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Consumer Groups

Consumer groups enable the organization and categorization of consumers (users or applications) within an API ecosystem. By grouping consumers together, you eliminate the need to manage them individually, providing a scalable, efficient approach to managing configurations.

With consumer groups, you can define any number of rate limiting tiers and apply them to subsets of consumers, instead of managing each consumer individually.

For example, you could define three consumer groups:

• A “gold tier” with 1000 requests per minute
• A “silver tier” with 10 requests per second
• A “bronze tier” with 6 requests per second

The consumer_groups endpoint works together with the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin.

Consumers that are not in a consumer group default to the Rate Limiting advanced plugin’s configuration, so you can define tier groups for some users and have a default behavior for consumers without groups.

To use consumer groups for rate limiting, you need to:

• Create one or more consumer groups
• Create consumers
• Assign consumers to groups
• Configure the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin with the enforce_consumer_groups and consumer_groups parameters, setting up the list of consumer groups that the plugin accepts
• Configure rate limiting for each consumer group, overriding the plugin’s configuration

For all possible requests, see the Consumer Groups reference.

Set up consumer group

1. Create a consumer group named Gold:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups \
    --data name=Gold
   

   Response:

    {
        "created_at": 1638915521,
        "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4",
        "name": "Gold",
        "tags": null
    }
   

2. Create a consumer, Amal:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers \
    --data username=Amal
   

   Response:

    {
        "created_at": 1638915577,
        "custom_id": null,
        "id": "8089a0e6-1d31-4e00-bf51-5b902899b4cb",
        "tags": null,
        "type": 0,
        "username": "Amal",
        "username_lower": "amal"
    }
   

3. Add Amal to the Gold consumer group:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold/consumers \
    --data consumer=Amal
   

   Response:

    {
      "consumer_group": {
      "created_at": 1638915521,
      "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4",
      "name": "Gold",
      "tags": null
      },
      "consumers": [
        {
            "created_at": 1638915577,
            "id": "8089a0e6-1d31-4e00-bf51-5b902899b4cb",
            "type": 0,
            "username": "Amal",
            "username_lower": "amal"
        }
      ]
    }
   

Set up Rate Limiting Advanced config for consumer group

1. Enable the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin, setting the rate limit to five requests (config.limit) for every 30 seconds (config.window_size):

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/plugins/  \
    --data name=rate-limiting-advanced \
    --data config.limit=5 \
    --data config.window_size=30 \
    --data config.window_type=sliding \
    --data config.retry_after_jitter_max=0 \
    --data config.enforce_consumer_groups=true \
    --data config.consumer_groups=Gold
   

   For consumer groups, the following parameters are required:

   • config.enforce_consumer_groups=true: enables consumer groups for this plugin.
   • config.consumer_groups=Gold: specifies a list of groups that this plugin allows overrides for.

   Note: In this example, you’re configuring the plugin globally, so it applies to all entities (Services, Routes, and Consumers) in the Kong Gateway instance. You can also apply it to a specific Service or Route for more granular control.

2. The plugin you just set up applies to all consumers in the cluster. Change the rate limiting configuration for the Gold consumer group only, setting the limit to ten requests for every ten seconds:

    curl -i -X PUT http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold/overrides/plugins/rate-limiting-advanced \
    --data config.limit=10 \
    --data config.window_size=10 \
    --data config.retry_after_jitter_max=1
   

   Response:

    {
      "config": {
          "limit": [
              10
          ],
          "retry_after_jitter_max": 1,
          "window_size": [
              10
          ]
      },
      "consumer_group": "Gold",
      "plugin": "rate-limiting-advanced"
    }
   

3. Check that it worked by looking at the Gold consumer group object:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   Notice the plugins object in the response, along with the parameters that you just set for the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1638915521,
            "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4",
            "name": "Gold",
            "tags": null
        },
        "consumers": [
            {
                "created_at": 1638915577,
                "id": "8089a0e6-1d31-4e00-bf51-5b902899b4cb",
                "type": 0,
                "username": "Amal",
                "username_lower": "amal"
            }
        ],
        "plugins": [
            {
                "config": {
                    "limit": [
                        10
                    ],
                    "retry_after_jitter_max": 1,
                    "window_size": [
                        10
                    ],
                    "window_type": "sliding"
                },
                "consumer_group": {
                    "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4"
                },
                "created_at": 1638916518,
                "id": "b7c426a2-6fcc-4bfd-9b7a-b66e8f1ad260",
                "name": "rate-limiting-advanced"
            }
        ]
    }
   

Remove consumer from group - group view

You can remove a consumer from a group by accessing /consumers or /consumer_groups. The following steps use /consumer_groups.

1. Check the Gold consumer group for the consumer name:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   Response:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1638915521,
            "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4",
            "name": "Gold",
            "tags": null
        },
        "consumers": [
            {
                "created_at": 1638915577,
                "id": "8089a0e6-1d31-4e00-bf51-5b902899b4cb",
                "type": 0,
                "username": "Amal",
                "username_lower": "amal"
            }
        ]
      }
   

2. Using the username or ID of the consumer (Amal in this example), remove the consumer from the group:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold/consumers/Amal
   

   If successful, you receive the following response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

3. To verify, check the consumer group configuration again:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   Response, with no consumers assigned:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1638917780,
            "id": "be4bcfca-b1df-4fac-83cc-5cf6774bf48e",
            "name": "Gold",
            "tags": null
        }
    }
   

Remove consumer from group - consumer view

You can remove a consumer from a group by accessing /consumers or /consumer_groups. The following steps use /consumers.

