Set up a Kong Mesh demo application

Create a token for the demo-app data plane proxy to authenticate with the control plane:

kumactl generate dataplane-token \
  --tag kuma.io/service=demo-app \
  --valid-for 720h \
  > "$KONG_MESH_DEMO_TMP/token-demo-app"

1. Run the container:

   docker run \
     --detach \
     --name kong-mesh-demo-app \
     --hostname demo-app \
     --network kong-mesh-demo \
     --ip 172.18.78.3 \
     --publish 25050:5050 \
     --volume "$KONG_MESH_DEMO_TMP:/demo" \
     --env KV_URL=http://kv.svc.mesh.local:5050 \
     --env APP_VERSION=v1 \
     ghcr.io/kumahq/kuma-counter-demo:debian-slim
   

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2. Check the container logs to confirm it started:

   docker logs kong-mesh-demo-app
   

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   You should see something like this:

   time=2025-03-14T12:40:51.954Z level=INFO ... msg="starting handler with" kv-url=http://kv.svc.mesh.local:5050 version=v1
   time=2025-03-14T12:40:51.961Z level=INFO ... msg="server running" addr=:5050
   

Enter the container for the remaining steps. Inside it, you’ll install the data plane proxy and transparent proxy.

docker exec --tty --interactive --privileged kong-mesh-demo-app bash

The following steps must be executed inside the container.

Install tools and create data plane proxy user

1. Install the required tools:

   • curl: Downloads the Kong Mesh binaries.
   • iptables: Configures the transparent proxy.

   apt-get update && \
     apt-get install --yes curl iptables
   

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2. Download and install Kong Mesh:

   curl --location https://developer.konghq.com/mesh/installer.sh | sh -
   

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3. Move Kong Mesh binaries to /usr/local/bin/ for global availability:

   mv kong-mesh-*/bin/* /usr/local/bin/
   

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4. Create a dedicated user for the data plane proxy:

   useradd --uid 5678 --user-group kong-mesh-data-plane-proxy
   

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Start the data plane proxy

1. Start the proxy:

   runuser --user kong-mesh-data-plane-proxy -- \
     /usr/local/bin/kuma-dp run \
       --cp-address https://control-plane:5678 \
       --dataplane-token-file /demo/token-demo-app \
       --dataplane-file /demo/dataplane.yaml \
       --dataplane-var name=demo-app \
       --dataplane-var address=172.57.78.3 \
       --dataplane-var port=5050 \
       > /demo/logs-data-plane-proxy-demo-app.log 2>&1 &
   

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2. After a few seconds, check the logs to verify the proxy is running:

   tail /demo/logs-data-plane-proxy-demo-app.log
   

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   You should see entries like these:

   [2025-03-14 12:42:45.797][3090][info][config] [source/common/listener_manager/listener_manager_impl.cc:944] all dependencies initialized. starting workers
   [2025-03-14 12:42:48.159][3090][info][upstream] [source/common/upstream/cds_api_helper.cc:32] cds: add 9 cluster(s), remove 2 cluster(s)
   [2025-03-14 12:42:48.210][3090][info][upstream] [source/common/upstream/cds_api_helper.cc:71] cds: added/updated 1 cluster(s), skipped 8 unmodified cluster(s)
   [2025-03-14 12:42:48.218][3090][info][upstream] [source/common/listener_manager/lds_api.cc:106] lds: add/update listener 'kuma:dns'
   [2025-03-14 12:42:48.245][3090][info][upstream] [source/common/listener_manager/lds_api.cc:106] lds: add/update listener 'outbound:241.0.0.1:5050'
   

Install the transparent proxy

Make sure this command is executed inside the container. It changes iptables rules to redirect all traffic to the data plane proxy. Running it on your computer or a virtual machine without the data plane proxy can disrupt network connectivity. On a virtual machine, this might lock you out until you restart it.

1. Install the transparent proxy:

   kumactl install transparent-proxy \
     --config-file /demo/config-transparent-proxy.yaml \
     > /demo/logs-transparent-proxy-install-demo-app.log 2>&1
   

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2. Confirm the installation succeeded by checking the last line of the log:

   tail -n1 /demo/logs-transparent-proxy-install-demo-app.log
   

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   You should see:

   # transparent proxy setup completed successfully
   

Exit the container

The demo application is running. Exit the container:

exit

Open http://127.0.0.1:25050 in your browser and use the demo application to increment the counter. The demo application is now fully set up and running.

You can also check if the services were registered successfully:

kumactl get meshservices

You should see the registered services, including the demo-app.