How to Install, Configure, and Run Envoy as a Front‑End Proxy on Ubuntu

Introduction

Envoy is an open‑source, high‑performance, extensible proxy originally developed by Lyft. It is designed for modern micro‑service architectures, offering load balancing, service discovery, routing, authentication, and authorization. Envoy is widely used to build and deploy cloud‑native applications.

Environment

Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS Desktop 64‑bit

1 Installation

Downloading the pre‑compiled binary is the simplest method on Linux. From the Envoy GitHub releases page, download the latest Ubuntu binary (e.g., envoy-1.28.0-linux-x86_64). https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/releases Rename and make it executable:

# Rename for easier command entry
sudo mv envoy-1.28.0-linux-x86_64 envoy
# Add execute permission
chmod +x envoy

Verify the installation:

./envoy --version

2 Configuration

Configuration follows the official documentation. Envoy can be configured statically (YAML files) or dynamically. The main sections are:

listeners : define network addresses and protocols.

filters : processing chain for incoming connections (e.g., HTTP connection manager).

clusters : define upstream services for load balancing.

routes : map requests to clusters.

admin : management interface for statistics and diagnostics.

Example snippets:

listeners:
  - name: listener_0
    address:
      socket_address: { protocol: TCP, address: 0.0.0.0, port_value: 10000 }
    filter_chains:
      - filters:
          - name: envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager
            typed_config:
              "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.network.http_connection_manager.v3.HttpConnectionManager
              codec_type: auto
              stat_prefix: http
              route_config:
                name: local_route
                virtual_hosts:
                  - name: backend
                    domains: ["*"]
                    routes:
                      - match: { prefix: "/" }
                        route: { cluster: baidu }
              http_filters:
                - name: envoy.filters.http.router
                  typed_config:
                    "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.router.v3.Router

clusters:
  - name: baidu
    connect_timeout: 1s
    type: STRICT_DNS
    dns_lookup_family: V4_ONLY
    lb_policy: round_robin
    load_assignment:
      cluster_name: baidu
      endpoints:
        - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: www.baidu.com
                    port_value: 80

admin:
  access_log_path: /home/zhg/Mine/Workplace/getenvoy/envoy.log
  address:
    socket_address:
      address: 0.0.0.0
      port_value: 10001

3 Running Envoy

After creating envoy_conf.yaml, start Envoy with: ./envoy -c envoy_conf.yaml -l debug Use envoy --help for additional options.

4 Testing

4.1 Admin Interface

Open a browser at http://localhost:10001 to view the admin page.

4.2 Proxy Verification with curl

curl -vvv baidu.com

The response shows a successful HTTP 200 from Baidu. curl -v -H 'Host: baidu.com' 127.0.0.1:10000 The response header contains server: envoy, confirming the request passed through Envoy.

4.3 Proxying to a Local Web Service

Add a new cluster named localserver and point the route to it:

clusters:
  - name: localserver
    connect_timeout: 1s
    type: STATIC
    dns_lookup_family: V4_ONLY
    lb_policy: round_robin
    load_assignment:
      cluster_name: localserver
      endpoints:
        - lb_endpoints:
            - endpoint:
                address:
                  socket_address:
                    address: 127.0.0.1
                    port_value: 9001

routes:
  - match: { prefix: "/" }
    route: { cluster: localserver }

Create a simple HTML page ( web/index.html) and start a Python HTTP server:

# Serve on port 9001
python3 -m http.server 9001

Access http://<em>your‑ubuntu‑ip</em>:10000/ in a browser; the page served by the local Python server should appear, confirming that Envoy correctly forwards traffic.

Reference

www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/…

Original article: https://juejin.cn/post/7321410883875143730 (© original author)