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WSO2 API Manager includes five main components as the Publisher, Store, Gateway, Traffic Manager and Key Manager. In a stand-alone APIM setup, these components are deployed in a single server. However, in a typical production setup, they need to be deployed in separate servers for better performance. Installing and configuring each or selected component/s in different servers is called a distributed setup.

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Note: It is recommended to separate the worker and manager nodes in scenarios where you have multiple Gateway nodes. See Separating the Worker and Manager Nodes for information on why it is advantageous to separate the worker and manager nodes.

This topic includes the following sections.

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ComponentDescription
API GatewayThis component is responsible for securing, protecting, managing, and scaling API calls. The API gateway is a simple API proxy that intercepts API requests and applies policies such as throttling and security checks. It is also instrumental in gathering API usage statistics. We use a set of handlers for security validation and throttling purposes in the API Gateway. Upon validation, it will pass Web service calls to the actual back end. If it is a token request call, it will then directly pass the call to the Key Manager Server to handle it.   
API StoreThis component provides a space for consumers to self-register, discover API functionality, subscribe to APIs, evaluate them, and interact with API publishers. Users can view existing APIs and create their own application by bundling multiple APIs together into one application.   
API PublisherThis component enables API providers to easily publish their APIs, share documentation, provision API keys, and gather feedback on API features, quality, and usage. You can create new APIs by pointing to the actual back end service and also define rate-limiting policies available for the API.   
API Key Manager Server

This component is responsible for all security and key-related operations. When an API call is sent to the Gateway, it calls the Key Manager server and verifies the validity of the token provided with the API call. If the Gateway gets a call requesting a fresh access token, it forwards the username, password, consumer key, and consumer secret key obtained when originally subscribing to the API to the Key Manager. All tokens used for validation are based on OAuth 2.0.0 protocol. All secure authorization of APIs is provided using the OAuth 2.0 standard for Key Management. The API Gateway supports API authentication with OAuth 2.0, and it enables IT organizations to enforce rate limits and throttling policies for APIs by consumer.  

Login/Token API in the Gateway node should point to the token endpoint of Key Manager node. The token endpoint of the Key Manager node is given as at https://localhost:9443/oauth2endpoints/token. In a distributed setup, it should be https://<IP of key manager node>:<port-with-offset-of-keymanager-node>/oauth2endpoints/token.

Tip

In a clustered environment, you use session affinity to ensure that requests from the same client always get routed to the same server.

Session affinity is not mandatory when configuring a Key Manager cluster with a load balancer. However, authentication via session ID fails when session affinity is disabled in the load balancer.

The Key Manager first tries to authenticate the request via the session ID. If it fails, the Key Manager tries to authenticate via basic authentication.

API Traffic ManagerThe Traffic Manager helps users to regulate API traffic, make APIs and applications available to consumers at different service levels, and secure APIs against security attacks. The Traffic Manager features a dynamic throttling engine to process throttling policies in real-time, including rate limiting of API requests.
LB (load balancers)The distributed deployment setup depicted above requires two load balancers. We set up the first load balancer, which is  an instance of NGINX Plus, internally to manage the cluster. The second load balancer is set up externally to handle the requests sent to the clustered server nodes, and to provide failover and autoscaling. As the second load balancer, you can use an instance of NGINX Plus or any other third-party product.
RDBMS (shared databases)

The distributed deployment setup depicted above shares the following databases among the APIM components set up in separate server nodes.

  • User Manager Database : Stores information related to users and user roles. This information is shared among the Key Manager Server, Store, and Publisher. Users can access the Publisher for API creation and the Store for consuming the APIs.

  • API Manager Database : Stores information related to the APIs along with the API subscription details. The Key Manager Server uses this database to store user access tokens required for verification of API calls.
  • Registry Database : Shares information between the Publisher and Store. When an API is published through the Publisher, it is made available in the Store via the sharing registry database.

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WSO2 API Manager deployment patterns

Warning

Note the following:

The following 5 patterns illustrate

the latest

the deployment patterns

for

 for WSO2 API Manager.

