Switchover: No Auth → mTLS

This example configures the gateway to accept unauthenticated client connections and authenticate to Confluent Cloud using mTLS. The gateway uses auth: passthrough — the client connects with no auth, and the gateway presents a client certificate to CCloud.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
KUBECTL_NAMESPACE	Kubernetes namespace for the gateway

Certificate Requirements

Before creating secrets, you need the following certificate files:

• ca-chain.pem — Your CA chain (upload to CCloud as the mTLS identity provider)
• client-cert.pem — Gateway client certificate for authenticating to CCloud
• client-key.pem — Gateway client private key
• public-cacerts.pem — Public CA chain for verifying CCloud's server certificate (e.g., Let's Encrypt)

Certificate generation: See the Gateway certificates guide for instructions on generating certificates.

CCloud mTLS setup: Follow the CCloud mTLS identity provider setup guide to upload the CA chain and create an identity pool.

Secrets Setup

Secret	Purpose
ccloud-client-tls	Client certificate and key the gateway presents to Confluent Cloud for mTLS authentication, plus the public CA chain to verify CCloud's server certificate (switchover state)

1. CCloud Client mTLS Secret (ccloud-client-tls)

Create the client mTLS secret. The gateway uses this to authenticate to Confluent Cloud:

kubectl create secret generic ccloud-client-tls \
  --from-file=fullchain.pem=certs/client-cert.pem \
  --from-file=privkey.pem=certs/client-key.pem \
  --from-file=cacerts.pem=certs/public-cacerts.pem \
  -n ${KUBECTL_NAMESPACE}

Gateway YAMLs

gateway_init.yaml

Initial state — routes traffic to MSK:

apiVersion: platform.confluent.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: confluent-for-kubernetes
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kustomize
  name: migration-gateway
spec:
  replicas: 3
  image:
    application: <gateway-image>
    init: confluentinc/confluent-init-container:3.1.0
  podTemplate:
    envVars:
      - name: GATEWAY_ROOT_LOG_LEVEL
        value: DEBUG  # Can be changed to INFO for production
  streamingDomains:
    - name: source-kafka-cluster
      type: kafka
      kafkaCluster:
        bootstrapServers:
          - id: UNAUTHED
            # Replace with your MSK bootstrap server (plaintext port 9092 for unauthenticated access)
            endpoint: PLAINTEXT://<msk-bootstrap-server>:9092
        nodeIdRanges:
          - name: pool-1
            start: 1
            end: 3
  routes:
    - name: migration-route
      endpoint: <gateway-lb-hostname>:9595
      brokerIdentificationStrategy:
        type: port
      streamingDomain:
        name: source-kafka-cluster
        bootstrapServerId: UNAUTHED
      security:
        client:
          authentication:
            type: none
        auth: passthrough
  externalAccess:
    type: loadBalancer
    loadBalancer:
      domain: <gateway-lb-hostname>

gateway_fenced.yaml

Fenced state — blocks all client traffic:

apiVersion: platform.confluent.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: confluent-for-kubernetes
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kustomize
  name: migration-gateway
spec:
  replicas: 3
  image:
    application: <gateway-image>
    init: confluentinc/confluent-init-container:3.1.0
  podTemplate:
    envVars:
      - name: GATEWAY_ROOT_LOG_LEVEL
        value: DEBUG  # Can be changed to INFO for production
  streamingDomains:
    - name: source-kafka-cluster
      type: kafka
      kafkaCluster:
        bootstrapServers:
          - id: UNAUTHED
            endpoint: PLAINTEXT://<msk-bootstrap-server>:9092
        nodeIdRanges:
          - name: pool-1
            start: 1
            end: 3
  routes:
    - name: migration-route
      endpoint: <gateway-lb-hostname>:9595
      fence:
        scope: ALL
        errorCode: BROKER_NOT_AVAILABLE
      brokerIdentificationStrategy:
        type: port
      streamingDomain:
        name: source-kafka-cluster
        bootstrapServerId: UNAUTHED
      security:
        client:
          authentication:
            type: none
        auth: passthrough
  externalAccess:
    type: loadBalancer
    loadBalancer:
      domain: <gateway-lb-hostname>

gateway_switchover.yaml

Switchover state — routes traffic to Confluent Cloud:

apiVersion: platform.confluent.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: confluent-for-kubernetes
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kustomize
  name: migration-gateway
spec:
  replicas: 3
  image:
    application: <gateway-image>
    init: confluentinc/confluent-init-container:3.1.0
  podTemplate:
    envVars:
      - name: GATEWAY_ROOT_LOG_LEVEL
        value: DEBUG  # Can be changed to INFO for production
  streamingDomains:
    - name: confluent-cloud
      type: kafka
      kafkaCluster:
        bootstrapServers:
          - id: MTLS
            # Replace with your Confluent Cloud bootstrap server
            # NOTE: mTLS uses SSL:// (not SASL_SSL://) - authentication is at the TLS layer
            endpoint: SSL://<ccloud-bootstrap-server>:9092
            tls:
              secretRef: ccloud-client-tls
        nodeIdRanges:
          - name: pool-1
            start: 0
            end: 17
  routes:
    - name: migration-route
      endpoint: <gateway-lb-hostname>:9595
      brokerIdentificationStrategy:
        type: port
      streamingDomain:
        name: confluent-cloud
        bootstrapServerId: MTLS
      security:
        auth: passthrough
  externalAccess:
    type: loadBalancer
    loadBalancer:
      domain: <gateway-lb-hostname>

Note on protocol: The gateway_switchover.yaml uses SSL:// (not SASL_SSL://) for the CCloud endpoint since mTLS authenticates at the TLS layer, not the SASL layer.

Client Properties

No client configuration needed — client auth is none.