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Integrating WSO2 and the Cequence UAP platform

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Integrating WSO2 and the Cequence UAP platform

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The WSO2 API gateway is a proxy between consumer applications and backend APIs. The WSO2 API gateway also secures, protects, and manages APIs by intercepting API requests and applying policies such as throttling and security. You can implement a custom handler to change the API flow by meeting specific requirements and use cases.

When integrated with the Cequence Unified API Protection (UAP) platform, the WSO2 gateway uses a custom mediator in APIM to send all request and response data to Cequence API Edge server.

The custom mediator extends the AbstractHandler class and is triggered asynchronously to processes the request and response data. The custom mediator reformats the data into the JSON format that the Cequence UAP platform uses. The Cequence common library batches the JSON-formatted transactions and sends the batches to the Cequence API Edge server.

The Cequence Edge server then processes the transactions and provides insights into the API traffic.

High-level architecture

image-20240802-055123.png

  1. Client sends a request to the WSO2 API manager.
  2. The Cequence plugin collects metadata for the API request.
  3. WSO2 sends the request to upstream applications.
  4. The upstream applications give a response to WSO2.
  5. The Cequence plugin collects metadata for the API response.
  6. WSO2 sends the response to the client.
  7. The Cequence plugin processes the API request, the response payload, and the metadata for both the request and the response. The Cequence plugin then reformats the data to the JSON format the Cequence UAP platform uses and sends the formatted JSON transaction to the Common Library. The Common Library batches the transactions and sends them to the Cequence UAP platform (API Edge server).

Prerequisites

Before you begin, confirm that your environment meets the following requirements.

  • A working install of WSO2 APIM version 2.6.0 or later.
  • Java Version - 1.8 (java-8-openjdk-amd64).
  • Cequence UAP platform release 6.14.13 or later.
  • Access to a client ID and client secret generated from the Cequence UAP platform web UI.
  • Token Authentication and API Edge endpoints as provided to you by a Cequence team member.

Enabling access to the WSO2 API Publisher and API Store

In a cloud environment, you must update the server URLs to use public IP4 addresses. This involves editing the api-manager.xml and carbon.xml files. These files are located in the ${WSO2_APIM_HOME}/repository/conf directory.

In carbon.xml, remove the comment markers (<!-- and -->) and add a public IPvv4 address.

<!--HostName>www.wso2.org</HostName-->
<HostName>54.252.243.53</HostName>

In api-manager.xml, update the APIStore and ServerURL tags, replacing localhost with a public IPv4 address.

<APIStore>
<!--GroupingExtractor>org.wso2.carbon.apimgt.impl.DefaultGroupIDExtractorImpl</GroupingExtractor-->
<!--This property is used to indicate how we do user name comparision for token generation https://wso2.org/jira/browse/APIMANAGER-2225-->
<CompareCaseInsensitively>true</CompareCaseInsensitively>
<DisplayURL>false</DisplayURL>
<URL>https://localhost:${mgt.transport.https.port}/store</URL>

<!-- Server URL of the API Store. -->
<ServerURL>https://localhost:${mgt.transport.https.port}${carbon.context}services/</ServerURL>

After making these changes, WSO2 has access to the API publisher and API store.

Create a sample API and app to test the installation

  1. Navigate to the WSO2 API Publisher URL, https://domain-name:9443/publisher.
  2. Log in to the WSO2 Publisher Console and select Create a New API.
    The New API creation wizard appears.
  3. In the Context Path field, type /postmanecho/v1.
  4. Click Next twice.
    The wizard advances to the Implement step.
  5. Add the endpoint details for the target or upstream API.
  6. In Advanced Throttling Policies, select Apply to API.
  7. Click Save and Publish.
    The View in Portal link appears.
  8. Navigate to the store portal.
  9. Select Add Application.
    The Add Application dialog appears.
  10. Navigate to the new API created earlier in this procedure.
  11. Subscribe to the new API.
  12. Generate the production keys, API key, secret, and token.
  13. Run the following command, replacing the placeholder values in italics with the values relevant to your environment.
    curl -k --location 'https://IPv4_address:8243/postmanecho/v1/post' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer token' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Cookie: sails.sid=s%3AiOeSpUD4MKzcfXm4YJykWsabOZ-37Xsb.hYEFm2R0FJHxrh5aZGBrfoq9up%2B7JZMVE3%2FKiYEXFnA' \
    --data '{
    "a" : "samplebody"
    }'

The sample API and app are ready.

