Charon Spring Boot Starter

Charon is a reverse proxy implementation. It automatically forwards HTTP requests from one web application to another and sends back the received HTTP response to the client. There are some alternative reverse proxy implementations like: Zuul or Smiley's HTTP Proxy Servlet. This tool tries to get the best of them joining their features into a one Spring Boot starter.

Features

• easy to use
• highly configurable and extensible
• NIO support based on Netty
• retrying support based on Spring Retry
• metrics support based on Metrics
• customizable proxy mappings changeable at runtime
• customizable load balancer
• forward HTTP headers support

Migrating from 1.x.x to 2.x.x

• remove @EnableCharon annotation
• correct charon.mertics properties in the application.yml file if collecting metrics is enabled
• charon.timeout properties are no longer available in the application.yml file, now timeouts can be set per mapping

Installing

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
    compile 'com.github.mkopylec:charon-spring-boot-starter:2.0.1'
}

Basic usage

Create a Spring Boot web application:

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

Configure proxy mappings in application.yml file:

charon.mappings:
    -
        name: sample mapping
        path: /some/path
        destinations: http://firsthost:8080, http://secondhost:8081

When an application is configured like above then every request to /some/path/endpoint/** will be forwarded to http://firsthost:8080/endpoint/** or http://secondhost:8081/endpoint/**. Note that the mapped path /some/path is stripped from the forwarded request URL. Also note that the charon.mappings property's value is a list, therefore more mappings can be set.

Advanced usage

Charon can be configured in many ways. This can be done via configuration properties in application.yml file or by creating Spring beans.

Mappings

Mappings define how Charon will forward incoming HTTP requests. Every mapping must be named. By default the mapped path is stripped from the forward request URL. To preserve the mapped path in the URL set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.mappings:
    -
        ...
        strip-path: false

If the mappings configuration using configuration properties is not enough, a custom mappings provider can be created. This can be done by creating a Spring bean of type MappingsProvider:

@Component
@EnableConfigurationProperties({CharonProperties.class, ServerProperties.class})
public class CustomMappingsProvider extends MappingsProvider {

    @Autowired
	public CustomMappingsProvider(ServerProperties server, CharonProperties charon, MappingsCorrector mappingsCorrector) {
		super(server, charon, mappingsCorrector);
	}
	
	@Override
    protected boolean shouldUpdateMappings(HttpServletRequest request) {
        ...
    }

	@Override
	protected List<Mapping> retrieveMappings() {
		...
	}
}

Using custom MappingsProvider the mappings are populated during application startup using retrieveMappings method. The mappings are also updated during application runtime every time the shouldUpdateMappings method returns true.

Retrying

By default there is only one attempt to forward request. Forward request retrying can be enabled for each mapping by setting an appropriate configuration property:

charon.mappings:
    -
        ...
        retryable: true

By default a next try is triggered by any Exception that occurs during proxying process and also by 5xx HTTP responses from destination hosts. To change the retryable exceptions set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.retrying.retry-on.exceptions: <comma-separated list fo exceptions>

To disable retrying on 5xx HTTP responses set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.retrying.retry-on.server-http-error: false

Retrying on 4xx HTTP responses from destination hosts is disabled by default. To turn it on set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.retrying.retry-on.client-http-error: true

If retrying is enabled there are maximum three attempts to forward request. To change the maximum number of attempts set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.retrying.max-attempts: <number_of_tries>

Load balancer

The default load balancer randomly chooses a destination host from the available list. A custom load balancer can be created by creating a Spring bean of type LoadBalancer:

@Component
public class CustomLoadBalancer implements LoadBalancer {

	@Override
	public String chooseDestination(List<String> destinations) {
		...
	}
}

Metrics

Collecting performance metrics is disabled by default. To turn them on set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.metrics.enabled: true

Charon collects metrics per mapping. To report collected metrics a reporter is needed. Charon includes two metrics reporters but they are disabled by default. To enable a reporter that logs collected metrics set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.metrics.reporting.logger.enabled: true

To enable a reporter that sends collected metrics to a Graphite server set an appropriate configuration properties:

charon.metrics.reporting.graphite:
    enabled: true
    hostname: <graphite_hostname>
    port: <graphite_port>

The default metrics reporters report results every 60 seconds. The interval can be changed by setting an appropriate configuration property:

charon.metrics.reporting.interval-in-seconds: <interval_in_seconds>

To create a custom metrics reporter create a Spring bean that extends ScheduledReporter:

@Component
public class CustomMetricsReporter extends ScheduledReporter {

    @Autowired
    public CustomMetricsReporter(MetricRegistry registry) {
        ...
    }

    @Override
    public void report(SortedMap<String, Gauge> gauges, SortedMap<String, Counter> counters, SortedMap<String, Histogram> histograms, SortedMap<String, Meter> meters, SortedMap<String, Timer> timers) {
        ...
    }
    
