Table of Contents generated with DocToc
- Overview
- Deprecation of Legacy Ratelimit Proto and v2 Ratelimit proto
- Building and Testing
- Configuration
- Request Fields
- Statistics
- HTTP Port
- Debug Port
- Local Cache
- Redis
- Memcache
- Contact
The rate limit service is a Go/gRPC service designed to enable generic rate limit scenarios from different types of applications. Applications request a rate limit decision based on a domain and a set of descriptors. The service reads the configuration from disk via runtime, composes a cache key, and talks to the Redis cache. A decision is then returned to the caller.
Envoy's data-plane-api defines a ratelimit service proto v3 rls.proto. Logically the data-plane-api rls v3 is equivalent to the rls v2 However, due to the namespace differences and how gRPC routing works it is not possible to transparently route the legacy v2 ratelimit requests to the v3 definitions. Therefore, the ratelimit service will upgrade the requests, process them internally as it would process a v3 ratelimit request, and then downgrade the response to send back to the client. This means that, for a slight performance hit for clients using the legacy proto, ratelimit is backwards compatible with the legacy proto. Prior to version 2.0.0 ratelimit service contained a protocol definition that used to be supported in a legacy mode, but support for it and was removed in 2.0.0.
v1.0.0
tagged on commit0ded92a2af8261d43096eba4132e45b99a3b8b14
. Ratelimit has been in production use at Lyft for over 2 years.v1.1.0
introduces the data-plane-api proto and initiates the deprecation of the legacy ratelimit.proto.v2.0.0
deleted support for the legacy ratelimit.proto. The current version of ratelimit protocol is changed to v3 rls.proto while v2 rls.proto is still supported as a legacy protocol.v3.0.0
deletes support for legacy v2 rls.proto
-
Install Redis-server.
-
Make sure go is setup correctly and checkout rate limit service into your go path. More information about installing go here.
-
In order to run the integration tests using a local Redis server please run two Redis-server instances: one on port
6379
and another on port6380
redis-server --port 6379 & redis-server --port 6380 &
-
To setup for the first time (only done once):
make bootstrap
-
To compile:
make compile
Ensure you set the correct platform if running OSX host with a linux container e.g.
GOOS=linux make compile
-
To compile and run tests:
make tests
-
To run the server locally using some sensible default settings you can do this (this will setup the server to read the configuration files from the path you specify):
USE_STATSD=false LOG_LEVEL=debug REDIS_SOCKET_TYPE=tcp REDIS_URL=localhost:6379 RUNTIME_ROOT=/home/user/src/runtime/data RUNTIME_SUBDIRECTORY=ratelimit
The docker-compose setup has three containers: redis, ratelimit-build, and ratelimit. In order to run the docker-compose setup from the root of the repo, run
docker-compose up
The ratelimit-build container will build the ratelimit binary. Then via a shared volume the binary will be shared with the ratelimit container. This dual container setup is used in order to use a a minimal container to run the application, rather than the heftier container used to build it.
If you want to run with two redis instances, you will need to modify the docker-compose.yml file to run a second redis container, and change the environment variables as explained in the two redis instances section.
To run a fully configured environment to demo Envoy based rate limiting, run:
docker-compose -f docker-compose-example.yml up
This will run ratelimit, redis, prom-statsd-exporter and two Envoy containers such that you can demo rate limiting by hitting the below endpoints.
curl localhost:8888/test
curl localhost:8888/header -H "foo: foo" # Header based
curl localhost:8888/twoheader -H "foo: foo" -H "bar: bar" # Two headers
curl localhost:8888/twoheader -H "foo: foo" -H "baz: baz"
curl localhost:8888/twoheader -H "foo: foo" -H "bar: banned" # Ban a particular header value
Edit examples/ratelimit/config/example.yaml
to test different rate limit configs. Hot reloading is enabled.
The descriptors in example.yaml
and the actions in examples/envoy/proxy.yaml
should give you a good idea on how to configure rate limits.
The rate limit configuration file format is YAML (mainly so that comments are supported).
- Domain: A domain is a container for a set of rate limits. All domains known to the Ratelimit service must be globally unique. They serve as a way for different teams/projects to have rate limit configurations that don't conflict.