1. If you know the consumer name and not the consumer group name, you can look up the group through the consumer:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers/Amal/consumer_groups
   

   Response:

    {
        "consumer_groups": [
            {
                "created_at": 1638915521,
                "id": "8a4bba3c-7f82-45f0-8121-ed4d2847c4a4",
                "name": "Gold",
                "tags": null
            }
        ]
    }
   

2. Using the username or ID of the group (Gold in this example), remove the consumer from the group:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers/Amal/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   If successful, you receive the following response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

3. To verify, check the consumer object configuration:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   Response, with no consumers assigned:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1638917780,
            "id": "be4bcfca-b1df-4fac-83cc-5cf6774bf48e",
            "name": "Gold",
            "tags": null
        }
    }
   

Delete consumer group configurations

You can also clear the configuration of a consumer group without deleting the consumer group itself.

With this method, the consumers in the group aren’t deleted and are still in the consumer group.

1. Delete the consumer group configuration using the following request:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold/overrides/plugins/rate-limiting-advanced
   

   If successful, you receive see the following response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

2. To verify, check the consumer object configuration:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   Response, without a plugins object:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1638917780,
            "id": "be4bcfca-b1df-4fac-83cc-5cf6774bf48e",
            "name": "Gold",
            "tags": null
        }
    }
   

Delete consumer group

If you don’t need a consumer group anymore, you can delete it. This removes all consumers from the group, and deletes the group itself. The consumers in the group are not deleted.

1. Delete a consumer group using the following request:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Gold
   

   If successful, you receive see the following response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

2. Check the list of consumer groups to verify that the Gold group is gone:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups
   

   Response:

    {
    "data": [],
    "next": null
    }
   

3. Check a consumer that was in the group to make sure it still exists:

    curl -i -X GET http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers/Amal
   

   An HTTP/1.1 200 OK response means the consumer exists.

Manage multiple consumers

You can perform many /consumer_groups operations in bulk.

1. Assuming you deleted the group Gold in the previous section, create it again, along with another group named Speedsters:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups \
    --data name=Gold
   
    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups \
    --data name=Speedsters
   

2. Create two consumers, BarryAllen and WallyWest:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers \
    --data username=BarryAllen
   
    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers \
    --data username=WallyWest
   

3. Add both consumers to the Speedsters group:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Speedsters/consumers \
    --data consumer=BarryAllen \
    --data consumer=WallyWest
   

   Kong Gateway validates the provided list of consumers before assigning them to the consumer group. To pass validation, consumers must exist and must not be in the group already.

   If any consumer fails validation, no consumers are assigned to the group.

   Response, if everything is successful:

    {
        "consumer_group": {
            "created_at": 1639432267,
            "id": "a905151a-5767-40e8-804e-50eec4d0235b",
            "name": "Speedsters",
            "tags": null
        },
        "consumers": [
            {
                "created_at": 1639432286,
                "id": "ea904e1d-1f0d-4d5a-8391-cae60cb21d61",
                "type": 0,
                "username": "BarryAllen",
                "username_lower": "barryallen"
            },
            {
                "created_at": 1639432288,
                "id": "065d8249-6fe6-4d80-a0ae-f159caef7af0",
                "type": 0,
                "username": "WallyWest",
                "username_lower": "wallywest"
            }
        ]
    }
   

4. You can clear all consumers from a group with one request. This may be useful if you need to cycle the group for a new batch of users.

   For example, delete all consumers from the Speedsters group:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumer_groups/Speedsters/consumers
   

   Response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

5. You can also add a consumer to multiple groups:
   • If all groups are allowed by the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin, only the first group’s settings apply.
   • Otherwise, whichever group is specified in the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin becomes active.

   Add BarryAllen to two groups, Gold and Speedsters:

    curl -i -X POST http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers/BarryAllen/consumer_groups \
    --data group=Gold \
    --data group=Speedsters
   

   The response should look something like this:

    {
      "consumer": {
          "created_at": 1639436091,
          "custom_id": null,
          "id": "6098d577-6741-4cf8-9c86-e68057b8f970",
          "tags": null,
          "type": 0,
          "username": "BarryAllen",
          "username_lower": "barryallen"
      },
      "consumer_groups": [
          {
              "created_at": 1639432267,
              "id": "a905151a-5767-40e8-804e-50eec4d0235b",
              "name": "Gold",
              "tags": null
          },
          {
              "created_at": 1639436107,
              "id": "2fd2bdd6-690c-4e49-8296-31f55015496d",
              "name": "Speedsters",
              "tags": null
          }
      ]
    }
   

6. Finally, you can also remove a consumer from all groups:

    curl -i -X DELETE http://{HOSTNAME}:8001/consumers/BarryAllen/consumer_groups
   

   Response:

    HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   

More information

• Consumer group precedence information.
• API documentation
• Enforcing rate limiting tiers with the Rate Limiting Advanced plugin
• Consumer groups in Kong Manager
• Consumer groups in Konnect