This document describes how to simulate HTTP faults by creating HTTPChaos experiments in Chaos Mesh.
HTTPChaos introduction
HTTPChaos is a fault type provided by Chaos Mesh. By creating HTTPChaos experiments, you can simulate the fault scenarios of the HTTP server during the HTTP request and response processing. Currently, HTTPChaos supports simulating the following fault types:
abort: interrupts server connection
delay: injects latency into the target process
replace: replaces part of content in HTTP request or response messages
patch: adds additional content to HTTP request or response messages
HTTPChaos supports combinations of different fault types. If you have configured multiple HTTP fault types at the same time when creating HTTPChaos experiments, the order set to inject the faults when the experiments start running is abort -> delay -> replace -> patch. When the abort fault cause short circuits, the connection will be directly interrupted.
For the detailed description of HTTPChaos configuration, see Field description below.
Notes
Before injecting the faults supported by HTTPChaos, note the followings:
There is no control manager of Chaos Mesh running on the target Pod.
HTTPS accesses should be disabled, because injecting HTTPS connections is not supported currently.
For HTTPChaos injection to take effect, the client should avoid reusing TCP socket. This is because HTTPChaos does not affect the HTTP requests that are sent via TCP socket before the fault injection.
Use non-idempotent requests (such as most of the POST requests) with caution in production environments. If such requests are used, the target service may not return to normal status by repeating requests after the fault injection.
Create experiments using Chaos Dashboard
Open Chaos Dashboard, and click NEW EXPERIMENT on the page to create a new experiment:
create an experiment
In the Choose a Target area, choose HTTP FAULT and select a specific behavior, such as RESPONSE ABORT. Then fill out specific configurations.
create HTTP fault
Submit the experiment.
In the example above, you have configured injecting the "Response abort" fault into all requests of Port 80.
Create experiments using YAML files
Chaos Mesh also supports using YAML configuration files to create HTTPChaos experiments. In a YAML file, you can simulate either one HTTP fault type or a combination of different HTTP fault types.
Example of abort
Write the experimental configuration to the http-abort-failure.yaml file as the example below:
apiVersion: chaos-mesh.org/v1alpha1
kind: HTTPChaos
metadata:
name: test-http-chaos
spec:
mode: all
selector:
labelSelectors:
app: nginx
target: Request
port: 80
method: GET
path: /api
abort: true
duration: 5m
Based on this configuration example, Chaos Mesh will inject the abort fault into the specified pod for 5 minutes. During the fault injection, the GET requests sent through port 80 in the /api path of the target Pod will be interrupted.
After the configuration file is prepared, use kubectl to create the experiment:
kubectl apply -f ./http-abort-failure.yaml
Example of fault combinations
Write the experimental configuration to http-failure.yaml file as the example below:
apiVersion: chaos-mesh.org/v1alpha1
kind: HTTPChaos
metadata:
name: test-http-chaos
spec:
mode: all
selector:
labelSelectors:
app: nginx
target: Request
port: 80
method: GET
path: /api/*
delay: 10s
replace:
path: /api/v2/
method: DELETE
patch:
headers:
- ['Token', '<one token>']
- ['Token', '<another token>']
body:
type: JSON
value: '{"foo": "bar"}'
duration: 5m
Based on this configuration example, Chaos Mesh will inject the delay fault, replace fault, and patch fault consecutively.
After the configuration file is prepared, use kubectl to create the experiment:
kubectl apply -f ./http-failure.yaml
Field description
Description for common fields
Common fields are meaningful when the target of fault injection is Request or Response.
Parameter Type Description Default value Required Example
mode string Specifies the mode of the experiment. The mode options include one (selecting a random pod), all (selecting all eligible pods), fixed (selecting a specified number of eligible pods), fixed-percent (selecting a specified percentage of Pods from the eligible pods), and random-max-percent (selecting the maximum percentage of Pods from the eligible pods). yes one
value string Provides parameters for the mode configuration depending on the value of mode. no 1
target string Specifies whether the target of fault injuection is Request or Response. The target-related fields should be configured at the same time. yes Request
port int32 The TCP port that the target service listens on. yes 80
path string The URI path of the target request. Supports Matching wildcards. Takes effect on all paths by default. no /api/*
method string The HTTP method of the target request method. Takes effect for all methods by default. no GET
request_headers map[string]string Matches request headers to the target service. Takes effect for all requests by default. no Content-Type: application/json
abort bool Indicates whether to inject the fault that interrupts server connection. false no true
delay string Specifies the time for a latency fault. 0 no 10s
replace.headers map[string]string Specifies the key pair used to replace the request headers or response headers. no Content-Type: application/xml
replace.body []byte Specifies request body or response body to replace the fault (Base64 encoded). no eyJmb28iOiAiYmFyIn0K
patch.headers [][]string Specifies the attached key pair of the request headers or response headers with patch faults. no - [Set-Cookie, one cookie]
patch.body.type string Specifies the type of patch faults of the request body or response body. Currently, it only supports JSON. no JSON
patch.body.value string Specifies the fault of the request body or response body with patch faults. no “{“foo”: “bar”}”
duration string Specifies the duration of a specific experiment. yes 30s
scheduler string Specifies the scheduling rules for the time of a specific experiment. no 5 * * * *
Description for target-related fields
Request-related fields
The Request field is a meaningful when the target set to Request during the fault injection.
Parameter Type Description Default value Required Example
replace.path string Specifies the URI path used to replace content. no /api/v2/
replace.method string Specifies the replaced content of the HTTP request method. no DELETE
replace.queries map[string]string Specifies the replaced key pair of the URI query. no foo: bar
patch.queries [][]string Specifies the attached key pair of the URI query with patch faults. no - [foo, bar]
Respond-related fields
The Response is a meaningful when the target set to Response during the fault injection.
Parameter Type Description Default value Required Example
code int32 Specifies the status code responded by target. Takes effect for all status codes by default. no 200
response_heads map[string]string Matches request headers to target. Takes effect for all responses by default. no Content-Type: application/json
replace.code int32 Specifies the replaced content of the response status code. no 404
Local debugging
If you are not sure of the effects of certain fault injections, you can also test the corresponding features locally using rs-tproxy. Chaos Mesh also provides HTTPChaos by using rs-tproxy.