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Kong Manager

Kong Manager is the graphical user interface (GUI) for Kong Gateway. It uses the Kong Admin API under the hood to administer and control Kong Gateway. It comes in two options, depending on the edition of Kong Gateway that you’re running: open-source or enterprise.

Here’s a comparison of some of the capabilities you get access to between the Kong Manager Enterprise (or Free mode) edition, and the OSS edition:

CapabilityKong Manager EnterpriseKong Manager OSS
Manage all workspaces in one place✅❌
Create and manage routes and services✅✅
Activate or deactivate plugins✅✅
Manage certificates✅✅
Group your services, plugins, consumers, and everything else exactly how you want them✅❌
Manage teams✅❌
Manage users and roles for Kong Gateway✅❌
Centrally store and easily access key sets and keys✅✅
Manage vaults✅✅

Note: If you are running Kong in traditional mode, increased traffic could lead to potential performance issues for the Kong proxy. Server-side sorting and filtering large quantities of entities can also cause increased CPU usage in both Kong Gateway and its database.

To access Kong Manager, go to the following URL after installing Kong Gateway (OSS): http://localhost:8002

Kong Manager interface

Kong Manager interface

Figure 1: Kong Manager individual workspace dashboard

Top menu

ItemDescription
WorkspacesDashboard for all the workspaces in the cluster.
TeamsManage team roles and permissions with RBAC, or map groups to your IdP.

Side menu

ItemDescription
DashboardSee information about a workspace.
API GatewayManage the Kong Gateway entities in the current workspace.
SecretsManage vaults, keys and key sets for your environment.

Kong Manager OSS interface

Kong Manager Open Source (OSS) is the graphical user interface (GUI) for Kong Gateway (OSS). It uses the Kong Admin API under the hood to administer and control Kong Gateway (OSS).

Note: Kong Manager OSS is designed for use with the Open Source version of Kong Gateway (OSS).

Kong Manager OSS interface

Figure 2: Kong Manager OSS overview

ItemDescription
OverviewDashboard that contains information about your Kong Gateway (OSS).
Gateway ServicesOverview of all services associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new services, manage existing services, and see all services at a glance.
RoutesOverview of all routes associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new routes, manage existing routes, and see all routes at a glance.
ConsumersOverview of all consumers associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new consumers, manage existing consumers, and see all consumers at a glance.
PluginsOverview of all plugins associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can enable or disable plugins.
UpstreamsOverview of all upstreams associated with your Kong Gateway (OSS). From this dashboard, you can add new upstreams, manage existing upstreams, and see all upstreams at a glance.
CertificatesManage your certificates for SSL/TLS termination for encrypted requests.
CA CertificatesManage your CA certificates for client and server certificate validation.
SNIsManage SNI object one-to-many mappings of hostnames to a certificate.
VaultsManage the security of Kong Gateway (OSS) with centralized secrets.
KeysManage your asymmetric keys by adding a key object.
Key SetsManage your asymmetric key collections by adding a key set object.