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Contour Canary Deployments
This guide shows you how to use Contour ingress controller and Flagger to automate canary releases and A/B testing.
Flagger Contour Overview
Prerequisites
Flagger requires a Kubernetes cluster v1.16 or newer and Contour v1.0 or newer.
Install Contour on a cluster with LoadBalancer support:
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kubectl apply -f https://projectcontour.io/quickstart/contour.yaml
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The above command will deploy Contour and an Envoy daemonset in the
projectcontour namespace.Install Flagger using Kustomize (kubectl 1.14) in the
projectcontour namespace:1
kubectl apply -k https://github.com/fluxcd/flagger//kustomize/contour?ref=main
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The above command will deploy Flagger and Prometheus configured to scrape the Contour's Envoy instances.
Or you can install Flagger using Helm v3:
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helm repo add flagger https://flagger.app
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​
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helm upgrade -i flagger flagger/flagger \
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--namespace projectcontour \
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--set meshProvider=contour \
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--set ingressClass=contour \
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--set prometheus.install=true
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Bootstrap
Flagger takes a Kubernetes deployment and optionally a horizontal pod autoscaler (HPA), then creates a series of objects (Kubernetes deployments, ClusterIP services and Contour HTTPProxy). These objects expose the application in the cluster and drive the canary analysis and promotion.
Create a test namespace:
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kubectl create ns test
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Install the load testing service to generate traffic during the canary analysis:
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kubectl apply -k https://github.com/fluxcd/flagger//kustomize/tester?ref=main
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Create a deployment and a horizontal pod autoscaler:
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kubectl apply -k https://github.com/fluxcd/flagger//kustomize/podinfo?ref=main
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Create a canary custom resource (replace
app.example.com with your own domain):1
apiVersion: flagger.app/v1beta1
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kind: Canary
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metadata:
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name: podinfo
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namespace: test
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spec:
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# deployment reference
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targetRef:
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apiVersion: apps/v1
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kind: Deployment
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name: podinfo
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# HPA reference
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autoscalerRef:
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apiVersion: autoscaling/v2beta2
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kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
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name: podinfo
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service:
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# service port
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port: 80
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# container port
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targetPort: 9898
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# Contour request timeout
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timeout: 15s
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# Contour retry policy
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retries:
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attempts: 3
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perTryTimeout: 5s
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# define the canary analysis timing and KPIs
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analysis:
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# schedule interval (default 60s)
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interval: 30s
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# max number of failed metric checks before rollback
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threshold: 5
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# max traffic percentage routed to canary
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# percentage (0-100)
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maxWeight: 50
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# canary increment step
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# percentage (0-100)
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stepWeight: 5
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# Contour Prometheus checks
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metrics:
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- name: request-success-rate
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# minimum req success rate (non 5xx responses)
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# percentage (0-100)
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thresholdRange:
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min: 99
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interval: 1m
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- name: request-duration
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# maximum req duration P99 in milliseconds
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thresholdRange:
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max: 500
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interval: 30s
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# testing
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webhooks:
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- name: acceptance-test
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type: pre-rollout
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url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
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timeout: 30s
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metadata:
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type: bash
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cmd: "curl -sd 'test' http://podinfo-canary.test/token | grep token"
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- name: load-test
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url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
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type: rollout
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timeout: 5s
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metadata:
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cmd: "hey -z 1m -q 10 -c 2 -host app.example.com http://envoy.projectcontour"
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Save the above resource as podinfo-canary.yaml and then apply it:
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kubectl apply -f ./podinfo-canary.yaml
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The canary analysis will run for five minutes while validating the HTTP metrics and rollout hooks every half a minute.
After a couple of seconds Flagger will create the canary objects:
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# applied
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deployment.apps/podinfo
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horizontalpodautoscaler.autoscaling/podinfo
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canary.flagger.app/podinfo
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​
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# generated
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deployment.apps/podinfo-primary
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horizontalpodautoscaler.autoscaling/podinfo-primary
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service/podinfo
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service/podinfo-canary
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service/podinfo-primary
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httpproxy.projectcontour.io/podinfo
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After the boostrap, the podinfo deployment will be scaled to zero and the traffic to
podinfo.test will be routed to the primary pods. During the canary analysis, the podinfo-canary.test address can be used to target directly the canary pods.Expose the app outside the cluster
Find the external address of Contour's Envoy load balancer:
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export ADDRESS="$(kubectl -n projectcontour get svc/envoy -ojson \
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| jq -r ".status.loadBalancer.ingress[].hostname")"
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echo $ADDRESS
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Configure your DNS server with a CNAME record (AWS) or A record (GKE/AKS/DOKS) and point a domain e.g.
app.example.com to the LB address.Create a HTTPProxy definition and include the podinfo proxy generated by Flagger (replace
app.example.com with your own domain):1
apiVersion: projectcontour.io/v1
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kind: HTTPProxy
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metadata:
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name: podinfo-ingress
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namespace: test
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spec:
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virtualhost:
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fqdn: app.example.com
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includes:
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- name: podinfo
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namespace: test
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conditions:
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- prefix: /
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Save the above resource as podinfo-ingress.yaml and then apply it:
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kubectl apply -f ./podinfo-ingress.yaml
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Verify that Contour processed the proxy definition with:
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kubectl -n test get httpproxies
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​
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NAME FQDN STATUS
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podinfo valid
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podinfo-ingress app.example.com valid
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Now you can access podinfo UI using your domain address.
Note that you should be using HTTPS when exposing production workloads on internet. You can obtain free TLS certs from Let's Encrypt, read this guide on how to configure cert-manager to secure Contour with TLS certificates.
