---
audience: administrator
components:
  - serving
function: how-to
---

# Configuring the ingress gateway

Knative uses a shared ingress Gateway to serve all incoming traffic within
Knative service mesh, which is the `knative-ingress-gateway` Gateway under
the `knative-serving` namespace. By default, we use Istio gateway service
`istio-ingressgateway` under `istio-system` namespace as its underlying service.
You can replace the service and the gateway with that of your own as follows.

## Replace the default `istio-ingressgateway` service

### Step 1: Create the gateway service and deployment instance

You'll need to create the gateway service and deployment instance to handle
traffic first. Let's say you customized the default `istio-ingressgateway` to
`custom-ingressgateway` as follows.

```yaml
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  components:
    ingressGateways:
      - name: custom-ingressgateway
        enabled: true
        namespace: custom-ns
        label:
          istio: custom-gateway
```

### Step 2: Update the Knative gateway

Update gateway instance `knative-ingress-gateway` under `knative-serving`
namespace:

```bash
kubectl edit gateway knative-ingress-gateway -n knative-serving
```

Replace the label selector with the label of your service:

```
istio: ingressgateway
```

For the example `custom-ingressgateway` service mentioned earlier, it should be updated to:

```
istio: custom-gateway
```

If there is a change in service ports (compared with that of
`istio-ingressgateway`), update the port info in the gateway accordingly.

### Step 3: Update the gateway ConfigMap

1. Update gateway configmap `config-istio` under `knative-serving`
namespace:

     ```bash
     kubectl edit configmap config-istio -n knative-serving
     ```

     This command opens your default text editor and allows you to edit the config-istio ConfigMap.

     ```yaml
     apiVersion: v1
     data:
       _example: |
         ################################
         #                              #
         #    EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION     #
         #                              #
         ################################
         # ...
         external-gateways: |
           - name: knative-ingress-gateway
             namespace: knative-serving
             service: istio-ingressgateway.istio-system.svc.cluster.local
     ```

1. Edit the file to add the `external-gateways` field with the fully qualified url of your service.
For the example `custom-ingressgateway` service mentioned earlier, it should be updated to:

     ```yaml
     apiVersion: v1
     data:
       external-gateways: |
         - name: knative-ingress-gateway
           namespace: knative-serving
           service: custom-ingressgateway.custom-ns.svc.cluster.local
     kind: ConfigMap
     [...]
     ```

## Replace the `knative-ingress-gateway` gateway

We customized the gateway service so far, but we may also want to use our own gateway.
We can replace the default gateway with our own gateway with following steps.

### Step 1: Create the gateway

Let's say you replace the default `knative-ingress-gateway` gateway with
`knative-custom-gateway` in `custom-ns`.
First, create the `knative-custom-gateway` gateway:

1. Create a YAML file using the following template:

    ```yaml
    apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
    kind: Gateway
    metadata:
      name: knative-custom-gateway
      namespace: custom-ns
    spec:
      selector:
        istio: <service-label>
      servers:
      - port:
          number: 80
          name: http
          protocol: HTTP
        hosts:
        - "*"
    ```
    Where `<service-label>` is a label to select your service, for example, `ingressgateway`.

2. Apply the YAML file by running the command:

    ```bash
    kubectl apply -f <filename>.yaml
    ```
    Where `<filename>` is the name of the file you created in the previous step.

### Step 2: Update the gateway ConfigMap

1. Update gateway configmap `config-istio` under `knative-serving`
namespace:

     ```bash
     kubectl edit configmap config-istio -n knative-serving
     ```

     This command opens your default text editor and allows you to edit the config-istio ConfigMap.

     ```yaml
     apiVersion: v1
     data:
       _example: |
         ################################
         #                              #
         #    EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION     #
         #                              #
         ################################
         # ...
         external-gateways: |
           - name: knative-ingress-gateway
             namespace: knative-serving
             service: istio-ingressgateway.istio-system.svc.cluster.local
     ```

1. Edit the file to add the `external-gateways` field with the customized gateway.
For the example `knative-custom-gateway` mentioned earlier, it should be updated to:

     ```yaml
     apiVersion: v1
     data:
       external-gateways: |
         - name: knative-custom-gateway
           namespace: custom-ns
           service: istio-ingressgateway.istio-system.svc.cluster.local
     kind: ConfigMap
     [...]
     ```

The configuration format should be
```
  external-gateways: |
    - name: <gateway-name>
      namespace: <gateway-namespace>
      service: <fully-qualified-url-of-istio-ingress-service>
```
