Deploying API Manager using Single Node Instances

In a typical production deployment, API Manager is deployed as components (Publisher, Store, Gateway, Key Manager and Traffic Manager). While this provides very high performance and a high level of scalability, it may be too complex if you want to run API Manager as a small to medium scale API Management solution. A WSO2 API-M single node deployment, which has all the API-M components in one instance, would be simple to set up and requires less resources when compared with a distributed deployment. It is ideal for any organization that wants to start small and iteratively build up a robust API Management Platform.

WSO2 provides two options for organizations that are interested in setting up a small to medium scale API Management solution.

Setting up on WSO2 API Cloud, which is a subscription based API Management solution. You can access this service by creating an account in WSO2 API Cloud.
If you are interested in setting up a single node API Manager instance, which has all the API-M components in one instance, on-premise, you can download the latest version of API Manager and follow the instructions given below to set up the instance.

Prerequisites

Hardware	Ensure that the minimum hardware requirements mentioned in the hardware requirements section are met. Since this is an all-in-one deployment, it is recommended to use a higher hardware specification. You can further fine tune your operating system for production by tuning performance. For more information on installing the product on different operating systems, see Installing the Product.
Software	Oracle JDK 1.8 or Open JDK 8

You can deploy a single node API Manager instance in the following methods:

Single node deployment
Active/active deployment

Single node deployment

In this setup, API traffic is served by one all-in-one instance of WSO2 API Manager.

Pros	Cons
Production support is required only for a single API Manager node (you receive 24*7 WSO2 production support). Deployment is up and running within hours. Can handle up to 43 million API calls a day (up to 500 API calls a second) Minimum hardware/cloud infrastructure requirements (only one node). Suitable for anyone new to API Management.	Deployment does not provide High Availability. Not network friendly. Deploying on a demilitarized zone (DMZ) would require a Reverse Proxy.

For more information on manually configuring the production servers from scratch, see Configuring a Single Node.

Active/active deployment

In this setup, API traffic is served by two single node (all-in-one) instances of WSO2 API Manager.

For more information on manually configuring the production servers from scratch, see Configuring an Active-Active Deployment.

Pros	Cons
The system is highly available. Production support is required for 2 API Manager nodes (you receive 24*7 WSO2 production support). Can handle up to 86 million API calls a day (up to 1000 API calls a second) Deployment is up and running within hours.	Not network friendly. Deploying on a DMZ would require a Reverse Proxy.