Connection pool settings for HTTP
Use a connection policy to configure connection pool settings for an HTTP destination.Connection pools are typically set up for apps that must be accessed frequently, such as a web service. Without connection pools, every request to the web service requires a new connection to be opened. This setup might work if the web service is accessed occasionally. However, as clients scale and more requests are sent to the web service, opening a connection for each requests can get very expensive and easily overload the web service.
To prevent the upstream web service from being overloaded, you can use the following connection pool settings:
- Maximum number of requests
- Maximum number of requests per connection
- Maximum number of retries
- Maximum number of pending requests
For more information, see the following resources.
If you import or export resources across workspaces, your policies might not apply. For more information, see Import and export policies.
Before you begin
Follow the getting started instructions to:
- Set up Gloo Gateway in a single cluster.
- Deploy sample apps.
- Configure an HTTP listener on your gateway and set up basic routing for the sample apps.
Configure connection policies for HTTP destinations
You can apply a connection policy at the destination level. For more information, see Applying policies.
The connection policy currently does not support selecting Gloo external services as a destination.
The following example applies HTTP connection pool settings to the Bookinfo ratings app.
apiVersion: resilience.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ConnectionPolicy
metadata:
annotations:
cluster.solo.io/cluster: ""
name: http-connect
namespace: bookinfo
spec:
applyToDestinations:
- selector:
labels:
app: ratings
config:
http:
idleTimeout: 2s
maxRequestsPerConnection: 1
maxRetries: 1
maxRequests: 500
maxPendingRequests: 500
Review the following table to understand this configuration. For more information, see the API docs.
Setting | Description |
---|---|
applyToDestinations |
Configure which destinations to apply the policy to, by using labels. Destinations can be a Kubernetes service, VirtualDestination, or ExternalService. If you do not specify any destinations or routes, the rate limit policy applies to all destinations in the workspace by default. If you do not specify any destinations but you do specify a route, the rate limit applies to the route but to no destinations. |
config |
Configure the connection settings to apply to the selected destinations. To set connection pool settings for HTTP destinations, use http as the protocol. For TCP connection pool settings, use tcp . The connection policy in this guide shows how to configure connection pool settings for an HTTP destination. To find an example for a TCP connection policy, see Connection pool settings for TCP. |
http.idleTimeout |
The time a connection can stay open without receiving any requests. By default, this value is set to 1 hour. If the idle time is reached, the connection is closed. |
http.maxRequestsPerConnection |
The maximum number of requests that can be sent to a destination per connection. If you set this value to 1, you disable keep alive. By default, this value is set to 0, which equals unlimited , and allows a maximum of 2^29 requests per connection. |
http.maxRetries |
The maximum number of retries that can be outstanding to all hosts in a cluster at a given time. Defaults to 2^32-1. |
http.maxRequests |
The maximum number of active requests to an upstream destination. The default value is 1024. |
http.maxPendingRequests |
The maximum number of requests that can be queued while waiting for a connection from the connection policy to become available. The default value is 1024. |
Verify connection policies
-
Apply the example connection policy for the ratings app.
kubectl apply -f- <<EOF apiVersion: resilience.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2 kind: ConnectionPolicy metadata: annotations: cluster.solo.io/cluster: "" name: http-connect namespace: bookinfo spec: applyToDestinations: - selector: labels: app: ratings config: http: idleTimeout: 2s maxRequestsPerConnection: 1 maxRetries: 1 maxRequests: 500 maxPendingRequests: 500 EOF
-
Verify that an Istio destination rule is created for the ratings app.
kubectl get destinationrule -n bookinfo
Example output:
NAME HOST AGE ratings-global-virtual-destinat-2ab46384c8b40be3cfab9740ac8fb2c ratings.global 11s
-
Describe the Istio destination rule.
kubectl describe -n bookinfo destinationrule <destination-rule>
In the output, verify that the Connection Pool settings include the http settings that your policy configures.
... Traffic Policy: Port Level Settings: Connection Pool: Http: http1MaxPendingRequests: 500 http2MaxRequests: 500 Idle Timeout: 2s Max Requests Per Connection: 1 Max Retries: 1
-
Optional: Clean up the resource that you created.
kubectl -n bookinfo delete ConnectionPolicy http-connect