Route traffic to different endpoints by geography
You want to route traffic based on its geographical location so that your users can receive content tailored to their region for regulatory reasons, such as GDPR.
To route traffic to specific regions, you can use ngrok’s Cloud Endpoints, internal Agent Endpoints, and Traffic Policy system to match incoming traffic based on the client's IP geolocation using ISO 3166 country codes, then forward requests to the appropriate regional endpoints.
How to use this recipe
1. Create two internal agent endpoints
On a server designated for US traffic, start an ngrok agent.
ngrok http 8080 --url https://us-service.internalOn a server designated for Canadian traffic, start an ngrok agent.
ngrok http 8080 --url https://ca-service.internal2. Reserve a domain
Navigate to the Domains section of the ngrok dashboard and click New + to reserve a domain like https://your-api.ngrok.app.
3. Create a cloud endpoint
Navigate to the Endpoints section of the ngrok dashboard, then click New + and Cloud Endpoint to create a new cloud endpoint with the URL https://your-api.ngrok.app.
4. Apply Traffic Policy to your cloud endpoint
Apply this chain of Traffic Policy rules to your public cloud endpoint.
on_http_request:
- expressions:
# Check if the client is from the US
- "conn.geo.country_code == 'US'"
actions:
# Forward the request to the US internal service
- type: forward-internal
config:
url: http://us-service.internal
- expressions:
# Check if the client is from Canada
- "conn.geo.country_code == 'CA'"
actions:
# Forward the request to the CA internal service
- type: forward-internal
config:
url: http://ca-service.internalWhat you get from this recipe
If ngrok identifies a request as coming from the US country code, it is directed to the US-based internal agent endpoint. If the country code is CA, then it’s forwarded to your Canadian internal agent endpoint.
What's next?
- Read about dynamic routing with CEL expressions to expand this template to any number of services.