Exposing services on the application network using the CLI

After creating an application network by linking sites, you can expose services from one site using connectors and consume those services on other sites using listeners. A routing key is a string that matches one or more connectors with one or more listeners. For example, if you create a connector with the routing key backend, you need to create a listener with the routing key backend to consume that service.

This section assumes you have created and linked at least two sites.

Creating a connector using the CLI

A connector binds a local workload to listeners in remote sites. Listeners and connectors are matched using routing keys.

For more information about connectors see Connector concept

Prerequisites

  • The skupper CLI is installed.
  • The SKUPPER_PLATFORM environment variable is set to one of * podman,docker or linux.

Procedure

  1. Create a server that you want to expose on the network. For example, run a HTTP server on port 8080.

  2. Create a connector:

    skupper connector create <name> <port> [--routing-key <name>]

    For example:

    skupper connector create my-server 8080 --host localhost

  3. Check the connector status:

    skupper connector status

    For example:

    $ skupper connector status
NAME		STATUS	ROUTING-KEY	HOST		PORT
my-server	Ok	my-server	localhost	8081

    📌 NOTE By default, the routing key name is set to the name of the connector. If you want to use a custom routing key, set the --routing-key to your custom name.

    Apply the configuration using:

    skupper system reload

There are many options to consider when creating connectors using the CLI, see [CLI Reference][cli-ref], including frequently used options.

Creating a listener using the CLI

A listener binds a local connection endpoint to connectors in remote sites. Listeners and connectors are matched using routing keys.

Prerequisites

  • The skupper CLI is installed.
  • The SKUPPER_PLATFORM environment variable is set to one of * podman,docker or linux.

Procedure

  1. Identify a connector that you want to use. Note the routing key of that connector.

  2. Create a listener:

    skupper connector create <name> <port> [--routing-key <name>]

    For example:

    $ skupper listener create my-server 8080
File written to /home/user/.local/share/skupper/namespaces/default/input/resources/Listener-backend.yaml

    Apply the configuration using:

    skupper system reload

  3. Check the listener status:

    skupper listener status

    For example:

    $ skupper listener status
NAME		STATUS	ROUTING-KEY	HOST		PORT
my-server	Ok	my-server	localhost	8081

    📌 NOTE There must be a matching connector for the service to operate. By default, the routing key name is the listener name. If you want to use a custom routing key, set the --routing-key to your custom name.

There are many options to consider when creating connectors using the CLI, see [CLI Reference][cli-ref], including frequently used options.