Skip to content

A zero-dependencies HTTP proxy that truly routes requests hash-consistently

License

Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

achetronic/hashrouter

Repository files navigation

hashrouter

GitHub go.mod Go version (subdirectory of monorepo) GitHub

YouTube Channel Subscribers X (formerly Twitter) Follow

A zero-dependencies HTTP proxy that truly routes requests hash-consistently

Motivation

This project was created to address a common issue with older proxies that use consistent hashing for request routing. These proxies often fail to maintain real consistency, which can lead to unexpected changes in the backend and increased costs, especially in storage-intensive systems like Varnish.

Additionally, implementing this solution as a plugin for Nginx or Envoy is challenging because their APIs do not allow flexible changes in routing. Therefore, we developed an independent proxy that uses a consistent hash which only updates when backends actually change, ensuring a more stable request distribution and reducing costs.

Flags

As every configuration parameter can be defined in the config file, there are only few flags that can be defined. They are described in the following table:

Name Description Default Example
--config Path to the YAML config file hashrouter.yaml --config ./hashrouter.yaml
--log-level Verbosity level for logs info --log-level info
--disable-trace Disable showing traces in logs false --disable-trace
--metrics-host Host to expose status endpoints 0.0.0.0 --metrics-host 0.0.0.0
--metrics-port Port to expose status endpoints 2112 --metrics-port 9090

Output is thrown always in JSON as it is more suitable for automations

Status endpoints are located in /metrics and /{proxy-name}/health

hashrouter run \
    --log-level=info
    --config="./hashrouter.yaml"

Examples

Here you have a complete example. More up-to-date one will always be maintained in docs/prototypes directory here

common:
  logs:
    show_access_logs: true
    access_logs_fields:
    - ${REQUEST:method}
    - ${REQUEST:host}
    - ${REQUEST:path}
    - ${REQUEST:proto}
    - ${REQUEST:referer}

    - ${REQUEST_HEADER:user-agent}
    - ${REQUEST_HEADER:x-forwarded-for}
    - ${REQUEST_HEADER:x-real-ip}

    - ${RESPONSE_HEADER:content-length}
    - ${RESPONSE_HEADER:content-type}

    - ${EXTRA:request-id}
    - ${EXTRA:hashkey}
    - ${EXTRA:backend}

proxies:
  - name: varnish

    listener:
      port: 8080
      address: 0.0.0.0

    backends:
      synchronization: 10s

      # ATTENTION:
      # When the healthchecks are configured, related server is automatically
      # added (and removed) to the hashring.
      # During backend outages, this mechanism decreases the latency of responses at the
      # cost of decreasing the hashring consistency (the router doesn't waste time trying backends in order).
      # This being said, consider your use case

      static:
        - name: varnish-01
          host: 127.0.0.1:8081
          # (Optional) Healthcheck configuration.
          #healthcheck:
          #  timeout: 1s
          #  retries: 3
          #  path: /health

        - name: varnish-02
          host: 127.0.0.1:8082
          # (Optional) Healthcheck configuration
          # healthcheck:
          #   timeout: 1s
          #   retries: 3
          #   path: /health

        - name: varnish-03
          host: 127.0.0.1:8083

      dns:
        name: varnish-service
        domain: example.com
        port: 80
        # (Optional) Healthcheck configuration
        # healthcheck:
        #   timeout: 1s
        #   retries: 3
        #   path: /health

    hash_key:

      # Key to generate a hash used to route consistently to the same backend over requests.
      # It can be composed using headers-based key such as: ${REQUEST_HEADER:<your-header>}
      # Or using any of the following:
      # ${REQUEST:scheme}, ${REQUEST:host}, ${REQUEST:port}, ${REQUEST:path}, ${REQUEST:query}
      # ${REQUEST:method}, ${REQUEST:proto}

      pattern: "${REQUEST_HEADER:<your-header>}${REQUEST:path}"

    # Aditional options such as hashing mode or TTL
    options:
      protocol: http

      # (optional) Maximum time in milliseconds to read the request from the client.
      # (default: 0ms [no timeout])
      http_server_read_timeout_ms: 0

      # (optional) Maximum time in milliseconds to write the response to the client.
      # (default: 0ms [no timeout])
      http_server_write_timeout_ms: 0

      # (optional) Disable keep alives on the server.
      # (default: false)
      http_server_disable_keep_alives: false

      # (optional) Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the entire backend request to complete,
      # including both connection and data transfer.
      # If the request takes longer than this timeout, it will be aborted.
      # (default: 0ms [no timeout])
      http_backend_request_timeout_ms: 0

      # (optional) Maximum time in milliseconds to establish a connection with the backend.
      # If the dial takes longer than this timeout, it will be aborted.
      # (default: 0ms [no timeout])
      http_backend_dial_timeout_ms: 0

      # (optional) Time between keep-alive messages on established connection to the backend.
      # (default: 15s)
      http_backend_keep_alive_ms: 15000

      # (optional) Disable keep alives to the backend.
	    # (default: false)
      http_backend_disable_keep_alives: false

      # (optional) Hashring always assigns the same backend to the hashkey.
      # If the backend is down, you can try another backend until exaushting all of them
      # by enabling this option
      try_another_backend_on_failure: true

ATTENTION: If you detect some mistake on the config, open an issue to fix it. This way we all will benefit

How to deploy

This project is designed specially for Kubernetes, but also provides binary files and Docker images to make it easy to be deployed however wanted

Binaries

Binary files for most popular platforms will be added to the releases

Kubernetes

You can deploy hashrouter in Kubernetes using Helm as follows:

helm repo add hashrouter https://achetronic.github.io/hashrouter/

helm upgrade --install --wait hashrouter \
  --namespace hashrouter \
  --create-namespace achetronic/hashrouter

More information and Helm packages here

Docker

Docker images can be found in GitHub's packages related to this repository

Do you need it in a different container registry? I think this is not needed, but if I'm wrong, please, let's discuss it in the best place for that: an issue

How to contribute

We are open to external collaborations for this project: improvements, bugfixes, whatever.

For doing it, open an issue to discuss the need of the changes, then:

  • Fork the repository
  • Make your changes to the code
  • Open a PR and wait for review

The code will be reviewed and tested (always)

We are developers and hate bad code. For that reason we ask you the highest quality on each line of code to improve this project on each iteration.

License

Copyright 2022.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.