title: How to build Apache APISIX

Step 1: Install Apache APISIX

You can install Apache APISIX via RPM Repository, Docker, Helm Chart, and source release package. Please choose one from the following options.

Installation via RPM Repository(CentOS 7)

This installation method is suitable for CentOS 7.

If the official OpenResty repository is not installed yet, the following command will help you automatically install both the repositories of OpenResty and Apache APISIX.

$ sudo yum install -y https://repos.apiseven.com/packages/centos/apache-apisix-repo-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

If the official OpenResty repository is installed, the following command will help you automatically install the repositories of Apache APISIX.

$ sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://repos.apiseven.com/packages/centos/apache-apisix.repo

Please run the following commands to install the repository and Apache APISIX.

# View the information of the latest apisix package
$ sudo yum info -y apisix

# Will show the existing apisix packages
$ sudo yum --showduplicates list apisix

# Will install the latest apisix package
$ sudo yum install apisix

Installation via RPM Offline Package(CentOS 7)

Download APISIX offline RPM package to ./apisix folder

$ sudo mkdir -p apisix
$ sudo yum install -y https://repos.apiseven.com/packages/centos/apache-apisix-repo-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo yum clean all && yum makecache
$ sudo yum install -y --downloadonly --downloaddir=./apisix apisix

Copy ./apisix folder to the target host, run the following command to install Apache APISIX.

$ sudo yum install ./apisix/*.rpm

Installation via Docker

Please refer to: Installing Apache APISIX with Docker.

Installation via Helm Chart

Please refer to: Installing Apache APISIX with Helm Chart.

Installation via Source Release Package

  1. Create a directory named apisix-2.12.0.
$ APISIX_VERSION='2.12.0'
$ mkdir apisix-${APISIX_VERSION}
  1. Download Apache APISIX Release source package.
$ wget https://downloads.apache.org/apisix/${APISIX_VERSION}/apache-apisix-${APISIX_VERSION}-src.tgz

You can also download the Apache APISIX Release source package from the Apache APISIX website. The Apache APISIX Official Website - Download Page also provides source packages for Apache APISIX, APISIX Dashboard and APISIX Ingress Controller.

  1. Unzip the Apache APISIX Release source package.
$ tar zxvf apache-apisix-${APISIX_VERSION}-src.tgz -C apisix-${APISIX_VERSION}
  1. Install the runtime dependent Lua libraries.
# Switch to the apisix-${APISIX_VERSION} directory
$ cd apisix-${APISIX_VERSION}
# Create dependencies
$ make deps
# Install apisix command
$ make install

Step 2: Install ETCD

This step is required if you have installed only Apache APISIX via RPM, Docker or source code but not ETCD.

You can install ETCD via Docker or binary etc. The following command installs ETCD via binary.

$ ETCD_VERSION='3.4.13'
$ wget https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download/v${ETCD_VERSION}/etcd-v${ETCD_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
$ tar -xvf etcd-v${ETCD_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz && \
    cd etcd-v${ETCD_VERSION}-linux-amd64 && \
    sudo cp -a etcd etcdctl /usr/bin/
$ nohup etcd &

Step 3: Manage Apache APISIX Server

We can initialize dependencies, start service, and stop service with commands in the Apache APISIX directory, we can also view all commands and their corresponding functions with the apisix help command.

Initializing Dependencies

Run the following command to initialize the NGINX configuration file and etcd.

# initialize NGINX config file and etcd
$ apisix init

Test configuration file

Run the following command to test the configuration file. APISIX will generate nginx.conf from config.yaml and check whether the syntax of nginx.conf is correct.

# generate `nginx.conf` from `config.yaml` and test it
$ apisix test

Start Apache APISIX

Run the following command to start Apache APISIX.

# start Apache APISIX server
$ apisix start

Stop Apache APISIX

Both apisix quit and apisix stop can stop Apache APISIX. The main difference is that apisix quit stops Apache APISIX gracefully, while apisix stop stops Apache APISIX immediately.

