Enabling Rate Limits

This task shows you how to use Istio to dynamically limit the traffic to a service.

Before you begin

  • Setup Istio in a Kubernetes cluster by following the quick start instructions in the Installation guide.

  • Deploy the Bookinfo sample application.

  • Initialize the application version routing to direct reviews service requests from test user “jason” to version v2 and requests from any other user to v3.

    $ istioctl create -f @samples/bookinfo/routing/route-rule-all-v1.yaml@

    Save the following YAML snippet as route-rule-reviews-jason-v2-v3.yaml:

    apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: reviews
spec:
  hosts:
    - reviews
  http:
  - match:
    - headers:
        cookie:
          regex: "^(.*?;)?(user=jason)(;.*)?$"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: reviews
        subset: v2
  - route:
    - destination:
        host: reviews
        subset: v3

    and then run the following command:

    $ istioctl replace -f route-rule-reviews-jason-v2-v3.yaml

If you have a conflicting rule that you set in previous tasks, use istioctl replace instead of istioctl create.

Rate limits

Istio enables you to rate limit traffic to a service.

Consider ratings as an external paid service like Rotten Tomatoes® with 1qps free quota. Using Istio we can ensure that 1qps is not breached.

  1. Point your browser at the Bookinfo productpage (http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage).

    If you log in as user “jason”, you should see black ratings stars with each review, indicating that the ratings service is being called by the “v2” version of the reviews service.

    If you log in as any other user (or logout) you should see red ratings stars with each review, indicating that the ratings service is being called by the “v3” version of the reviews service.

  2. Configure memquota, quota, rule, QuotaSpec, QuotaSpecBinding to enable rate limiting.

    $ istioctl create -f @samples/bookinfo/routing/mixer-rule-ratings-ratelimit.yaml@

  3. Confirm the memquota was created:

        $ kubectl -n istio-system get memquota handler -o yaml
    apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
    kind: memquota
    metadata:
      name: handler
      namespace: istio-system
    spec:
      quotas:
      - name: requestcount.quota.istio-system
        maxAmount: 5000
        validDuration: 1s
        overrides:
        - dimensions:
            destination: ratings
            source: reviews
            sourceVersion: v3
          maxAmount: 1
          validDuration: 5s
        - dimensions:
            destination: ratings
          maxAmount: 5
          validDuration: 10s

The memquota defines 3 different rate limit schemes. The default, if no overrides match, is 5000 requests per 1s. Two overrides are also defined. The first is 1 request every 5s if the destination is ratings, the source is reviews, and the sourceVersion is v3. The second is 5 request every 10s if the destination is ratings. The first matching override is picked (reading from top to bottom).

  1. Confirm the quota was created:

        $ kubectl -n istio-system get quotas requestcount -o yaml
    apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
    kind: quota
    metadata:
      name: requestcount
      namespace: istio-system
    spec:
      dimensions:
        source: source.labels["app"] | source.service | "unknown"
        sourceVersion: source.labels["version"] | "unknown"
        destination: destination.labels["app"] | destination.service | "unknown"
        destinationVersion: destination.labels["version"] | "unknown"

    The quota template defines 4 dimensions that are used by memquota to set overrides on request that match certain attributes. destination will be set to the first non-empty value in destination.labels["app"], destination.service, or "unknown". More info on expressions can be found here.

  2. Confirm the rule was created:

        $ kubectl -n istio-system get rules quota -o yaml
    apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
    kind: rule
    metadata:
      name: quota
      namespace: istio-system
    spec:
      actions:
      - handler: handler.memquota
        instances:
        - requestcount.quota

    The rule tells mixer to invoke handler.memquota handler (created above) and pass it the object constructed using the instance requestcount.quota (also created above). This effectively maps the dimensions from the quota template to memquota handler.

  3. Confirm the QuotaSpec was created:

        $ kubectl -n istio-system get QuotaSpec request-count -o yaml
    apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
    kind: QuotaSpec
    metadata:
      name: request-count
      namespace: istio-system
    spec:
      rules:
      - quotas:
        - charge: "1"
          quota: requestcount

    This QuotaSpec defines the requestcount quota we created above with a charge of 1.

  4. Confirm the QuotaSpecBinding was created:

        $ kubectl -n istio-system get QuotaSpecBinding request-count -o yaml
    kind: QuotaSpecBinding
    metadata:
      name: request-count
      namespace: istio-system
    spec:
      quotaSpecs:
      - name: request-count
        namespace: istio-system
      services:
      - name: ratings
        namespace: default
      - name: reviews
        namespace: default
      - name: details
        namespace: default
      - name: productpage
        namespace: default

    This QuotaSpecBinding binds the QuotaSpec we created above to the services we want to apply it to. Note we have to define the namespace for each service since it is not in the same namespace this QuotaSpecBinding resource was deployed into.

  5. Refresh the productpage in your browser.

    If you are logged out, reviews-v3 service is rate limited to 1 request every 5 seconds. If you keep refreshing the page the stars should only load around once every 5 seconds.

    If you log in as user “jason”, reviews-v2 service is rate limited to 5 requests every 10 seconds. If you keep refreshing the page the stars should only load 5 times every 10 seconds.

    For all other services the default 5000qps rate limit will apply.

Conditional rate limits

In the previous example we applied a rate limit to the ratings service without regard to non-dimension attributes. It is possible to conditionally apply rate limits based on arbitrary attributes using a match condition in the quota rule.

For example, consider the following configuration:

apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
kind: rule
metadata:
  name: quota
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  match: source.namespace != destination.namespace
  actions:
  - handler: handler.memquota
    instances:
    - requestcount.quota

This configuration applies the quota rule to requests whose source and destination namespaces are different.

Understanding rate limits

In the preceding examples we saw how Mixer applies rate limits to requests that match certain conditions.

Every named quota instance like requestcount represents a set of counters. The set is defined by a Cartesian product of all quota dimensions. If the number of requests in the last expiration duration exceed maxAmount, Mixer returns a RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED message to the proxy. The proxy in turn returns status HTTP 429 to the caller.

The memquota adapter uses a sliding window of sub second resolution to enforce rate limits.

The maxAmount in the adapter configuration sets the default limit for all counters associated with a quota instance. This default limit applies if a quota override does not match the request. Memquota selects the first override that matches a request. An override need not specify all quota dimensions. In the example, the 0.2qps override is selected by matching only three out of four quota dimensions.

If you would like the above policies enforced for a given namespace instead of the entire Istio mesh, you can replace all occurrences of istio-system with the given namespace.

Cleanup

  • Remove the rate limit configuration:

    $ istioctl delete -f @samples/bookinfo/routing/mixer-rule-ratings-ratelimit.yaml@

  • Remove the application routing rules:

    $ istioctl delete -f @samples/bookinfo/routing/route-rule-all-v1.yaml@

  • If you are not planning to explore any follow-on tasks, refer to the Bookinfo cleanup instructions to shutdown the application.

What's next