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Pod HTTP latency

Pod HTTP latency is a Kubernetes pod-level chaos fault that injects HTTP response latency by starting the proxy server and redirecting the traffic through it. This fault:

  • Injects the latency into the service whose port is specified using the TARGET_SERVICE_PORT environment variable.

Pod HTTP Latency

Use cases​

Pod HTTP latency:

  • Evaluates the application's resilience to lossy or flaky HTTP responses.
  • Simulates latency to specific API services for (or from) a given microservice.
  • Simulates a slow response on specific third-party or dependent components or services.

Prerequisites​

  • Kubernetes > 1.16
  • The application pods should be in the running state before and after injecting chaos.

Mandatory tunables​

Mandatory tunables

Tunable Description Notes
TARGET_SERVICE_PORT Port of the target service. Default: port 80. For more information, go to target service port
NODE_LABEL Node label used to filter the target node if TARGET_NODE environment variable is not set. It is mutually exclusive with the TARGET_NODE environment variable. If both are provided, the fault uses TARGET_NODE. For more information, go to node label.
LATENCY Delay added to the requests (in milliseconds). Default: 2000. For more information, go to latency

Optional tunables​

Tunable Description Notes
PROXY_PORT Port where the proxy listens for requests. Default: 20000. For more information, go to proxy port
NETWORK_INTERFACE Network interface used for the proxy. Default: eth0. For more information, go to network interface
TOXICITY Percentage of HTTP requests that will be affected. Default: 100. For more information, go to toxicity
CONTAINER_RUNTIME Container runtime interface for the cluster. Default: containerd. Supports docker, containerd and crio. For more information, go to container runtime
SOCKET_PATH Path to the containerd/crio/docker socket file. Default: /run/containerd/containerd.sock. For more information, go to socket path
TOTAL_CHAOS_DURATION Duration to inject chaos (in seconds). Default: 60 s. For more information, go to duration of the chaos
TARGET_PODS Comma-separated list of application pod names subject to pod HTTP latency. If not provided, the fault selects target pods randomly based on provided appLabels. For more information, go to target specific pods
PODS_AFFECTED_PERC Percentage of total pods to target. Provide numeric values. Default: 0 (corresponds to 1 replica). For more information, go to pod affected percentage
RAMP_TIME Period to wait before and after injecting chaos (in seconds). For example, 30 s. For more information, go to ramp time
SEQUENCE Sequence of chaos execution for multiple target pods. Default: parallel. Supports serial and parallel. For more information, go to sequence of chaos execution

Target service port​

Port of the target service. Tune it by using the TARGET_SERVICE_PORT environment variable.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of this environment variable:

## provide the port of the targeted service
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"

Proxy port​

Port on which the proxy server listens for requests. Tune it by using the PROXY_PORT environment variable.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of this environment variable:

# provide the port for proxy server
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # provide the port for proxy server
            - name: PROXY_PORT
              value: "8080"
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"

Latency​

Delay added to the HTTP request. Tune it by using the LATENCY environment variable.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of this environment variable:

## provide the latency value
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # provide the latency value
            - name: LATENCY
              value: "2000"
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"

Toxicity​

Percentage of the total number of HTTP requests that need to be affected. Tune it by using the TOXICITY environment variable.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of this environment variable:

## provide the toxicity
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # toxicity is the probability of the request to be affected
            # provide the percentage value in the range of 0-100
            # 0 means no request will be affected and 100 means all request will be affected
            - name: TOXICITY
              value: "100"
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"

Network interface​

Network interface that would be used for the proxy. Tune it by using the NETWORK_INTERFACE environment variable.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of this environment variable:

## provide the network interface for proxy
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # provide the network interface for proxy
            - name: NETWORK_INTERFACE
              value: "eth0"
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"

Container runtime and socket path​

The CONTAINER_RUNTIME and SOCKET_PATH environment variables to set the container runtime and socket file path, respectively.

  • CONTAINER_RUNTIME: It supports docker, containerd, and crio runtimes. The default value is containerd.
  • SOCKET_PATH: It contains path of containerd socket file by default(/run/containerd/containerd.sock). For docker, specify path as /var/run/docker.sock. For crio, specify path as /var/run/crio/crio.sock.

The following YAML snippet illustrates the use of these environment variables:

## provide the container runtime and socket file path
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: engine-nginx
spec:
  engineState: "active"
  annotationCheck: "false"
  appinfo:
    appns: "default"
    applabel: "app=nginx"
    appkind: "deployment"
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
    - name: pod-http-latency
      spec:
        components:
          env:
            # runtime for the container
            # supports docker, containerd, crio
            - name: CONTAINER_RUNTIME
              value: "containerd"
            # path of the socket file
            - name: SOCKET_PATH
              value: "/run/containerd/containerd.sock"
            # provide the port of the targeted service
            - name: TARGET_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "80"