It is recommended to use gracefully stop command apisix quit because it ensures that Apache APISIX will complete all the requests it has received before stopping down. In contrast, apisix stop will trigger a forced shutdown, it stops Apache APISIX immediately, in which case the incoming requests will not be processed before the shutdown.

The command to perform a graceful shutdown is shown below.

# stop Apache APISIX server gracefully
$ apisix quit

The command to perform a forced shutdown is shown below.

# stop Apache APISIX server immediately
$ apisix stop

View Other Operations

Run the apisix help command to see the returned results and get commands and descriptions of other operations.

# more actions find by `help`
$ apisix help

Step 4: Run Test Cases

  1. Install cpanminus, the package manager for perl.

  2. Then install the test-nginx dependencies via cpanm:

$ sudo cpanm --notest Test::Nginx IPC::Run > build.log 2>&1 || (cat build.log && exit 1)
  1. Run the git clone command to clone the latest source code locally, please use the version we forked out：
$ git clone https://github.com/iresty/test-nginx.git
  1. Here are two ways of running tests:

  • Append the current directory to the perl module directory: export PERL5LIB=.:$PERL5LIB, then run make test command.

  • Or you can specify the NGINX binary path by running this command: TEST_NGINX_BINARY=/usr/local/bin/openresty prove -Itest-nginx/lib -r t.

:::note Note Some of the tests rely on external services and system configuration modification. For a complete test environment build, you can refer to ci/linux_openresty_common_runner.sh. :::

Troubleshoot Testing

Configuring NGINX Path

The solution to the Error unknown directive "lua_package_path" in /API_ASPIX/apisix/t/servroot/conf/nginx.conf error is as shown below.

Ensure that OpenResty is set to the default NGINX, and export the path as follows:

  • export PATH=/usr/local/openresty/nginx/sbin:$PATH
    • Linux default installation path:
      • export PATH=/usr/local/openresty/nginx/sbin:$PATH
    • MacOS default installation path via homebrew:
      • export PATH=/usr/local/opt/openresty/nginx/sbin:$PATH

Run a Single Test Case

Run the specified test case using the following command.

$ prove -Itest-nginx/lib -r t/plugin/openid-connect.t

For more details on the test cases, see the testing framwork.

Step 5: Update Admin API token to Protect Apache APISIX

You need to modify the Admin API key to protect Apache APISIX.

Please modify apisix.admin_key in conf/config.yaml and restart the service as shown below.

apisix:
  # ... ...
  admin_key
    -
      name: "admin"
      key: abcdefghabcdefgh # Modify the original key to abcdefghabcdefgh
      role: admin

When we need to access the Admin API, we can use the key above, as shown below.

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:9080/apisix/admin/routes?api_key=abcdefghabcdefgh -i

The status code 200 in the returned result indicates that the access was successful, as shown below.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 07:48:04 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
... ...
{"node":{...},"action":"get"}

At this point, if the key you enter does not match the value of apisix.admin_key in conf/config.yaml, for example, we know that the correct key is abcdefghabcdefgh, but we enter an incorrect key, such as wrong-key, as shown below.

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:9080/apisix/admin/routes?api_key=wrong-key -i

The status code 401 in the returned result indicates that the access failed because the key entered was incorrect and did not pass authentication, triggering an Unauthorized error, as shown below.

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 08:17:58 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
... ...
{"node":{...},"action":"get"}

Step 6: Build OpenResty for Apache APISIX

Some features require additional NGINX modules to be introduced into OpenResty. If you need these features, you can build the APISIX OpenResty. You can refer to the source of api7/apisix-build-tools for how to set up the build environment and build the APISIX OpenResty.

Step 7: Add Systemd Unit File for Apache APISIX

If you are using CentOS 7 and you installed Apache APISIX via the RPM package in step 2, the configuration file is already in place automatically and you can run the following command directly.

$ systemctl start apisix
$ systemctl stop apisix

If you installed Apache APISIX by other methods, you can refer to the configuration file template for modification and put it in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/apisix.service path.