Circuit breaking for destinations external to the mesh

This guide demonstrates how to configure circuit breaking for destinations that are external to the OSM managed service mesh.

Prerequisites

Kubernetes cluster running Kubernetes v1.22.9 or greater.
Have OSM installed.
Have kubectl available to interact with the API server.
Have osm CLI available for managing the service mesh.
OSM version >= v1.1.0.

Demo

The following demo shows a load-testing client fortio sending traffic to the httpbin service that is external to the service mesh. Traffic external to the mesh is treated as Egress traffic, and will be authorized using an Egress traffic policy. We will see how applying circuit breakers for traffic to the external httpbin service impacts the fortio client when the configured circuit breaking limits trip.

Deploy the httpbin service into the httpbin namespace. The httpbin service runs on port 14001 and is not added to the mesh, so it is considered to be a destination external to the mesh.

# Create the httpbin namespace
kubectl create namespace httpbin

# Deploy httpbin service in the httpbin namespace
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openservicemesh/osm-docs/release-v1.2/manifests/samples/httpbin/httpbin.yaml -n httpbin

Confirm the httpbin service and pods are up and running.

$ kubectl get svc -n httpbin
NAME      TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)     AGE
httpbin   ClusterIP   10.96.198.23   <none>        14001/TCP   20s

$ kubectl get pods -n httpbin
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
httpbin-5b8b94b9-lt2vs   1/1     Running   0          20s

Deploy the fortio load-testing client in the client namespace after enrolling its namespace to the mesh.

# Create the client namespace
kubectl create namespace client

# Add the namespace to the mesh
osm namespace add client

# Deploy fortio client in the client namespace
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openservicemesh/osm-docs/release-v1.2/manifests/samples/fortio/fortio.yaml -n client

Confirm the fortio client pod is up and running.

$ kubectl get pods -n client
NAME                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
fortio-6477f8495f-bj4s9   2/2     Running   0          19s

Configure an Egress policy that allows the fortio client in the client namespace to communicate with the external httpbin service. The HTTP requests will be directed to the host httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local on port 14001.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: Egress
apiVersion: policy.openservicemesh.io/v1alpha1
metadata:
  name: httpbin-external
  namespace: client
spec:
  sources:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: default
    namespace: client
  hosts:
  - httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local
  ports:
  - number: 14001
    protocol: http
EOF

Confirm the fortio client is able to successfully make HTTP requests to the external host httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local service on port 14001. We call the external service with 5 concurrent connections (-c 5) and send 50 requests (-n 50).

$ export fortio_pod="$(kubectl get pod -n client -l app=fortio -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')"

$ kubectl exec "$fortio_pod" -c fortio -n client -- /usr/bin/fortio load -c 5 -qps 0 -n 50 -loglevel Warning http://httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local:14001/get
19:56:34 I logger.go:127> Log level is now 3 Warning (was 2 Info)
Fortio 1.17.1 running at 0 queries per second, 8->8 procs, for 50 calls: http://httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local:14001/get
Starting at max qps with 5 thread(s) [gomax 8] for exactly 50 calls (10 per thread + 0)
Ended after 36.3659ms : 50 calls. qps=1374.9
Aggregated Function Time : count 50 avg 0.003374618 +/- 0.0007546 min 0.0013124 max 0.0066215 sum 0.1687309
# range, mid point, percentile, count
>= 0.0013124 <= 0.002 , 0.0016562 , 4.00, 2
> 0.002 <= 0.003 , 0.0025 , 10.00, 3
> 0.003 <= 0.004 , 0.0035 , 86.00, 38
> 0.004 <= 0.005 , 0.0045 , 98.00, 6
> 0.006 <= 0.0066215 , 0.00631075 , 100.00, 1
# target 50% 0.00352632
# target 75% 0.00385526
# target 90% 0.00433333
# target 99% 0.00631075
# target 99.9% 0.00659043
Sockets used: 5 (for perfect keepalive, would be 5)
Jitter: false
Code 200 : 50 (100.0 %)
Response Header Sizes : count 50 avg 230 +/- 0 min 230 max 230 sum 11500
Response Body/Total Sizes : count 50 avg 460 +/- 0 min 460 max 460 sum 23000
All done 50 calls (plus 0 warmup) 3.375 ms avg, 1374.9 qps

As seen above, all the requests succeeded.