Automated canary promotion
Flagger implements a control loop that gradually shifts traffic to the canary while measuring key performance indicators like HTTP requests success rate, requests average duration and pod health. Based on analysis of the KPIs a canary is promoted or aborted.
Flagger Canary Stages
A canary deployment is triggered by changes in any of the following objects:
- Deployment PodSpec (container image, command, ports, env, resources, etc)
- ConfigMaps and Secrets mounted as volumes or mapped to environment variables
Trigger a canary deployment by updating the container image:
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kubectl -n test set image deployment/podinfo \
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podinfod=stefanprodan/podinfo:3.1.1
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Flagger detects that the deployment revision changed and starts a new rollout:
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kubectl -n test describe canary/podinfo
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​
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Status:
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Canary Weight: 0
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Failed Checks: 0
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Phase: Succeeded
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Events:
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New revision detected! Scaling up podinfo.test
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Waiting for podinfo.test rollout to finish: 0 of 1 updated replicas are available
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Pre-rollout check acceptance-test passed
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 5
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 10
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 15
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 20
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 25
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 30
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 35
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 40
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 45
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 50
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Copying podinfo.test template spec to podinfo-primary.test
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Waiting for podinfo-primary.test rollout to finish: 1 of 2 updated replicas are available
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Routing all traffic to primary
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Promotion completed! Scaling down podinfo.test
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When the canary analysis starts, Flagger will call the pre-rollout webhooks before routing traffic to the canary.
Note that if you apply new changes to the deployment during the canary analysis, Flagger will restart the analysis.
You can monitor all canaries with:
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watch kubectl get canaries --all-namespaces
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​
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NAMESPACE NAME STATUS WEIGHT LASTTRANSITIONTIME
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test podinfo Progressing 15 2019-12-20T14:05:07Z
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If you’ve enabled the Slack notifications, you should receive the following messages:
Flagger Slack Notifications
Automated rollback
During the canary analysis you can generate HTTP 500 errors or high latency to test if Flagger pauses the rollout.
Trigger a canary deployment:
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kubectl -n test set image deployment/podinfo \
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podinfod=stefanprodan/podinfo:3.1.2
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Exec into the load tester pod with:
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kubectl -n test exec -it deploy/flagger-loadtester bash
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Generate HTTP 500 errors:
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hey -z 1m -c 5 -q 5 http://app.example.com/status/500
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Generate latency:
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watch -n 1 curl http://app.example.com/delay/1
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When the number of failed checks reaches the canary analysis threshold, the traffic is routed back to the primary, the canary is scaled to zero and the rollout is marked as failed.
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kubectl -n projectcontour logs deploy/flagger -f | jq .msg
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New revision detected! progressing canary analysis for podinfo.test
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Pre-rollout check acceptance-test passed
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 5
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 10
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Advance podinfo.test canary weight 15
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Halt podinfo.test advancement success rate 69.17% < 99%
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Halt podinfo.test advancement success rate 61.39% < 99%
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Halt podinfo.test advancement success rate 55.06% < 99%
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Halt podinfo.test advancement request duration 1.20s > 500ms
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Halt podinfo.test advancement request duration 1.45s > 500ms
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Rolling back podinfo.test failed checks threshold reached 5
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Canary failed! Scaling down podinfo.test
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If you’ve enabled the Slack notifications, you’ll receive a message if the progress deadline is exceeded, or if the analysis reached the maximum number of failed checks:
Flagger Slack Notifications
A/B Testing
Besides weighted routing, Flagger can be configured to route traffic to the canary based on HTTP match conditions. In an A/B testing scenario, you'll be using HTTP headers or cookies to target a certain segment of your users. This is particularly useful for frontend applications that require session affinity.
Flagger A/B Testing Stages
Edit the canary analysis, remove the max/step weight and add the match conditions and iterations:
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analysis:
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interval: 1m
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threshold: 5
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iterations: 10
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match:
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- headers:
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x-canary:
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exact: "insider"
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webhooks:
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- name: load-test
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url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
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metadata:
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cmd: "hey -z 1m -q 5 -c 5 -H 'X-Canary: insider' -host app.example.com http://envoy.projectcontour"
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The above configuration will run an analysis for ten minutes targeting users that have a
X-Canary: insider header.You can also use a HTTP cookie. To target all users with a cookie set to
insider, the match condition should be:1
match:
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- headers:
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cookie:
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suffix: "insider"
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webhooks:
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- name: load-test
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url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
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metadata:
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cmd: "hey -z 1m -q 5 -c 5 -H 'Cookie: canary=insider' -host app.example.com http://envoy.projectcontour"
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Trigger a canary deployment by updating the container image:
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kubectl -n test set image deployment/podinfo \
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podinfod=stefanprodan/podinfo:3.1.3
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Flagger detects that the deployment revision changed and starts the A/B test:
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kubectl -n projectcontour logs deploy/flagger -f | jq .msg
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​
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New revision detected! Progressing canary analysis for podinfo.test
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 1/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 2/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 3/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 4/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 5/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 6/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 7/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 8/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 9/10
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Advance podinfo.test canary iteration 10/10
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Copying podinfo.test template spec to podinfo-primary.test
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Waiting for podinfo-primary.test rollout to finish: 1 of 2 updated replicas are available
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Routing all traffic to primary
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Promotion completed! Scaling down podinfo.test
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The web browser user agent header allows user segmentation based on device or OS.
For example, if you want to route all mobile users to the canary instance:
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match:
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- headers:
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user-agent:
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prefix: "Mobile"
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Or if you want to target only Android users:
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match:
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- headers:
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user-agent:
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prefix: "Android"
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Or a specific browser version:
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match:
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- headers:
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user-agent:
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suffix: "Firefox/71.0"
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Last modified 9mo ago