NGINX Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 17. Introduction to NGINX Controller

17.0 Introduction

NGINX Controller is an application-centric control plane for your application environments. Controller provides an interface that allows you to view and configure an entire fleet of NGINX Plus servers, no matter their physical location. Controller allows teams to focus less on the raw NGINX Plus configuration, and more on the application they’re using NGINX Plus to deliver.

In this chapter, you’ll read an overview of the NGINX Controller setup, connect an NGINX Plus server instance, and learn about using the NGINX Controller API. NGINX Controller is an enterprise product that requires a license. You can request a free trial from the F5 NGINX Controller Product Page.

17.1 Setup Overview

Problem

You would like to set up an NGINX Controller environment.

Solution

Use the official NGINX Controller Installation Guide for an up-to-date installation process. The following are a few tips, observations, and callouts for items to look out for throughout the setup guide.

NGINX Controller 3.x installs as a Kubernetes stack. It is important to review all of the technical specifications before beginning. An external PostgreSQL database is required. The Controller installer is provided as a tarball. Once unpacked, an install.sh script will need to be run as a nonroot user.

Due to the way some OS images are distributed, there may be variance in the package repositories, which can cause some difficulty with the installation. Ubuntu ...