Installing the Cequence integration plugin for WSO2

Integrating the Cequence UAP platform with WSO2 takes place over several phases.

Configure the .env file

The .env file is in the wso2/ folder after opening the archive file provided by Cequence. Edit the .env file to set the following required variables. Replace Cequence_UAP_endpoint_URL with the URL provided to you by the Cequence team. Generate a Cequence Client ID and Client Secret from the Cequence UAP platform web UI.

# Location of cequence.properties
CEQ_COMMON_LIB_PROPERTIES_FILE=$WSO2_APIM_HOME/repository/conf/cequence.properties
# The Cequence Edge endpoint
CEQ_EDGE_ENDPOINT=https://Cequence_UAP_endpoint_URL/api-transactions

# The Cequence Auth endpoint
CEQ_AUTH_ENDPOINT=https://Cequence_UAP_endpoint_URL/auth/realms/cequence/protocol/openid-connect/token

# The Cequence client id & secret for the oauth token authentication
CEQ_CLIENT_ID=client_ID
CEQ_CLIENT_SECRET=client_secret

WSO2_APIM_HOME is typically the parent folder of the wso2 installation directory.

From the /home/ubuntu/wso2 directory, run the following commands.

source .env
echo -e "authEndpointUrl=${CEQ_AUTH_ENDPOINT}
transactionEndpointUrl=${CEQ_EDGE_ENDPOINT}
clientId=${CEQ_CLIENT_ID}
clientSecret=${CEQ_CLIENT_SECRET}" >>${CEQ_COMMON_LIB_PROPERTIES_FILE}

Confirm that the cequence.properties file exists in the wso2am-2.6.0/repository/conf directory.

Update the velocity_template XML file

Edit velocity_template.xml to add the following line, following the tag section.

<handler class="com.cequence.logging.LoggingApplication"/>

The velocity_template.xml file is in the wso2am-2.6.0/repository/resources/api_templates directory.

Update the Log4J File

Update the log level for the logging framework in log4j at the end of the file. Set the value of log4j.logger.com.cequence.logging.LoggingApplication to INFO.

Install plugin JAR files

Run the following commands to copy JAR files from a signed S3 URL to the WSO2 installation directory.

cp cequence_common_lib-1.1-Java8.jar ${WSO2_APIM_HOME}/repository/components/lib/
cp cequence-logging-v2-1.0.0.jar ${WSO2_APIM_HOME}/repository/components/lib/

A Cequence team member will provide you with the signed S3 URLs.

Start the WSO2 Server

Run the ./wso2server.sh command to start the WSO2 server in the background.

Run the './wso2server.sh start' command to start the WSO2 server in the foreground.

Testing the Integration

Run the following command to check the WSO2 logs.

tail -f ${WSO2_APIM_HOME}/repository/logs/wso2carbon.log

A functioning installation of WSO2 integrated with the Cequence UAP platform produces output similar to the following sample.T

[2024-07-18 23:23:18,578] INFO - CequenceConnector txnSend Stats, avgTxnSize (this batch): 2505
avgTxnSize (so far):2457 Rx:6 Tx:6 [2024-07-18 23:23:18,579] INFO - CequenceConnector
checkRequest: cur-batch-size=2, avg-txn-latency= 0us, avg-batch-processing-latency= 12925us

You can also track transaction flow in the Sitemap Discovery section of the Cequence UAP platform web UI.

