JetRP

This repository provides a reverse proxy with load balancing, backend services, and benchmarking capabilities. The reverse proxy supports round-robin load balancing across backend services.

This guide will walk you through setting up Minikube, deploying the reverse proxy along with the backends, and running benchmarks to test performance.

Prerequisites

1. Minikube (for Kubernetes deployment)

   • Install Minikube on your local machine.

2. Docker (for building Docker images)

   • Install Docker on your local machine.

3. Kubectl (for interacting with the Kubernetes cluster)

   • Install kubectl on your local machine.

4. Go (if you want to build from source)

   • Install Go on your local machine.

5. Minikube Addons (like ingress controller)

   • You might need to enable a specific ingress controller if you want to test with external access to the proxy.

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Steps to Deploy the Proxy

1. Start Minikube

You need a Kubernetes cluster running locally using Minikube. You can start Minikube by running:

minikube start

This will start a Minikube cluster with a local Kubernetes setup.

2. Build the Docker Images

Once Minikube is running, you need to build the Docker images and push them to your local Docker registry or a container registry (like Docker Hub).

• Build the reverse proxy image:

sudo docker build -t <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-proxy:latest -f docker/Dockerfile .

• Build the backend image:

sudo docker build -t <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-backend:latest -f docker/backend.Dockerfile .

• Push these images to Docker Hub (if necessary):

sudo docker push <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-proxy:latest
sudo docker push <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-backend:latest

3. Deploy Services on Minikube

Now, let’s deploy the proxy and backend services to Minikube.

• Apply the Kubernetes deployments for backend services and the reverse proxy:

kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/backend1-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/backend2-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/proxy-deployment.yaml

These files define the deployments of your backend services and the reverse proxy service.

4. Expose the Reverse Proxy Service

Once the services are deployed, you need to expose the reverse proxy service to access it from outside the Kubernetes cluster.

• Expose the proxy service using kubectl expose:

kubectl expose deployment jetrp-proxy --type=LoadBalancer --name=jetrp-proxy-service --port=8080 --target-port=8080

• Get the external IP address of the reverse proxy:

kubectl get svc jetrp-proxy-service

If you're using Minikube, you can also get the external IP by running:

minikube service jetrp-proxy-service --url

This will provide you with the URL for accessing the reverse proxy.

5. Run Benchmark Tests

To evaluate the performance of the reverse proxy and backends, you can run some benchmark tests using wrk or hey (depending on which tool you prefer).

Running Benchmarks with wrk

• Install wrk on your machine.
• Run the benchmark script for wrk:

    ./benchmarks/run_wrk.sh

This will run the wrk benchmark against your reverse proxy service and print the results.

Running Benchmarks with hey

• Install hey on your machine.
• Run the benchmark script for hey:

    ./benchmarks/run_hey.sh

This will run the hey benchmark against your reverse proxy service and print the results.

6. Verify the Deployment

To verify that everything is working as expected:

• Access the proxy through the Minikube service URL or directly by using kubectl port-forward for internal access.

For example, to access the proxy on port 8080:

kubectl port-forward svc/jetrp-proxy-service 8080:8080

Now you can try to send requests to http://localhost:8080 and the reverse proxy will route them to the backend services.

7. Cleanup

Once you're done with the setup and testing, you can clean up the resources:

• Stop the Minikube cluster:

minikube stop

• Delete the deployed Kubernetes resources:

kubectl delete -f deployments/kubernetes/backend1-deployment.yaml
kubectl delete -f deployments/kubernetes/backend2-deployment.yaml
kubectl delete -f deployments/kubernetes/proxy-deployment.yaml

• Clean up Docker images if necessary:

sudo docker rmi <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-proxy:latest
sudo docker rmi <your_dockerhub_username>/jetrp-backend:latest

Troubleshooting

• "Connection refused" error: If you see connection issues (e.g., connection refused), make sure that the backend services are running correctly by checking the status of the pods in Kubernetes:

kubectl get pods

You can also check logs of the proxy and backend services:

kubectl logs <proxy_pod_name>
kubectl logs <backend_pod_name>

• Proxy not forwarding requests: Ensure that the proxy is configured with the correct backend service URLs and that the services are exposed correctly in Kubernetes.