Code 200 : 50 (100.0 %)

Next, apply a circuit breaker configuration using the UpstreamTrafficSetting resource for traffic directed to the external host httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local to limit the maximum number of concurrent connections and requests to 1. When applying an UpstreamTrafficSetting configuration for external (egress) traffic, the UpstreamTrafficSetting resource must also be specified as a match in the Egress configuration and belong to the same namespace as the matching Egress resource. This is required to enforce circuit breaking limits for external traffic. Hence, we also update the previously applied Egress configuration to specify a matches field.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: policy.openservicemesh.io/v1alpha1
kind: UpstreamTrafficSetting
metadata:
  name: httpbin-external
  namespace: client
spec:
  host: httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local
  connectionSettings:
    tcp:
      maxConnections: 1
    http:
      maxPendingRequests: 1
      maxRequestsPerConnection: 1
---
kind: Egress
apiVersion: policy.openservicemesh.io/v1alpha1
metadata:
  name: httpbin-external
  namespace: client
spec:
  sources:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: default
    namespace: client
  hosts:
  - httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local
  ports:
  - number: 14001
    protocol: http
  matches:
  - apiGroup: policy.openservicemesh.io/v1alpha1
    kind: UpstreamTrafficSetting
    name: httpbin-external
EOF

Confirm the fortio client is unable to make the same amount of successful requests as before due to the connection and request level circuit breaking limits configured above.

$ kubectl exec "$fortio_pod" -c fortio -n client -- /usr/bin/fortio load -c 5 -qps 0 -n 50 -loglevel Warning http://httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local:14001/get
19:58:48 I logger.go:127> Log level is now 3 Warning (was 2 Info)
Fortio 1.17.1 running at 0 queries per second, 8->8 procs, for 50 calls: http://httpbin.httpbin.svc.cluster.local:14001/get
Starting at max qps with 5 thread(s) [gomax 8] for exactly 50 calls (10 per thread + 0)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [0] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [1] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [1] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [4] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [3] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [3] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [3] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [2] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [3] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [1] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [3] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [1] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
19:58:48 W http_client.go:806> [4] Non ok http code 503 (HTTP/1.1 503)
Ended after 33.1549ms : 50 calls. qps=1508.1
Aggregated Function Time : count 50 avg 0.002467842 +/- 0.001827 min 0.0003724 max 0.0067697 sum 0.1233921
# range, mid point, percentile, count
>= 0.0003724 <= 0.001 , 0.0006862 , 34.00, 17
> 0.001 <= 0.002 , 0.0015 , 50.00, 8
> 0.002 <= 0.003 , 0.0025 , 60.00, 5
> 0.003 <= 0.004 , 0.0035 , 84.00, 12
> 0.004 <= 0.005 , 0.0045 , 88.00, 2
> 0.005 <= 0.006 , 0.0055 , 92.00, 2
> 0.006 <= 0.0067697 , 0.00638485 , 100.00, 4
# target 50% 0.002
# target 75% 0.003625
# target 90% 0.0055
# target 99% 0.00667349
# target 99.9% 0.00676008
Sockets used: 25 (for perfect keepalive, would be 5)
Jitter: false
Code 200 : 29 (58.0 %)
Code 503 : 21 (42.0 %)
Response Header Sizes : count 50 avg 133.4 +/- 113.5 min 0 max 230 sum 6670
Response Body/Total Sizes : count 50 avg 368.02 +/- 108.1 min 241 max 460 sum 18401
All done 50 calls (plus 0 warmup) 2.468 ms avg, 1508.1 qps

As seen above, only 58% of the requests succeeded, and the rest failed when the circuit breaker tripped.

Code 200 : 29 (58.0 %)
Code 503 : 21 (42.0 %)

Examine the Envoy sidecar stats to see statistics pertaining to the requests that tripped the circuit breaker.

$ osm proxy get stats $fortio_pod -n client | grep 'httpbin.*pending'
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.circuit_breakers.default.remaining_pending: 1
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.circuit_breakers.default.rq_pending_open: 0
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.circuit_breakers.high.rq_pending_open: 0
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.upstream_rq_pending_active: 0
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.upstream_rq_pending_failure_eject: 0
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.upstream_rq_pending_overflow: 21
cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.upstream_rq_pending_total: 29

cluster.httpbin_httpbin_svc_cluster_local_14001.upstream_rq_pending_overflow: 21 indicates that 21 requests tripped the circuit breaker, which matches the number of failed requests seen in the previous step: Code 200 : 29 (58.0 %).

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