461 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
461 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
---
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name: Traffic Splitting for Service Deployments
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content_length: 15
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id: connect-splitting
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products_used:
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- Consul
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description: >-
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In this guide you will split layer-7 traffic, using Envoy proxies configured
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by
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Consul, to roll out a new version of a service. You can use this method for
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zero-downtime, blue-green, and canary deployments.
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level: Implementation
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---
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-> **Note:** This guide requires Consul 1.6.0 or newer.
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When you deploy a new version of a service, you need a way to start using the
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new version without causing downtime for your end users. You can't just take the
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old version down and deploy the new one, because for a brief period you would
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cause downtime. This method runs the additional risk of being hard to roll back
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if there are unexpected problems with the new version of the service.
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You can solve this problem by deploying the new service, making sure it works in
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your production environment with a small amount of traffic at first, then slowly
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shifting traffic over as you gain confidence (from monitoring) that it is
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performing as expected. Depending on the rate at which you shift the traffic and
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the level of monitoring you have in place, a deployment like this might be
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called a zero-downtime, blue-green, canary deployment, or something else.
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In this guide you will deploy a new version of a service and shift HTTP
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traffic slowly to the new version.
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## Prerequisites
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The steps in this guide use Consul’s service mesh feature, Consul Connect. If
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you aren’t already familiar with Connect you can learn more by following [this
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guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/consul/getting-started/connect).
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We created a demo environment for the steps we describe here. The environment
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relies on Docker and Docker Compose. If you do not already have Docker and
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Docker Compose, you can install them from [Docker’s install
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page](https://docs.docker.com/install/).
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## Environment
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This guide uses a two-tiered application made of of three services: a
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public web service, two versions of the API service, and Consul. The Web service
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accepts incoming traffic and makes an upstream call to the API service. At the
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start of this scenario version 1 of the API service is already running in
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production and handling traffic. Version 2 contains some changes you will ship
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in a canary deployment.
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## Start the Environment
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First clone the repo containing the source and examples for this guide.
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```shell-session
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$ git clone git@github.com:hashicorp/consul-demo-traffic-splitting.git
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```
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Change directories into the cloned folder, and start the demo environment with
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`docker-compose up`. This command will run in the foreground, so you’ll need to
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open a new terminal window after you run it.
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```shell-session
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$ docker-compose up
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Creating consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v1_1 ... done
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Creating consul-demo-traffic-splitting_consul_1 ... done
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Creating consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_1 ... done
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Creating consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_envoy_1 ... done
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Creating consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v1_1 ... done
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Attaching to consul-demo-traffic-splitting_consul_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v1_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_envoy_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v1_1
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```
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Consul is preconfigured to run as a single server, with all the
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configurations for splitting enabled.
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- Connect is enabled - Traffic shaping requires that you use Consul Connect.
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- gRPC is enabled - splitting also requires the you use Envoy as a sidecar
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proxy, and Envoy gets its configuration from Consul via gRPC.
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- Central service configuration is enabled - you will use configuration entries
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to specify the API service protocol, and define your splitting ratios.
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These settings are defined in the Consul configuration file at
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`consul_config/consul.hcl`, which contains the follwoing.
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```hcl
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data_dir = "/tmp/"
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log_level = "DEBUG"
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server = true
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bootstrap_expect = 1
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ui = true
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bind_addr = "0.0.0.0"
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client_addr = "0.0.0.0"
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connect {
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enabled = true
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}
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ports {
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grpc = 8502
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}
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enable_central_service_config = true
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```
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You can find the service definitions for this demo in the `service_config`
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folder. Note the metadata stanzas in the registrations for versions 1 and 2 of
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the API service. Consul will use the metadata you define here to split traffic
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between the two services. The metadata stanza contains the following.
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```json
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"meta": {
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"version": "1"
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},
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```
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Once everything is up and running, you can view the health of the registered
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services by checking the Consul UI at
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[http://localhost:8500](http://localhost:8500). The docker compose file has
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started and registered Consul, the web service, a sidecar for the web service,
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version 1 of the API service, and a sidecar for the API service.
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Curl the Web endpoint to make sure that the whole application is running. The
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Web service will get a response from version 1 of the API service.
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```shell-session
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V1
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```
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Initially, you will want to deploy version 2 of the API service to production
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without sending any traffic to it, to make sure that it performs well in a new
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environment. Prevent traffic from flowing to version 2 when you register it, you
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will preemptively set up a traffic split to send 100% of your traffic to
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version 1 of the API service, and 0% to the not-yet-deployed version 2.
