Apigee Target Server Validator Tool : Enhancing API Reliability

Introduction

In the modern digital world, APIs are essential for linking and transmitting data and services across diverse systems. This surge in API usage necessitates robust API gateway solutions like Apigee. Managing a growing API infrastructure, including validating an expanding array of backend targets, can be daunting. This blog post delves into the Apigee Target Server Validator, explaining its advantages and its role in enhancing your API infrastructure.

 

What is Apigee Target Server Validator?

The primary purpose of the Target Server Validator is to check the reachability status of your backend target servers and generate a report .It validates the targets in Target Servers & Apigee API Proxy Bundles exported from Apigee. Validation is done by deploying a proxy which checks if HOST & PORT is open from Apigee. By doing so, it helps to check a targets reachability , DNS resolvability.

Validating target backends could be helpful for use cases like

  • Onboarding a new backend to Apigee.
  • Migrating Apigee Infrastructure  to a different network.
  • Migrating from a older generation of Apigee.
  • General Audit of target servers

Disclaimer

This is not an officially supported Google product.

Clone Repo

Clone the repo and move to the tool directory 

git clone https://github.com/apigee/devrel.git
cd devrel/tools/target-server-validator

Pre-Requisites

  • Python3.x
  • Java
  • Maven
  • Please install the required Python dependencies
    python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
  • Please build the java callout jar by running the below command
bash callout/build_java_callout.sh
 
  • Please fill in input.properties
[source]
baseurl=https://x.x.x.x/v1                  # Apigee Base URL. e.g https://management-api.apigee.corp
org=xxx-xxxx-xxx-xxxxx                      # Apigee Org ID
auth_type=basic                             # API Auth type basic | oauth

[target]
baseurl=https://apigee.googleapis.com/v1    # Apigee Base URL
org=xxx-xxxx-xxx-xxxxx                      # Apigee Org ID
auth_type=oauth                             # API Auth type basic | oauth

[csv]
file=input.csv                              # Path to input CSV. Note: CSV needs HOST & PORT columns
default_port=443                            # default port if port is not provided in CSV

[validation]
check_csv=true                              # 'true' to validate Targets in input csv
check_proxies=true                          # 'true' to validate Proxy Targets else 'false'
skip_proxy_list=mock1,stream                # Comma sperated list of proxies to skip validation;
proxy_export_dir=export                     # Export directory needed when check_proxies='true'
api_env=dev                                 # Target Environment to deploy Validation API Proxy
api_name=target_server_validator            # Target API Name of Validation API Proxy
api_force_redeploy=false                    # set 'true' to Re-deploy Target API Proxy
api_hostname=example.apigee.com             # Target VirtualHost or EnvGroup Domain Name
api_ip=<IP>                                 # IP address corresponding to api_hostname. Use if DNS record doesnt exist
report_format=csv                           # Report Format. Choose csv or md (defaults to md)
allow_insecure=false # Set "false" to disable SSL Verification
 
  • Sample input CSV with target servers

NOTE: You need to set check_csv=true in the validation section of input.properties

NOTE: You need to set file=<CSV Name> in the csv section of input.properties If PORT is omitted from the csv, the value of default_port will be used from input.properties.

HOST,PORT
httpbin.org
mocktarget.apigee.net,80
smtp.gmail.com,465
 
  • Please run below commands to authenticate, based on the Apigee flavours you are using.
export APIGEE_OPDK_ACCESS_TOKEN=$(echo -n "<user>:<password>" | base64) # Access token for Apigee OPDK
export APIGEE_ACCESS_TOKEN=$(gcloud auth print-access-token)            # Access token for Apigee X/Hybrid
 

Highlevel Working

  • Export Target Server Details
  • Export Proxy Bundle
  • Parse Each Proxy Bundle for Target
  • Run Validate API against each Target (optional)
  • Generate csv/md Report

Usage

Run the script as below

python3 main.py
 

Report

Validation Report: report.md OR report.csv can be found in the same directory as the script.

Please check a Sample report

Limitations

Contributors
Version history
Last update:
‎09-07-2023 01:02 PM
Updated by: