You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
There is currently no way to ask the HTTP/2 client for more than one live connection to a
single authority, which makes client-side load balancing impossible to build on top of it.
pekko-grpc hits this directly. Its pekko-http client backend resolves a service name to a
set of endpoints via Pekko Discovery and is supposed to spread requests over them
(round_robin, as the netty backend does via grpc-java). What it can do today is in PekkoHttpClientUtils:
a ClientTransport.withCustomResolver that round-robins over the discovered addresses, and
builder.managedPersistentHttp2() feeding a single Source.queue.
Because managedPersistentHttp2 maintains exactly one connection, the resolver is only
consulted when that connection is (re)established. So every request from a given client goes
to whichever endpoint was picked at connect time; the counter buys failover across reconnects,
not balancing. pekko-grpc's LoadBalancingIntegrationSpec is commented out
for the pekko-http backend for this reason, and GrpcClientSettings.withLoadBalancingPolicy
is silently ignored there.
This is the pekko side of akka/akka-grpc#1197 ("Client-side loadbalancing with the Akka HTTP
backend"), which is still open upstream with the API question unanswered.
Why the existing issue doesn't cover it
#484 asks for an HTTP/2 pool behind singleRequest, described there as "keeps a single
managed persistent HTTP/2 connection per host and automatically dispatches requests based
on the host to that connection". That is a different axis: it gives one connection per
distinct authority. Here all the endpoints share one authority (greeter, or whatever overrideAuthority says) and differ only in the resolved socket address, so a per-host pool
would still collapse them onto one connection.
Proposed fix
Add a multi-connection variant of the managed persistent flow to OutgoingConnectionBuilder,
keeping the existing Flow[HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed] shape so it is a drop-in
replacement:
Implementation is mostly wiring in OutgoingConnectionBuilderImpl: materialize connections
independent PersistentConnection.managedConnection(http2(), ...) sub-flows, fan requests out
over them and merge the responses back. Correlating responses already works — HTTP/2 requests
must carry a RequestResponseAssociation, and PersistentConnection already relies on that,
so an unordered merge is safe.
The key property for the load-balancing use case is that each sub-flow establishes its own
connection through the configured ClientTransport, so a caller-supplied custom resolver is
invoked once per connection and can hand out a different endpoint each time. pekko-grpc then
gets round-robin over discovered endpoints without any new discovery API in pekko-http, and
can enable the spec that is currently commented out.
Design questions
Fan-out strategy. A plain Balance is the cheap option but routes to whichever sub-flow
pulls first. A PersistentConnection that is unconnected or sitting in its reconnect embargo
will still accept a request and buffer it, so Balance can steer traffic towards a broken
endpoint. Something that prefers connected sub-flows, or routes by fewest outstanding
requests, would behave much better and is closer to what gRPC's round_robin does.
Should the connection count be dynamic? Fixed connections: Int is the small version.
Resizing as the discovered endpoint set changes is the fuller answer, but needs pekko-http
to know about endpoint sets — which is the "how much of this should be a new API on the HTTP
side" question from Client-side loadbalancing with the Akka HTTP backend akka/akka-grpc#1197. Suggest starting fixed.
Config. Optionally a pekko.http.client.http2.connections default alongside the existing max-persistent-attempts / base-connection-backoff keys, though the builder argument may be
enough given this is a per-client decision.
javadsl parity in pekko.http.javadsl.OutgoingConnectionBuilder and its adapter.
connections = 1 should stay behaviourally identical to today's overload.
Both existing methods are already @ApiMayChange, so adding overloads here is cheap.
Alternatives considered
pekko-grpc could manage N managedPersistentHttp2 flows itself and round-robin singleRequest
across them, entirely inside PekkoHttpClientUtils and with no pekko-http change. That works,
but it reimplements connection health and eviction logic in a downstream project, and any other
user wanting HTTP/2 client-side load balancing would have to do the same.