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## Configure Traffic Splitting
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Traffic splitting makes use of configuration entries to centrally configure
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services and Envoy proxies. There are three configuration entries you need to
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create to enable traffic splitting:
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- Service defaults for the API service to set the protocol to HTTP.
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- Service splitter which defines the traffic split between the service subsets.
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- Service resolver which defines which service instances are version 1 and 2.
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### Configuring Service Defaults
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Traffic splitting requires that the upstream application uses HTTP, because
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splitting happens on layer 7 (on a request-by-request basis). You will tell
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Consul that your upstream service uses HTTP by setting the protocol in a
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service-defaults configuration entry for the API service. This configuration
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is already in your demo environment at `l7_config/api_service_defaults.json`. It
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contains the following.
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```json
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{
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"kind": "service-defaults",
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"name": "api",
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"protocol": "http"
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}
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```
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To apply the configuration, you can either use the Consul CLI or the API. In
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this example we’ll use the CLI to write the configuration, providing the file location.
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```shell-session
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$ consul config write l7_config/api_service_defaults.json
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```
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Find more information on `service-defaults` configuration entries in the
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[documentation](https://www.consul.io/docs/agent/config-entries/service-defaults.html).
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-> **Automation Tip:** To automate interactions with configuration entries, use
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the HTTP API endpoint [`http://localhost:8500/v1/config`](https://www.consul.io/api/config.html).
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### Configuring the Service Resolver
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The next configuration entry you need to add is the service resolver, which
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allows you to define how Consul’s service discovery selects service instances
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for a given service name.
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Service resolvers allow you to filter for subsets of services based on
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information in the service registration. In this example, we are going to define
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the subsets “v1” and “v2” for the API service, based on their registered
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metadata. API service version 1 in the demo is already registered with the
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service metadata `version:1`, and an optional tag, `v1`, to make the version
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number appear in the UI. When you register version 2 you will give it the
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metadata `version:2`, which Consul will use to find the right service, and
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optional tag `v2`. The `name` field is set to the name of the service in the
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Consul service catalog.
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The service resolver is already in your demo environment at
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`l7_config/api_service_resolver.json` and it contains the following
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configuration.
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```json
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{
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"kind": "service-resolver",
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"name": "api",
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"subsets": {
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"v1": {
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"filter": "Service.Meta.version == 1"
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},
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"v2": {
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"filter": "Service.Meta.version == 2"
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}
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}
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}
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```
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Write the service resolver configuration entry using the CLI and providing the
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location, just like in the previous example.
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```shell-session
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$ consul config write l7_config/api_service_resolver.json
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```
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Find more information about service resolvers in the
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[documentation](https://www.consul.io/docs/agent/config-entries/service-resolver.html).
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### Configure Service Splitting - 100% of traffic to Version 1
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Next, you’ll create a configuration entry that will split percentages of traffic
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to the subsets of your upstream service that you just defined. Initially, you
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want the splitter to send all traffic to v1 of your upstream service, which
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prevents any traffic from being sent to v2 when you register it. In a production
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scenario, this would give you time to make sure that v2 of your service is up
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and running as expected before sending it any real traffic.
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The configuration entry for service splitting has the `kind` of
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`service-splitter`. Its `name` specifies which service that the splitter will
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act on. The `splits` field takes an array which defines the different splits; in
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this example, there are only two splits; however, it is [possible to configure
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multiple sequential
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splits](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/l7-traffic-management.html#splitting).
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Each split has a `weight` which defines the percentage of traffic to distribute
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to each service subset. The total weights for all splits must equal 100. For
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your initial split, configure all traffic to be directed to the service subset
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v1.
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The service splitter already exists in your demo environment at
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`l7_config/api_service_splitter_100_0.json` and contains the following
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configuration.
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```json
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{
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"kind": "service-splitter",
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"name": "api",
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"splits": [
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{
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"weight": 100,
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"service_subset": "v1"
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},
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{
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"weight": 0,
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"service_subset": "v2"
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}
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]
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}
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```
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Write this configuration entry using the CLI as well.
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```shell-session
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$ consul config write l7_config/api_service_splitter_100_0.json
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```
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This concludes the set up of the first stage in your deployment; you can now
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launch the new version of the API service without it immediately being used.