We

 We have NOT yet released the Puppet Modules for these 5

new patterns. These deployment patterns have been designed by reviewing and refining the 7 older API-M deployment patterns in order to provide a more simplified set of

patterns

that meet the most required production use cases

.

  • If you want to try out API-M deployment with Puppet, you need to use one of the older API-M deployment patterns. For more information, see Using Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M.
  • Latest deployment patterns

    Table of Content Zone
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    Pattern 1

    Single node (all-in-one) deployment.

    You can use this pattern when you are working with a low throughput.

    Pattern 2

    Deployment with a separate Gateway and separate Key Manager.

    You can use this pattern when you require a high throughput scenario that requires a shorter token lifespan.

    Pattern 3

    Fully distributed setup.

    You can use this pattern to maintain scalability at each layer and higher flexibility at each component.

    Pattern 4

    Internal and external (on-premise) API Management.

    You can use this pattern when you require a separate internal and external API Management with separated Gateway instances.

    Pattern 5

    Internal and external (public and private cloud) API Management.

    You can use this pattern when you wish to maintain a cloud deployment as an external API Gateway layer.

    Older deployment patterns

    Table of Content Zone
    locationtop
    typeflat

    Pattern 0

    Single node deployment.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern0
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 0

    Figure: All-in-one instance

    This pattern consists of a stand-alone API-M setup with a single node deployment. This pattern uses the embedded H2 databases.

    Pattern 1

    Single node deployment.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern1
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 1

    Figure: All-in-one instance

    This pattern consists of a stand-alone WSO2 API-M setup with a single node deployment. This pattern uses external RDBMS (e.g., MySQL databases). The only difference between pattern-0 and pattern-1 is that pattern-0 uses embedded H2 databases and pattern-1 is configured to use external RDBMS.

    Pattern 2

    Single node deployment, which has all WSO2 API-M components in one instance, with Analytics.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern2
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 2

    Figure: All-in-one instance with analytics

    This pattern consists of a stand-alone WSO2 API-M setup with a single node deployment and with a single wso2am-analytics server instance. This pattern uses external MySQL databases.

    Pattern 3

    Gateway worker/manager separation.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern3
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 3

    This pattern consists of a fully distributed WSO2 API-M setup (including a Gateway cluster of one manager and one worker) with a single wso2am-analytics server instance. This pattern uses external MySQL databases. 

    Pattern 4

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern4
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 4

    This pattern consist of a fully distributed API-M setup including two Gateway clusters, where each has one manager and one worker, with a single wso2am-analytics server instance. You can have the gateway environments in any preferred environment (e.g., local-area network (LAN) and demilitarized zone (DMZ)).

    Pattern 5

    Gateway worker/manager separation. Gateway worker and Key Manager in the same node.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern5
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 5

    This pattern consists of a distributed WSO2 API-M setup including a Gateway cluster of one manager and one worker and the Gateway worker is merged with the Key Manager. It also consists of a single wso2am-analytics server instance and it uses external MySQL databases. 

    Pattern 6

    Gateway worker/manager separation. Store in the same node as the Publisher.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern6
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 6

    This pattern consists of a distributed WSO2 API-M setup (including a Gateway cluster of one manager and one worker) of which the Publisher is merged with the Store. It also consists of a single wso2am-analytics server instance and it uses external MySQL databases. 

    Pattern 7

    WSO2 Identity Server acts as a Key Manager node for the WSO2 API Manager.

    Multiexcerpt include
    MultiExcerptNamepattern7
    PageWithExcerptUsing Puppet Modules to Set up WSO2 API-M with Pattern 7

    This pattern consists of a stand-alone WSO2 APIM setup with a single node deployment. The pattern uses external MySQL databases. The only difference of this pattern from pattern-1 is that this uses WSO2 Identity Sever as the Key Manager. 

    Clustering Gateways and Key Managers with key caching 
    Anchor
    keycache
    keycache

    For key validation, the Gateway can usually handle 3,000 transactions per second, whereas the Key Manager can only handle 500 transactions per second. To improve performance, the key cache is enabled on the Gateway by default, which allows the system to handle 3,000 transactions per second. However, if you need better security, you can enable the cache on the Key Manager instead. Note the following about clustering with key caching:

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