Nginx instance using ––nginx-conf

    To use the --nginx-conf argument, modify the ExecStartPre systemd directive to execute kong prepare with the --nginx-conf argument. For example, if you have a custom template at /usr/local/kong/custom-nginx.template, modify the ExecStartPre directive as follows:

    Customize Kong’s Nginx instance including files via the injected Nginx directives

    To include files via the injected Nginx directives with environment variables, add the below Environment systemd directive to your custom service at /etc/systemd/system/kong-enterprise-edition.service (Kong Gateway) or /etc/systemd/system/kong.service (Kong Gateway (OSS)):

    1. Environment=KONG_NGINX_HTTP_INCLUDE=/path/to/your/my-server.kong.conf