- Descriptor: A descriptor is a list of key/value pairs owned by a domain that the Ratelimit service uses to
select the correct rate limit to use when limiting. Descriptors are case-sensitive. Examples of descriptors are:
- ("database", "users")
- ("message_type", "marketing"),("to_number","2061234567")
- ("to_cluster", "service_a")
- ("to_cluster", "service_a"),("from_cluster", "service_b")
Each configuration contains a top level descriptor list and potentially multiple nested lists beneath that. The format is:
domain: <unique domain ID>
descriptors:
- key: <rule key: required>
value: <rule value: optional>
rate_limit: (optional block)
unit: <see below: required>
requests_per_unit: <see below: required>
descriptors: (optional block)
- ... (nested repetition of above)
Each descriptor in a descriptor list must have a key. It can also optionally have a value to enable a more specific match. The "rate_limit" block is optional and if present sets up an actual rate limit rule. See below for how the rule is defined. If the rate limit is not present and there are no nested descriptors, then the descriptor is effectively whitelisted. Otherwise, nested descriptors allow more complex matching and rate limiting scenarios.
rate_limit:
unit: <second, minute, hour, day>
requests_per_unit: <uint>
The rate limit block specifies the actual rate limit that will be used when there is a match. Currently the service supports per second, minute, hour, and day limits. More types of limits may be added in the future based on user demand.
Let's start with a simple example:
domain: mongo_cps
descriptors:
- key: database
value: users
rate_limit:
unit: second
requests_per_unit: 500
- key: database
value: default
rate_limit:
unit: second
requests_per_unit: 500
In the configuration above the domain is "mongo_cps" and we setup 2 different rate limits in the top level descriptor list. Each of the limits have the same key ("database"). They have a different value ("users", and "default"), and each of them setup a 500 request per second rate limit.
A slightly more complex example:
domain: messaging
descriptors:
# Only allow 5 marketing messages a day
- key: message_type
value: marketing
descriptors:
- key: to_number
rate_limit:
unit: day
requests_per_unit: 5
# Only allow 100 messages a day to any unique phone number
- key: to_number
rate_limit:
unit: day
requests_per_unit: 100
In the preceding example, the domain is "messaging" and we setup two different scenarios that illustrate more complex functionality. First, we want to limit on marketing messages to a specific number. To enable this, we make use of nested descriptor lists. The top level descriptor is ("message_type", "marketing"). However this descriptor does not have a limit assigned so it's just a placeholder. Contained within this entry we have another descriptor list that includes an entry with key "to_number". However, notice that no value is provided. This means that the service will match against any value supplied for "to_number" and generate a unique limit. Thus, ("message_type", "marketing"), ("to_number", "2061111111") and ("message_type", "marketing"),("to_number", "2062222222") will each get 5 requests per day.
The configuration also sets up another rule without a value. This one creates an overall limit for messages sent to any particular number during a 1 day period. Thus, ("to_number", "2061111111") and ("to_number", "2062222222") both get 100 requests per day.
When calling the rate limit service, the client can specify multiple descriptors to limit on in a single call. This limits round trips and allows limiting on aggregate rule definitions. For example, using the preceding configuration, the client could send this complete request (in pseudo IDL):
RateLimitRequest:
domain: messaging
descriptor: ("message_type", "marketing"),("to_number", "2061111111")
descriptor: ("to_number", "2061111111")
And the service will rate limit against all matching rules and return an aggregate result; a logical OR of all the individual rate limit decisions.
An example to illustrate matching order.
domain: edge_proxy_per_ip
descriptors:
- key: remote_address
rate_limit:
unit: second
requests_per_unit: 10
# Black list IP
- key: remote_address
value: 50.0.0.5
rate_limit:
unit: second
requests_per_unit: 0
In the preceding example, we setup a generic rate limit for individual IP addresses. The architecture's edge proxy can be configured to make a rate limit service call with the descriptor ("remote_address", "50.0.0.1") for example. This IP would get 10 requests per second as would any other IP. However, the configuration also contains a second configuration that explicitly defines a value along with the same key. If the descriptor ("remote_address", "50.0.0.5") is received, the service will attempt the most specific match possible. This means the most specific descriptor at the same level as your request. Thus, key/value is always attempted as a match before just key.
The Ratelimit service matches requests to configuration entries with the same level, i.e same number of tuples in the request's descriptor as nested levels of descriptors in the configuration file. For instance, the following request:
RateLimitRequest:
domain: example4
descriptor: ("key", "value"),("subkey", "subvalue")
Would not match the following configuration. Even though the first descriptor in the request matches the 1st level descriptor in the configuration, the request has two tuples in the descriptor.
domain: example4
descriptors:
- key: key
value: value
rate_limit:
requests_per_unit: 300
unit: second
However, it would match the following configuration:
domain: example4
descriptors:
- key: key
value: value
descriptors:
- key: subkey
rate_limit:
requests_per_unit: 300
unit: second
The Ratelimit service uses a library written by Lyft called goruntime to do configuration loading. Goruntime monitors a designated path, and watches for symlink swaps to files in the directory tree to reload configuration files.