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### Start and Register API Service Version 2
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Next you’ll start version 2 of the API service, and register it with the
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settings that you used in the configuration entries for resolution and
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splitting. Start the service, register it, and start its connect sidecar with
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the following command. This command will run in the foreground, so you’ll need
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to open a new terminal window after you run it.
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```shell-session
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$ docker-compose -f docker-compose-v2.yml up
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```
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Check that the service and its proxy have registered by checking for new `v2`
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tags next to the API service and API sidecar proxies in the Consul UI.
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### Configure Service Splitting - 50% Version 1, 50% Version 2
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Now that version 2 is running and registered, the next step is to gradually
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increase traffic to it by changing the weight of the v2 service subset in the
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service splitter configuration. In this example you will increase the percent of
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traffic destined for the the v2 service to 50%. In a production roll out you
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would typically set the initial percent to be much lower. You can specify
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percentages as low as 0.01%.
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Remember; total service percent must equal 100, so in this example you will
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reduce the percent of the v1 subset to 50. The configuration file is already in
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your demo environment at `l7_config/api_service_splitter_50_50.json` and it
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contains the following.
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```json
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{
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"kind": "service-splitter",
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"name": "api",
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"splits": [
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{
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"weight": 50,
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"service_subset": "v1"
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},
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{
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"weight": 50,
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"service_subset": "v2"
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}
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]
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}
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```
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Write the new configuration using the CLI.
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```shell-session
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$ consul config write l7_config/api_service_splitter_50_50.json
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```
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Now that you’ve increased the percentage of traffic to v2, curl the web service
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again. Consul will equally distribute traffic across both of the service
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subsets.
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```shell-session
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V1
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V2
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V1
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```
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### Configure Service Splitting - 100% Version 2
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Once you are confident that the new version of the service is operating
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correctly, you can send 100% of traffic to the version 2 subset. The
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configuration for a 100% split to version 2 contains the following.
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```json
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{
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"kind": "service-splitter",
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"name": "api",
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"splits": [
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{
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"weight": 0,
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"service_subset": "v1"
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},
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{
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"weight": 100,
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"service_subset": "v2"
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}
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]
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}
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```
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Apply it with the CLI, providing the path to the configuration entry.
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```shell-session
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$ consul config write l7_config/api_service_splitter_0_100.json
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```
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Now when you curl the web service again. 100% of traffic goes to the version
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2 subset.
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```shell-session
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V2
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V2
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$ curl localhost:9090
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Hello World
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###Upstream Data: localhost:9091###
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Service V2
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```
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Typically in a production environment, you would now remove the version 1
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service to release capacity in your cluster. Once you remove version 1's
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registration from Consul you can either remove the splitter and resolver
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entirely, or leave them in place, removing the stanza that sends traffic to
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version 1, so that you can eventually deploy version 3 without it receiving any
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initial traffic.
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Congratulations, you’ve now completed the deployment of version 2 of your
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service.
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## Demo Cleanup
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To stop and remove the containers and networks that you created you will run
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`docker-compose down` twice: once for each of the docker compose commands you
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ran. Because containers you created in the second compose command are running on
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the network you created in the first command, you will need to bring down the
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environments in the opposite order that you created them in.
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First you’ll stop and remove the containers created for v2 of the API service.
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```shell-session
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$ docker-compose -f docker-compose-v2.yml down
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v2_1 ... done
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v2_1 ... done
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WARNING: Found orphan containers (consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v1_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_envoy_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_consul_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_1, consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v1_1) for this project. If you removed or renamed this service in your compose file, you can run this command with the --remove-orphans flag to clean it up.
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v2_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v2_1 ... done
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Network consul-demo-traffic-splitting_vpcbr is external, skipping
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```
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Then, you’ll stop and remove the containers and the network that you created in
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the first docker compose command.
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```shell-session
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$ docker-compose down
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v1_1 ... done
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_envoy_1 ... done
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_consul_1 ... done
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_1 ... done
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Stopping consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v1_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_proxy_v1_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_envoy_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_consul_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_web_1 ... done
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Removing consul-demo-traffic-splitting_api_v1_1 ... done
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Removing network consul-demo-traffic-splitting_vpcbr
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```
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## Summary
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In this guide, we walked you through the steps required to perform Canary
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deployments using traffic splitting and resolution.
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Find out more about L7 traffic management settings in the
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[documentation](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/l7-traffic-management.html).
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