    @PostConstruct
    private void startCapturingMetrics() {
        start(...);
    }
}

Tracing

Charon can trace a proxying process. Tracing allows applications to collect detailed information about Charons activity. To enable it set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.tracing.enabled: true

Every trace collects information at five checkpoints:

• request received - captures an incoming HTTP request
• no mapping found - captures an incoming HTTP request that will not be forwarded to any destination host
• forward start - captures an HTTP request that will be sent to the destination host
• forward error - captures an exception thrown while sending an HTTP request to destination host
• forward complete - captures an HTTP response received from the destination host

In each checkpoint a trace ID and current HTTP data are captured. A trace ID remains the same throughout the whole proxying process of a single HTTP request, therefore trace checkpoints can be joined by trace IDs value. By default, when tracing is enabled, Charon logs the captured information. To change this behaviour create a Spring bean of type TraceInterceptor:

@Component
public class CustomTraceInterceptor extends TraceInterceptor {

    @Override
    protected void onRequestReceived(String traceId, IncomingRequest request) {
        ...
    }
    
    @Override
    protected void onNoMappingFound(String traceId, IncomingRequest request) {
        ...
    }

    @Override
    protected void onForwardStart(String traceId, ForwardRequest request) {
        ...
    }

    @Override
    protected void onForwardError(String traceId, Throwable error) {
        ...
    }

    @Override
    protected void onForwardComplete(String traceId, ReceivedResponse response) {
        ...
    }
}

Asynchronous forwarding

By default HTTP requests are forwarded synchronously. Forwarding process can also be asynchronous. In asynchronous mode a response is returned immediately with 202 (accepted) HTTP status. To enable asynchronous forwarding set an appropriate configuration property:

charon.mappings:
    -
        ...
        asynchronous: true

For asynchronous forwarding a thread pool executor is used. Its configuration is exposed by charon.asynchronous-forwarding-thread-pool configuration properties.

Other tips

• change the logging level of com.github.mkopylec.charon to DEBUG to see what's going on under the hood
• tracing logs have INFO and ERROR level
• check the CharonConfiguration to see what else can be overridden by creating a Spring bean
• if the incoming HTTP request cannot be mapped to any path it will be normally handled by the web application
• mapping destinations can have custom schemes; when a destination is lack of a scheme part the http:// will be prepended
• X-Forwarded-For, X-Forwarded-Proto, X-Forwarded-Host and X-Forwarded-Port headers are added to every forwarded request
• the proxy is based on a servlet filter, the order of the filter is configurable
• do not prepend server context path to mappings paths, it will be done automatically
• if there are mappings like /uri and /uri/path and the incoming request URI is /uri/path/something than the more specific mapping (/uri/path) will be chosen

Configuration properties list

The following list contains all available configuration properties with their default values.

charon:
    filter-order: Ordered.LOWEST_PRECEDENCE # Charon servlet filter order.
    retrying:
        max-attempts: 3 # Maximum number of HTTP request forward tries.
        retry-on:
            client-http-error: false # Flag for enabling and disabling triggering HTTP requests forward retries on 4xx HTTP responses from destination.
            server-http-error: true # Flag for enabling and disabling triggering HTTP requests forward retries on 5xx HTTP responses from destination.
            exceptions: java.lang.Exception # Comma-separated list of exceptions that triggers HTTP request forward retries.
    metrics:
        enabled: false # Flag for enabling and disabling collecting metrics during HTTP requests forwarding.
        names-prefix: charon # Global metrics names prefix.
        reporting:
            interval-in-seconds: 60 # Metrics reporting interval in seconds.
            logger:
                enabled: false # Flag for enabling and disabling reporting metrics to application logger.
            graphite:
                enabled: false # Flag for enabling and disabling reporting metrics to Graphite server.
                hostname: # Graphite server hostname.
                port: 2003 # Graphite server port.
    tracing:
        enabled: false # Flag for enabling and disabling tracing HTTP requests proxying processes.
    asynchronous-forwarding-thread-pool:
        queue-capacity: 50 # Thread pool executor queue capacity.
        size:
            initial: 5 # Thread pool executor initial number of threads.
            maximum: 30 # Thread pool executor maximum number of threads.
    mappings:
        -
            name: # Name of the mapping.
            path: / # Path for mapping incoming HTTP requests URIs.
            destinations: # List of destination hosts where HTTP requests will be forwarded.
            asynchronous: false # Flag for enabling and disabling asynchronous HTTP request forwarding.
            strip-path: true # Flag for enabling and disabling mapped path stripping from forwarded request URI.
            retryable: false # Flag for enabling and disabling retrying of HTTP requests forwarding.
            timeout:
                connect: 200 # Connect timeout for HTTP requests forwarding.
                read: 2000 # Read timeout for HTTP requests forwarding.

Examples

See test application for more examples.

License

Charon Spring Boot Starter is published under Apache License 2.0.