The path to watch can be configured via the settings package with the following environment variables:
RUNTIME_ROOT default:"/srv/runtime_data/current"
RUNTIME_SUBDIRECTORY
RUNTIME_IGNOREDOTFILES default:"false"
Configuration files are loaded from RUNTIME_ROOT/RUNTIME_SUBDIRECTORY/config/*.yaml
There are two methods for triggering a configuration reload:
- Symlink RUNTIME_ROOT to a different directory.
- Update the contents inside
RUNTIME_ROOT/RUNTIME_SUBDIRECTORY/config/
directly.
The former is the default behavior. To use the latter method, set the RUNTIME_WATCH_ROOT
environment variable to false
.
For more information on how runtime works you can read its README.
A centralized log collection system works better with logs in json format. JSON format avoids the need for custom parsing rules. The Ratelimit service produces logs in a text format by default. For Example:
time="2020-09-10T17:22:35Z" level=debug msg="loading domain: messaging"
time="2020-09-10T17:22:35Z" level=debug msg="loading descriptor: key=messaging.message_type_marketing"
time="2020-09-10T17:22:35Z" level=debug msg="loading descriptor: key=messaging.message_type_marketing.to_number ratelimit={requests_per_unit=5, unit=DAY}"
time="2020-09-10T17:22:35Z" level=debug msg="loading descriptor: key=messaging.to_number ratelimit={requests_per_unit=100, unit=DAY}"
time="2020-09-10T17:21:55Z" level=warning msg="Listening for debug on ':6070'"
time="2020-09-10T17:21:55Z" level=warning msg="Listening for HTTP on ':8080'"
time="2020-09-10T17:21:55Z" level=debug msg="waiting for runtime update"
time="2020-09-10T17:21:55Z" level=warning msg="Listening for gRPC on ':8081'"
JSON Log format can be configured using the following environment variables:
LOG_FORMAT=json
Output example:
{"@message":"loading domain: messaging","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926010192Z","level":"debug"}
{"@message":"loading descriptor: key=messaging.message_type_marketing","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926019315Z","level":"debug"}
{"@message":"loading descriptor: key=messaging.message_type_marketing.to_number ratelimit={requests_per_unit=5, unit=DAY}","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926037174Z","level":"debug"}
{"@message":"loading descriptor: key=messaging.to_number ratelimit={requests_per_unit=100, unit=DAY}","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926048993Z","level":"debug"}
{"@message":"Listening for debug on ':6070'","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926113905Z","level":"warning"}
{"@message":"Listening for gRPC on ':8081'","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926182006Z","level":"warning"}
{"@message":"Listening for HTTP on ':8080'","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926227031Z","level":"warning"}
{"@message":"waiting for runtime update","@timestamp":"2020-09-10T17:22:44.926267808Z","level":"debug"}
For information on the fields of a Ratelimit gRPC request please read the information on the RateLimitRequest message type in the Ratelimit proto file.
The rate limit service generates various statistics for each configured rate limit rule that will be useful for end users both for visibility and for setting alarms. Ratelimit uses gostats as its statistics library. Please refer to gostats' documentation for more information on the library.
Rate Limit Statistic Path:
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.DOMAIN.KEY_VALUE.STAT
DOMAIN:
- As specified in the domain value in the YAML runtime file
KEY_VALUE:
- A combination of the key value
- Nested descriptors would be suffixed in the stats path
STAT:
- near_limit: Number of rule hits over the NearLimit ratio threshold (currently 80%) but under the threshold rate.
- over_limit: Number of rule hits exceeding the threshold rate
- total_hits: Number of rule hits in total
To use a custom near_limit ratio threshold, you can specify with NEAR_LIMIT_RATIO
environment variable. It defaults to 0.8
(0-1 scale). These are examples of generated stats for some configured rate limit rules from the above examples:
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.mongo_cps.database_default.over_limit: 0
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.mongo_cps.database_default.total_hits: 2846
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.mongo_cps.database_users.over_limit: 0
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.mongo_cps.database_users.total_hits: 2939
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.messaging.message_type_marketing.to_number.over_limit: 0
ratelimit.service.rate_limit.messaging.message_type_marketing.to_number.total_hits: 0
The ratelimit service listens to HTTP 1.1 (by default on port 8080) with two endpoints:
- /healthcheck โ return a 200 if this service is healthy
- /json โ HTTP 1.1 endpoint for interacting with ratelimit service
Takes an HTTP POST with a JSON body of the form e.g.
{
"domain": "dummy",
"descriptors": [
{"entries": [
{"key": "one_per_day",
"value": "something"}
]}
]
}
The service will return an http 200 if this request is allowed (if no ratelimits exceeded) or 429 if one or more ratelimits were exceeded.
