Prerequisites

Before installing Nantian Gateway, verify that the environment meets the following requirements.

Kubernetes Cluster

A Kubernetes cluster running version 1.28 or later is required. Any conformant Kubernetes distribution is supported, from local development environments to managed cloud services.

For local development, Kind (Kubernetes IN Docker) is the recommended tool. It is a single-binary, fast cluster creation utility that works well with the project’s preconfigured Kind configurations.

Creating a Kind Cluster

Install Kind from the official releases page. Create a cluster using the provided configuration:

kind create cluster --config gateway/deploy/kubernetes/overlays/kind/kind-config.yaml

This configuration creates a single-node cluster with host port mappings for gateway access:

Service	Cluster Port	Host Port
HTTP	30080	18080
HTTPS	30443	18443
UDP primary	31300	5300
UDP secondary	31301	5301
Admin API	32000	19000
Admin API (gRPC)	32001	19001

After deployment, the gateway is accessible at http://localhost:18080.

Host network mode

For direct port binding without extra port mappings, use the kind-hostnetwork configuration:

kind create cluster --config gateway/deploy/kubernetes/overlays/kind-hostnetwork/kind-config.yaml

This creates a multi-node cluster (one control plane, two worker nodes). The data plane binds directly to host ports, which is useful when low port numbers are required.

Verify the cluster is operational:

kubectl cluster-info

Expected output:

Kubernetes control plane is running at https://127.0.0.1:XXXX
CoreDNS is running at https://127.0.0.1:XXXX/api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/services/kube-dns:dns/proxy

CLI Tools

The following command-line tools must be installed and available in PATH:

Tool	Minimum Version	Purpose
kubectl	1.28	Cluster interaction and manifest application
helm	3.12	Nantian Gateway installation via Helm chart

kubectl

Install kubectl following the official Kubernetes documentation. Verify the installation:

kubectl version --client

Expected output (version numbers vary by installation):

Client Version: v1.31.0
Kustomize Version: v5.4.2

Helm

Install Helm following the official Helm documentation. Verify the installation:

helm version --short

Expected output:

v3.14.0+ge36b354

Gateway API CRDs

Nantian Gateway requires the Kubernetes Gateway API CRDs to be installed on the cluster. These CRDs define the Gateway, GatewayClass, HTTPRoute, and other resource types that the gateway uses for configuration.

Install the Gateway API CRDs using the standard upstream channel:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.5.1/standard-install.yaml

Verify the CRDs are installed:

kubectl get crd gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io

Expected output:

NAME                                    CREATED AT
gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io      2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Resource Requirements

The following table lists the minimum and recommended resource allocations for each component at different traffic volumes.

Minimum (development / low traffic)

Component	CPU Request	Memory Request	Replicas
Control Plane	100m	128Mi	1
Data Plane	500m	256Mi	1
Dashboard	50m	128Mi	1

Recommended (production / moderate traffic: 1K–5K RPS)

Component	CPU Request	Memory Request	CPU Limit	Memory Limit	Replicas
Control Plane	200m	256Mi	1	1Gi	2
Data Plane	2	512Mi	—	2Gi	2–4
Dashboard	100m	128Mi	500m	256Mi	2

High traffic (5K–50K+ RPS)

Component	CPU Request	Memory Request	Replicas
Control Plane	500m	512Mi	2–3
Data Plane	4	1Gi	4–8
Dashboard	200m	256Mi	2

The data plane is the primary consumer of CPU and memory. Each additional replica increases aggregate throughput linearly.

Next Steps

After verifying all prerequisites, proceed to the Quick Start to deploy Nantian Gateway.