Installation

This guide walks you through installing FastGateway in your Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

Before installing FastGateway, ensure you have the following:

• Kubernetes version 1.24 or later
• kubectl configured to communicate with your cluster
• Helm 3 installed on your local machine
• Envoy Gateway installed in your cluster
• PostgreSQL database

Install Envoy Gateway

FastGateway uses Envoy Gateway as the underlying data plane. Install it with the Backend extension API enabled:

envoy-gateway-values.yaml

envoyGateway:
  extensionApis:
    enableBackend: true

helm repo add envoy-gateway https://charts.envoyproxy.io
helm repo update

helm install envoy-gateway envoy-gateway/gateway-helm \
  --version v1.7.0 \
  --namespace envoy-gateway-system \
  --create-namespace \
  -f envoy-gateway-values.yaml

Wait for Envoy Gateway to be ready:

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system \
  deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Redis for Rate Limiting

If you plan to use rate limiting, Envoy Gateway requires a Redis backend. Add the following to your Envoy Gateway values:

envoyGateway:
  extensionApis:
    enableBackend: true
  rateLimit:
    backend:
      type: Redis
      redis:
        url: "<redis-host>:6379"

PostgreSQL Database

FastGateway requires a PostgreSQL database. We recommend managing your own database.

You can use any PostgreSQL provider:

• Self-managed PostgreSQL on Kubernetes (e.g., CloudNativePG, Zalando Postgres Operator)
• Cloud-managed databases (e.g., AWS RDS, GCP Cloud SQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL)
• Any PostgreSQL 14+ compatible database

Create a Kubernetes secret with your database credentials:

kubectl create namespace fastgateway-system

kubectl create secret generic fastgateway-database \
  --from-literal=username=<db-username> \
  --from-literal=password=<db-password> \
  --from-literal=database=<db-name> \
  -n fastgateway-system

tip

For quick testing, the Helm chart includes an internal PostgreSQL option (database.type: internal) that deploys a single-replica PostgreSQL StatefulSet. This is not recommended for production — use an externally managed database instead.

FastGateway Secrets

FastGateway requires a Kubernetes secret containing the following keys:

• jwt-secret — Used to sign and verify JWT tokens for user sessions
• encryption-key — Used to encrypt sensitive data at rest
• admin-password — The initial password for the default admin user

Create the secret:

kubectl create secret generic fastgateway-secrets \
  --from-literal=jwt-secret=$(openssl rand -base64 32) \
  --from-literal=encryption-key=$(openssl rand -base64 32) \
  --from-literal=admin-password=<your-admin-password> \
  -n fastgateway-system

Install FastGateway

Add the FastGateway Helm repository:

helm repo add fastgateway https://charts.fastgateway.dev
helm repo update

Install FastGateway with your external database:

helm install fastgateway fastgateway/fastgateway \
  --namespace fastgateway-system \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=fastgateway-secrets \
  --set database.type=external \
  --set database.external.host=<postgres-host> \
  --set database.external.port=5432 \
  --set database.external.existingSecret=fastgateway-database

Or for quick testing with the internal database:

helm install fastgateway fastgateway/fastgateway \
  --namespace fastgateway-system \
  --set secrets.existingSecret=fastgateway-secrets

Verify Installation

Check that all FastGateway pods are running:

kubectl get pods -n fastgateway-system

You should see output similar to:

NAME                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
fastgateway-backend-xxx-xxx             1/1     Running   0          1m
fastgateway-frontend-xxx-xxx            1/1     Running   0          1m

Next Steps

Once all pods are running, proceed to Accessing the UI to start using FastGateway.