The response is a RateLimitResponse encoded with proto3-to-json mapping:
{
"overallCode": "OVER_LIMIT",
"statuses": [
{
"code": "OVER_LIMIT",
"currentLimit": {
"requestsPerUnit": 1,
"unit": "MINUTE"
}
},
{
"code": "OK",
"currentLimit": {
"requestsPerUnit": 2,
"unit": "MINUTE"
},
"limitRemaining": 1
}
]
}
The debug port can be used to interact with the running process.
$ curl 0:6070/
/debug/pprof/: root of various pprof endpoints. hit for help.
/rlconfig: print out the currently loaded configuration for debugging
/stats: print out stats
You can specify the debug port with the DEBUG_PORT
environment variable. It defaults to 6070
.
Ratelimit optionally uses freecache as its local caching layer, which stores the over-the-limit cache keys, and thus avoids reading the
redis cache again for the already over-the-limit keys. The local cache size can be configured via LocalCacheSizeInBytes
in the settings.
If LocalCacheSizeInBytes
is 0, local cache is disabled.
Ratelimit uses Redis as its caching layer. Ratelimit supports two operation modes:
- One Redis server for all limits.
- Two Redis instances: one for per second limits and another one for all other limits.
As well Ratelimit supports TLS connections and authentication. These can be configured using the following environment variables:
REDIS_TLS
&REDIS_PERSECOND_TLS
: set to"true"
to enable a TLS connection for the specific connection type.REDIS_AUTH
&REDIS_PERSECOND_AUTH
: set to"password"
to enable authentication to the redis host.
Ratelimit supports different types of redis deployments:
- Single instance (default): Talk to a single instance of redis, or a redis proxy (e.g. https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/intro/arch_overview/other_protocols/redis)
- Sentinel: Talk to a redis deployment with sentinel instances (see https://redis.io/topics/sentinel)
- Cluster: Talk to a redis in cluster mode (see https://redis.io/topics/cluster-spec)
The deployment type can be specified with the REDIS_TYPE
/ REDIS_PERSECOND_TYPE
environment variables. Depending on the type defined, the REDIS_URL
and REDIS_PERSECOND_URL
are expected to have the following formats:
- "single": Depending on the socket type defined, either a single hostname:port pair or a unix domain socket reference.
- "sentinel": A comma separated list with the first string as the master name of the sentinel cluster followed by hostname:port pairs. The list size should be >= 2. The first item is the name of the master and the rest are the sentinels.
- "cluster": A comma separated list of hostname:port pairs with all the nodes in the cluster.
By default, for each request, ratelimit will pick up a connection from pool, write multiple redis commands in a single write then reads their responses in a single read. This reduces network delay.
For high throughput scenarios, ratelimit also support implicit pipelining . It can be configured using the following environment variables:
REDIS_PIPELINE_WINDOW
&REDIS_PERSECOND_PIPELINE_WINDOW
: sets the duration after which internal pipelines will be flushed. If window is zero then implicit pipelining will be disabled.REDIS_PIPELINE_LIMIT
&REDIS_PERSECOND_PIPELINE_LIMIT
: sets maximum number of commands that can be pipelined before flushing. If limit is zero then no limit will be used and pipelines will only be limited by the specified time window.
To configure one Redis instance use the following environment variables:
REDIS_SOCKET_TYPE
REDIS_URL
REDIS_POOL_SIZE
REDIS_TYPE
(optional)
This setup will use the same Redis server for all limits.
To configure two Redis instances use the following environment variables:
REDIS_SOCKET_TYPE
REDIS_URL
REDIS_POOL_SIZE
REDIS_PERSECOND
: set this to"true"
.REDIS_PERSECOND_SOCKET_TYPE
REDIS_PERSECOND_URL
REDIS_PERSECOND_POOL_SIZE
REDIS_PERSECOND_TYPE
(optional)
This setup will use the Redis server configured with the _PERSECOND_
vars for
per second limits, and the other Redis server for all other limits.
Experimental Memcache support has been added as an alternative to Redis in v1.5.
To configure a Memcache instance use the following environment variables instead of the Redis variables:
MEMCACHE_HOST_PORT=<host:port>
BACKEND_TYPE=memcache
With memcache mode increments will happen asynchronously, so it's technically possible for a client to exceed quota briefly if multiple requests happen at exactly the same time.
Note that Memcache has a max key length of 250 characters, so operations referencing very long descriptors will fail.
- envoy-announce: Low frequency mailing list where we will email announcements only.
- envoy-users: General user discussion.
Please add
[ratelimit]
to the email subject. - envoy-dev: Envoy developer discussion (APIs,
feature design, etc.). Please add
[ratelimit]
to the email subject. - Slack: Slack, to get invited go here.
We have the IRC/XMPP gateways enabled if you prefer either of those. Once an account is created,
connection instructions for IRC/XMPP can be found here.
The
#ratelimit-users
channel is used for discussions about the ratelimit service.