A HTTP API Gateway (aka proxy) for interacting with the Appgate API. The name is a portmanteau for Controller and kolla, translated from a discovered rune stone in Gothenburg in Sweden meaning: "to look at the Controller".

While the Customer Reliability Team has been working with various integration projects which involved Appgate SDP API, we learned that a tool, which was used over and over, will be handy to rapid prototyping. Eventually "the tool" became more feature rich and we started to believe it is useful for anyone working with Appgate SDP integrations.

From an educational standpoint, Conkolla allows you to:

• Discover the API against a real system.
• Model or craft API requests and work with real responses.
• Report data on API responses in form of JSON or CSV
• Let's you retrieve tokens when you have not yet covered the auth process in your script.
• Can be used as a API gateway connecting to many Appgate Controllers at the same time.
• Gives you discovery with a Web based UI.
• Gives you all the scripting flexibility to use the http rest API (JSON).
• Administrate your Appgate.
• Copy from one collective to another.
• Do multi entity manipulation.
• One time system admin tasks that would be too heavy doing it in the UI.
• Prometheus pull Gateway, one target per connection.
• Relaying all snmp-exported prometheus metrics for all appliances in the collective.
• Auto connect: control connections solely by a connections file. Useful in autonomous deployments (k8s/ConfigMap)
• Upgrade monitor, watching your cluster upgrade progress in a tabular format.
• Backup and download backup file with the UI.

and many more....

The Appgate API can be learned and discovered in different ways. One of the common ways is to use the developer tools in a web browser while browsing through the Appgate admin UI, or use existing API Gateway or API Mocker such as postman or prism. However, with Conkolla you get another option to choose from.

Conkolla can be seen as a proxy, sitting between the user and the Appgate Controller:

The user will basically do the following steps when using Conkolla:

1. Launch Conkolla.
2. Login to a Appgate Controller through Conkolla.
3. Use the the new connection in Conkolla to run rest calls against the connected Controller.

Conkolla (64bit) runs on macOS, Windows and linux. Download the binaries:

• Conkolla latest release

docker pull mar8x/conkolla:latest
docker run -p 4433:4433 mar8x/conkolla:latest --authName maraboux --authPassword maraboux

See the example deployment.yaml:

# deploy
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

# pfwd to app
kubectl --namespace ${NAMESPACE} port-forward \
$(kubectl get pod --namespace ${NAMESPACE} -l app=conkolla -o template \
--template "{{(index .items 0).metadata.name}}") 4433

Currently Chrome is the browser for which testing is conducted on. Other browsers work as well but we cannot guarantee full functionality.

By default Conkolla serves on https://localhost:4433 with Basic Auth. Different options to launch are available, check with Conkolla --help for more information. Keep the window in the background, it will reveal a good part of the interactions between client - Conkolla - Controller, and can be useful to follow the requests & responses, and payloads.

Open a cmd line or powershell, then type Conkolla.exe --authName maraboux --authPassword maraboux.

chmod +x conkolla
./Conkolla --authName maraboux --authPassword maraboux

you will see a start message, something like this:

$ conkolla -noAuth
Basic Auth deactivated.
{
    "copyright": "AppGate Inc. 2021 (marx)",
    "date": "2021-02-09",
    "directory": "/Users/marc/git-appgate/conkolla/bin",
    "certPath": "templates/cert.pem",
    "keyPath": "templates/key.pem",
    "url": "https://localhost:4433",
    "tls": true,
    "mode": "release",
    "version": "8.2.0 (release-8:cc02)",
    "defaultAPIVersion": 14,
    "operatingSystem": "darwin",
    "memoryUsageMBbase2": 71.8291015625,
    "numberGoRoutines": 3,
    "systemTime": "02-10-2021 17:04:36",
    "systemTimeZone": "Local",
    "basicAuthentication": false,
    "conkollaID": "",
    "defaultClientConnectionParameters": {
        "tcpTimeout": 10000000000,
        "tlsHandshakeTimeout": 7000000000,
        "requestTimeout": 15000000000,
        "keepAlive": 30000000000,
        "maxIdleConnections": 100,
        "idleConnTimeout": 90000000000,
        "expectContinueTimeout": 1000000000,
        "helpText": "If prometheus enabled: queries to fetch new metrics upstream do always reset idling tcp connections (not re-useing from pool)."
    },
    "CertificateSANs": "",
    "upstreamHTTPGetOnly": false,
    "whiteListUpstream": null
}
{
    "b5b2739dd17c": [
        "127.0.0.1/8",
        "172.17.0.2/16"
    ]
}

If you are intending to use ck in a deployment, we recomend:

• Follow the principle of least privilege:
  • API account: define an admin role which restricts to the operations and objects needed for the purpose (see next chapter).
• Does it require read-only?
  • If so launch ck with the flags: -getOnly to limit upstream calls to GET only method.
• Are you using it for monitoring only?
  • If so launch ck with the flags: -getOnly and whiteListMonitoring.
• Do you need access to ck from the public?
  • Put a reverse proxy infront with a proper TLS setup.
  • Use basic auth on the reverse proxy.
  • Optionally use basic auth on ck -- if you use prometheus to scrape it locally, you might not need ck running on basic auth.

