Help understanding end-to-end OpenZiti + Zrok setup from EKS to on-premise RDP gateways

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring how OpenZiti and Zrok can help me secure access to an on-premise infrastructure, and I believe I'm close to achieving it — but I still need help understanding the final setup and configuration flow.

:white_check_mark: What I have so far

  • I've successfully deployed OpenZiti in an EKS cluster.

  • The client API, controller, and management services are already set up and logically segregated.

  • I’ve also installed Zrok (backend and frontend) inside the same EKS cluster.

:bullseye: What I want to achieve

I want users from the public internet (via browser) to access a Zrok frontend, exposed through an Ingress in EKS (behind Cloudflare, with DNS). Later on, I plan to add Keycloak authentication to the frontend.

This Zrok frontend should use OpenZiti to connect to an on-premise architecture, where I have:

  • An Ubuntu 24.04 Linux server acting as the border/edge,

  • That server connects internally to three different RDP gateways (web-based RDP).

:red_question_mark: What I don’t understand

I'm struggling to grasp the complete logic and flow of how to configure this securely using OpenZiti + Zrok.

Here is how I imagine it should work:

End users (Browser)

https://my-ingress-on-eks.mycompany.com (DNS via Cloudflare)

Ingress → Zrok frontend (in EKS)

OpenZiti Controller

Ziti Edge Router on-premise (on Ubuntu)

Zrok backend exposing RDP gateway(s) via Ziti

But I’m not sure:

  • How the Zrok frontend and backend should be configured in this case,

  • If my assumption about the Ingress + Zrok frontend is correct,

  • How the connection from Zrok (on the EKS side) to the Ziti Edge Router (on-premise) should be handled,

  • How users will ultimately access the RDP web interfaces in a secure, authenticated way.

I'd really appreciate any help clarifying the flow and what components (policies, services, edge routers, etc.) need to be configured and where.

Thanks in advance!