Troubleshooting

The following actions can sometimes address lack of traffic to the Cequence UAP platform.

Confirm that the Cequence logging JAR file in WSO2 is being picked up properly.

Look for the common library cequence_common_lib-1.1-Java8.jar and cequence-logging-v2-1.0.0.jar in the following directories:

/home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/components/lib
/home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/components/dropins

Delete all cequence* JAR files from the /home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/components/dropins directory and confirm that you have the right cequence* JAR files in the /home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/components/lib directory, then restart WSO2.

Confirm that the log4j properties file, /home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/conf/log4j.properties, contains this line at the end:

log4j.logger.com.cequence.logging.LoggingApplication=INFO

Confirm that the handler file, /home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/resources/api_templates/velocity_template.xml, contains the following line:

<handler class="com.cequence.logging.LoggingApplication"/>

Check the dropins folder, /home/ubuntu/wso2am-2.6.0/repository/components/dropins, and delete the file cequence_common_lib_1.1_1.0.0.jar if present

Restart the server, invoke the API, and look for content like the following example in the contents of the wso2carbon.log file.

tail -f repository/logs/wso2carbon.log
[2024-07-09 09:43:38,352] INFO - CequenceConnector connector getInstance: Log levels: current: FINEST effective: FINEST
[2024-07-09 09:43:38,352] WARN - CequenceConnector cannot load properties from: /config.propertiesError: /config.properties (No such file or directory)
[2024-07-09 09:43:38,469] INFO - CequenceConnector applied new config: ConnectorConfig [srcGwName=null, libVersion=1.0, authTokenUrl=https://auth.pratik1.se-cequence.cloud/auth/realms/cequence/protocol/openid-connect/token, transactionEndpointUrl=https://edge.pratik1.se-cequence.cloud/api-transactions, maxMessageSize=10000000, batchSize=100, maxBatches=200, batchInterval=5000, serverCertValidationDisabled=true, transactionEndpointType=uap, authType=oauth2]
[2024-07-09 09:43:38,470] INFO - CequenceConnector Token expired. Initiating token fetch
[2024-07-09 09:43:38,471] INFO - CequenceConnector grant_type=client_credentials&scope=profile&client_secret=s6m9ZdTmdLQiRXgpPnq56NanFK02ZiyQ&client_id=wso2
[2024-07-09 09:43:39,562] INFO - CequenceConnector connector getInstance: Log levels: current: FINEST effective: FINEST
[2024-07-09 09:43:39,565] WARN - CequenceConnector cannot load properties from: /config.propertiesError: /config.properties (No such file or directory)
[2024-07-09 09:43:39,568] INFO - CequenceConnector applied new config: ConnectorConfig [srcGwName=null, libVersion=1.0, authTokenUrl=https://auth.pratik1.se-cequence.cloud/auth/realms/cequence/protocol/openid-connect/token, transactionEndpointUrl=https://edge.pratik1.se-cequence.cloud/api-transactions, maxMessageSize=10000000, batchSize=100, maxBatches=200, batchInterval=5000, serverCertValidationDisabled=true, transactionEndpointType=uap, authType=oauth2]
[2024-07-09 09:43:39,568] INFO - CequenceConnector grant_type=client_credentials&scope=profile&client_secret=s6m9ZdTmdLQiRXgpPnq56NanFK02ZiyQ&client_id=wso2
[2024-07-09 09:43:43,664] INFO - CequenceConnector txnSend Stats, avgTxnSize (this batch): 2574 avgTxnSize (so far):2574 Rx:2 Tx:2
[2024-07-09 09:43:43,666] INFO - CequenceConnector checkRequest: cur-batch-size=2, avg-txn-latency= 0us, avg-batch-processing-latency= 22802us

When the library is not being picked up properly, check the repository/dropins folder, delete all cequence* JAR files, then check the lib folder and confirm that two Cequence JAR files are present. Then, restart WSO2.

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