At this stage you will need to have a user with admin permission and privileges to read or write Appgate objects. For more information read:

• SDP Help > rest api

Make sure you know where Conkolla is serving:

• look for "url" in start message, or
• use the default https://localhost:4433

You will encounter an option to specify the API version. Appgate SDP has different versions of the API available (from min-max version). During login, conkolla determines the correct (max) version to use and sets it for the connection. If conkolla is not able to determine, it will fall back to

1. the built in version of conkolla (set at build time)
2. the overwritten version when launching conkolla (--apiversion overwrites the built in one)
3. the version set in the login form/json data

2 overwrites 1, and 3 overwrites 2.

Whenever the claims token is generated for the user, conkolla determines min and max again, and sets the version for the connection to max. This also happens if you force token renewal (example from the UI). You might change the version number for experimenting, but latest when user claims are created, the API version is set to max again.

• Open a browser and point to the url (look for "url" in start message)
• Default is https://localhost:4433/login/
• Allow the exception for the self signed cert when (if you have not deployed separate admin UI)

Check the examples page for how to connect via command line.

It is recommended to use chrome browser (tested only in chrome/ECMAScript2018 or later). The browser helps user to quickly work against the Controller API. The UI supports

• Autocomplete for Upstream API path (indexed from the onboard API only).
• If entities have been in the results containing IDs, you can pre-set from a dropdown list API path with {id}.
• The on-board editor is the Ace editor configured for JSON mode.

You can only update or create one entity (for example an appliance or entitlement) with a single request. Hence you will need to have a single entity in the editor window (for create or update at least). If you need to manipulate multiple entities use the developer mode in chrome and manipulate records with JavaScript. Check the advanced page for details:

• advanced, developer mode

Rest calls towards an Appgate Controller are in the form of:

• https://{URL}:{PORT}/admin/{RESOURCE or PATH}

where as:

• URL is the Controllers URL
• PORT: the port of the admin access, default is 444
• RESOURCE or PATH: the actual rest resource

Example:

• https://cc1.packnot.com:444/admin/stats/appliances

Note the separation of the different calls:

• From user to Conkolla: proxy call
• From Conkolla to Controller: upstream call

The first one is what the user will use to make calls, where the second is always initiated by Conkolla.

In Conkolla, a you always reference a connection; a connection which you previously logged into. Example, the same rest-call as above, you would specify it by referencing to connection 1 or cc1.packnot.comdev:

• https://localhost:4433/get/1/stats/appliances
• https://localhost:4433/get/cc1.packnot.comdev/stats/appliances

From the command line:

curl -k -X POST -H "Accept: application/json" https://localhost:4433/get/1/appliances

Use always method POST for the proxy call. The upstream HTTP method is included in the proxy call's path.

Note: you need to drop the /admin part of the path. Do not specify the /admin part in the path for the rest call. Conkolla adds it automatically on the upstream call.

restCall: the upstream rest call, example: /entitlements/0c32530f-e15b-4720-a261-acae73c3d417. objectData: the payload (JSON data in the body).

Check the examples page.

Either you browse the login form from the UI or get the possible options/fields from a rest call. Note there might be more options from the rest call than on the web login form:

curl -k -H "Accept: application/json" https://localhost:4433/login/

Example:

 "accept_header_suffix": "+json",
  "api_version": 16,
  "content_type_header": "application/json",
  "loginFormFields": {
    "controllerURL": "",
    "controllerPort": 0,
    "username": "",
    "password": "",
    "otp": "",
    "providerName": "",
    "apiVersion": 0,
    "acceptHeaderSuffix": "",
    "label": "",
    "machineId": "",
    "showToken": false,
    "skipVerifySSL": false,
    "dumpAGResponse": false,
    "autoTokenRenewal": false,
    "shortIntervalRenewal": 0,
    "renewToken": false,
    "contentTypeHeader": "",
    "promCollector": false,
    "promRelay": false,
    "promTargetName": "",
    "promLabelExporter": "",
    "promLabelEnvironment": "",
    "promLabelGroup": "",
    "promLabelSite": "",
    "PromLabelRegion": "",
    "promLabelCountry": "",
    "promLabelCustomer": "",
    "promLabelCostID": "",
    "kmsBlob": false,
    "kmsProvider": "",
    "kmsKey": "",
    "kmsRegion": "",
    "azureVault": false,
    "azureVaultName": "",
    "azureClientID": "",
    "azureSecretName": "",
    "autoConnectForce": false
  },
  "pageinfo": "login page"
}

From Version 7.4 JSON values are now separated from the form login, so they are treated all as proper data types (e.g booleans are bool and not string literals).

See the dedicated password security page for this topic.

Usage of /go/bin/conkolla:
  -address string
    	The IP of the proxy. Use 0.0.0.0 to share on network. Use localhost not to share. (default "localhost")
  -apiversion string
    	Default API version for new connections. (default "14")
  -authName string
    	Username for Basic Authentication.
  -authPassword string
    	Password for Basic Authentication.
  -certHosts string
    	Comma-separated hostnames and IPs to generate a certificate for. Generates new certs every time, ignoring the on-board cert.
  -combineLogs
    	Write connection logs to stdout instead of individual files.
  -conkollaID string
    	An arbitrary string to identify this running instance.
  -connectionsFile string
    	Specify file with path from which connections shall be read from.
  -fetchDataInterval int
    	The interval conkolla fetches data from controller (min 5 secs) (default 15)
  -getOnly
    	Allow only http method GET for all upstream call.
  -help
    	Display usage
  -http
    	Use http instead of https.
  -noAuth
    	Turn basic authentication off. If http is used instad of https, basic auth is turned off.
  -port string
    	The port of the proxy. (default "4433")
  -singlePromExporter
    	Export only the first connection under /metrics. Any other connection is ignored
  -version
    	8.2.1 (release-8:e548)
  -whiteListMonitoring
    	White list upstream calls required for monitoring. All Others are forbidden.

The auto connection functionality allows you to control connections configurations solely through a file. This is a rather large topic so it deserved its own page.

Conkolla translates and exposes metric information from connected controllers.

1. The collectors get the source data from the controllers. This is performed to all controllers in the collective, by using a probabilistic request balancer with constant back off time. Connections are traced as well from the conkolla to the controller (endpoint).
2. The data is transformed into prometheus gauges, counters and histograms and exposed as a target per connection.
3. Conkolla gets the data every 20secs.

The target metrics ar are exposed under its target name, the URL https://localhost:4433/metrics?target=<target name>.

While these metrics are created in conkolla, they also contain synthetic transactions or so called information regarding the connection between the requests of conkolla in the controllers. These metrics are part exported together with the generated appgate metrics.

Since v8.4.0 it is possible to relay all the snmp-exporter metrics from all active appliances in the collective. Note there are many unused or uninteresting metrics and a single appliance expose a data size of about 82KiB (Appgate SDP v5.5). However it contains metrics which the basic metrics do not deliver, so you might consider the metrics to keep which are of interest by using the metric_relabel_configs in your prometheus configuration.

Setting the flag promRelay:true for a connections together with promCollector:true does the following:

• conkolla does not create the "basic metrics"
• conkolla fetches for every active appliance the snmp-exported prometheus metrics
• conkolla relays all fetched metrics in a single target
• conkolla exports an additional target named targetname-synthetic which contains the connection traces between conkollla and the controllers

The api account does not need more privileges than:

• View all Appliances
• View all Global settings
• Check Status all Appliances
• View all Tokenrecords
• View all OnBoardedDevices

The following is only needed if you fetch admin messages:

• View all Admin messages

• Launch conkolla with -getOnly and whiteListMonitoring flags.
• Note that there is no Basic Auth on the /metrics path even if Basic Auth is enabled.
• Use a reverse proxy such as traefik, nginx etc. to secure access to conkolla from other networks/Internet.

For a full deployment example see:

• https://github.com/appgate/sdp-prom-monitoring

- job_name: trent
    honor_timestamps: true
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scheme: https
    tls_config:
        insecure_skip_verify: true
    relabel_configs:
    - source_labels: [__address__]
      target_label: __param_target
    - source_labels: [__param_target]
      target_label: target
    - target_label: __address__
      replacement: http://monitoring.packnot.intra:4433
    static_configs:
    - targets:
        - ctl1.packnot.comops
        - ctl2.packnot.comops
        - ctl3.packnot.comops
        - ctl4.packnot.comops
        - ctl5.packnot.comops
        - ctl6.packnot.comops
        - ctl7.packnot.comops
        - ctl8.packnot.comops
        - ctl9.packnot.comops
        - ctl10.packnot.comops
        - ctl11.packnot.comops
        - ctl12.packnot.comops
        - ctl13.packnot.comops

• honor time stamps: The metrics from the controller are in form of a pull-gateway, hence not from conkolla. Time stamps are created when data was pulled from controllers.
• All other metrics, the ones reflecting or created by conkolla, do not bare time stamps.

Proxy API to a connected Controller connection follows the scheme:

• {HTTPS or HTTP}://{HOST}:{PORT}{UPSTREAM HTTP METHOD}/{CONNECTION}/{UPSTREAM RESTCALL} :: {BODY}

UPSTREAM HTTP METHOD The method to be used in the upstream rest call:

• GET, POST, PUT, DELETE

CONNECTION: every connection has two references which can be used in Conkolla proxying calls, either

• a numeric ID assigned by Conkolla at login time,
• or the combined string of {ControllerURL}{label}.

UPSTREAM RESTCALL

• Appgate API path/resource, without the /admin in the path.

BODY

• JSON encoded payload if any

Proxy Method: Always use POST (this covers all upstream calls which are embedded in the proxy rest call).

These are related to the Appgate connection and might do rest calls to upstream Appgate Controllers.

Note: /renewtoken is currently controlled via a GET whereas it would be more reasonable with a PUT-- this might change in the future.

Note these calls will always do rest calls to upstream Appgate Controllers.

Note: the /stats, /revoke and /forget are not typical rest resources and will operate on one or many connections. For now we use method GET while this might change in the future.