Traffic Mirroring

Adding Traffic Shadowing functionality to fsm sidecar via Plugins

Traffic mirroring, also known as shadowing, is a technique used to test new versions of an application in a safe and efficient manner. It involves creating a mirrored service that receives a copy of live traffic for testing and troubleshooting purposes. This approach is especially useful for acceptance testing, as it can help identify issues in advance, before they impact end-users.

One of the key benefits of traffic mirroring is that it occurs outside the primary request path for the main service. This means that end-users are not affected by any changes or issues that may occur during the testing process. As such, traffic mirroring is a powerful and low-risk approach for validating new versions of an application.

By using traffic mirroring, you can get valuable insights into how your application will perform in a live environment, without putting your users at risk. This approach can help you identify and address issues quickly and efficiently, which can ultimately improve the overall performance and reliability of your application.

Prerequisites

  • Kubernetes cluster running Kubernetes v1.19.0 or greater.
  • Have fsm installed.
  • Have kubectl available to interact with the API server.
  • Have fsm CLI available for managing the service mesh.

Deploy demo services

kubectl create namespace curl
fsm namespace add curl
kubectl apply -n curl -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flomesh-io/fsm-docs/main/manifests/samples/plugins/curl.yaml

kubectl create namespace pipy
fsm namespace add pipy
kubectl apply -n pipy -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flomesh-io/fsm-docs/main/manifests/samples/plugins/pipy-ok.pipy.yaml

# Wait for pods to be up and ready

sleep 2
kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod -n curl -l app=curl --timeout=180s
kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod -n pipy -l app=pipy-ok -l version=v1 --timeout=180s
kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod -n pipy -l app=pipy-ok -l version=v2 --timeout=180s

Enable plugin policy mode

kubectl patch meshconfig fsm-mesh-config -n "$fsm_namespace" -p '{"spec":{"featureFlags":{"enablePluginPolicy":true}}}' --type=merge

Declaring a plugin

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flomesh-io/fsm-docs/main/manifests/samples/plugins/traffic-mirror.yaml

Setting up plugin-chain

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: PluginChain
apiVersion: plugin.flomesh.io/v1alpha1
metadata:
  name: traffic-mirror-chain
  namespace: pipy
spec:
  chains:
    - name: outbound-http
      plugins:
        - traffic-mirror
  selectors:
    podSelector:
      matchLabels:
        app: curl
      matchExpressions:
        - key: app
          operator: In
          values: ["curl"]
    namespaceSelector:
      matchExpressions:
        - key: flomesh.io/monitored-by
          operator: In
          values: ["fsm"]
EOF

Setting up plugin configuration

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: PluginConfig
apiVersion: plugin.flomesh.io/v1alpha1
metadata:
  name: traffic-mirror-config
  namespace: curl
spec:
  config:
    namespace: pipy
    service: pipy-ok-v2
    port: 8080
    percentage:
      value: 1.0
  plugin: traffic-mirror
  destinationRefs:
    - kind: Service
      name: pipy-ok-v1
      namespace: pipy
EOF

Test

Use the below command to perform a test

curl_client="$(kubectl get pod -n curl -l app=curl -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')"
kubectl exec ${curl_client} -n curl -c curl -- curl -ksi http://pipy-ok-v1.pipy:8080

Accessing service pipy-ok-v1 should be mirrored to pipy-ok-v2, so we should be seeing access logs in both services.

Testing pipy-ok-v1 logs

pipy_ok_v1="$(kubectl get pod -n pipy -l app=pipy-ok,version=v1 -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')"
kubectl logs pod/${pipy_ok_v1} -n pipy -c pipy

You will see something similar

[2023-03-29 08:41:04 +0000] [1] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 19.9.0
[2023-03-29 08:41:04 +0000] [1] [INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:8080 (1)
[2023-03-29 08:41:04 +0000] [1] [INFO] Using worker: sync
[2023-03-29 08:41:04 +0000] [14] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 14
127.0.0.6 - - [29/Mar/2023:08:45:35 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 9593 "-" "curl/7.85.0-DEV"

Testing pipy-ok-v2 logs

pipy_ok_v2="$(kubectl get pod -n pipy -l app=pipy-ok,version=v2 -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')"
kubectl logs pod/${pipy_ok_v2} -n pipy -c pipy

You will see something similar

[2023-03-29 08:41:09 +0000] [1] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 19.9.0
[2023-03-29 08:41:09 +0000] [1] [INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:8080 (1)
[2023-03-29 08:41:09 +0000] [1] [INFO] Using worker: sync
[2023-03-29 08:41:09 +0000] [15] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 15
127.0.0.6 - - [29/Mar/2023:08:45:35 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 9593 "-" "curl/7.85.0-DEV"

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Last modified April 11, 2024: update versions of fsm and pipy (cea5b3e)