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Introduction

Note that this tutorial is not suited for production environments. Its only purpose is to enable you to setup a local test environment.

This guide is here to help you get started with NLX using NLX Management. NLX Management provides you with a web interface for working with NLX. You will learn how to set up a test environment, provide and consume APIs on the NLX network.

The target audience is system operators.

Screenshot of the NLX Management web interface using Basic Authentication

Components​

The following components are part of NLX Management:

  • Management API
  • Management UI
  • PostgreSQL database
  • An OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider
  • An Inway

NLX Management Overview

Management API​

The Management API is at the heart of NLX Management. It is used by the Management UI to manage your NLX setup and your Inways use the Management API to retrieve their configuration.

Management UI​

The Management UI is a web interface you use to manage your NLX setup. It is designed to be easy to understand and operate.

PostgreSQL Database​

The configuration of your Inways, the services you provide and access requests to your services are stored in an PostgreSQL database. PostgreSQL is used as a database because it is safe and reliable.

Authentication​

Your own Identity and Access Management (IAM)​

Users need to login before they can use NLX management. NLX management does not come with its own identity and access management tool but supports OIDC. If you are using OIDC in your organization you can easily configure NLX Management to use your OIDC provider.

IAM for development​

If your organization does not support OIDC you can use an identity service like Dex to set it up.

Basic Authentication​

It is also possible to use Basic Authentication instead of OIDC. Switching between OIDC and Basic Authentication might work but is not officially supported. If you need to switch, it is recommended to start with a clean installation.

To avoid having to setup Dex, we will use Basic Authentication for this NLX Try Me guide.

We strongly discourage to use this in production environments.

In sum​

You've learned about all the components used by NLX. Next up, let's setup our local environment.