Problem
There is currently no way to ask the HTTP/2 client for more than one live connection to a
single authority, which makes client-side load balancing impossible to build on top of it.
pekko-grpc hits this directly. Its
pekko-httpclient backend resolves a service name to aset of endpoints via Pekko Discovery and is supposed to spread requests over them
(
round_robin, as thenettybackend does via grpc-java). What it can do today is inPekkoHttpClientUtils:ClientTransport.withCustomResolverthat round-robins over the discovered addresses, andbuilder.managedPersistentHttp2()feeding a singleSource.queue.Because
managedPersistentHttp2maintains exactly one connection, the resolver is onlyconsulted when that connection is (re)established. So every request from a given client goes
to whichever endpoint was picked at connect time; the counter buys failover across reconnects,
not balancing. pekko-grpc's
LoadBalancingIntegrationSpeciscommented out
for the
pekko-httpbackend for this reason, andGrpcClientSettings.withLoadBalancingPolicyis silently ignored there.
This is the pekko side of akka/akka-grpc#1197 ("Client-side loadbalancing with the Akka HTTP
backend"), which is still open upstream with the API question unanswered.
Why the existing issue doesn't cover it
#484 asks for an HTTP/2 pool behind
singleRequest, described there as "keeps a singlemanaged persistent HTTP/2 connection per host and automatically dispatches requests based
on the host to that connection". That is a different axis: it gives one connection per
distinct authority. Here all the endpoints share one authority (
greeter, or whateveroverrideAuthoritysays) and differ only in the resolved socket address, so a per-host poolwould still collapse them onto one connection.
Proposed fix
Add a multi-connection variant of the managed persistent flow to
OutgoingConnectionBuilder,keeping the existing
Flow[HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed]shape so it is a drop-inreplacement:
Implementation is mostly wiring in
OutgoingConnectionBuilderImpl: materializeconnectionsindependent
PersistentConnection.managedConnection(http2(), ...)sub-flows, fan requests outover them and merge the responses back. Correlating responses already works — HTTP/2 requests
must carry a
RequestResponseAssociation, andPersistentConnectionalready relies on that,so an unordered merge is safe.
The key property for the load-balancing use case is that each sub-flow establishes its own
connection through the configured
ClientTransport, so a caller-supplied custom resolver isinvoked once per connection and can hand out a different endpoint each time. pekko-grpc then
gets round-robin over discovered endpoints without any new discovery API in pekko-http, and
can enable the spec that is currently commented out.
Design questions
Balanceis the cheap option but routes to whichever sub-flowpulls first. A
PersistentConnectionthat is unconnected or sitting in its reconnect embargowill still accept a request and buffer it, so
Balancecan steer traffic towards a brokenendpoint. Something that prefers connected sub-flows, or routes by fewest outstanding
requests, would behave much better and is closer to what gRPC's
round_robindoes.connections: Intis the small version.Resizing as the discovered endpoint set changes is the fuller answer, but needs pekko-http
to know about endpoint sets — which is the "how much of this should be a new API on the HTTP
side" question from Client-side loadbalancing with the Akka HTTP backend akka/akka-grpc#1197. Suggest starting fixed.
pekko.http.client.http2.connectionsdefault alongside the existingmax-persistent-attempts/base-connection-backoffkeys, though the builder argument may beenough given this is a per-client decision.
pekko.http.javadsl.OutgoingConnectionBuilderand its adapter.connections = 1should stay behaviourally identical to today's overload.Both existing methods are already
@ApiMayChange, so adding overloads here is cheap.Alternatives considered
pekko-grpc could manage N
managedPersistentHttp2flows itself and round-robinsingleRequestacross them, entirely inside
PekkoHttpClientUtilsand with no pekko-http change. That works,but it reimplements connection health and eviction logic in a downstream project, and any other
user wanting HTTP/2 client-side load balancing would have to do the same.