mirror of https://github.com/status-im/consul.git
117 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
# Overview
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> **Note**
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> Looking for guidance on adding new resources and controllers to Consul? Check
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> out the [developer guide](guide.md).
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Consul 1.16 introduced a set of [generic APIs] for managing resources, and a
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[controller runtime] for building functionality on top of them.
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[generic APIs]: ../../../proto-public/pbresource/resource.proto
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[controller runtime]: ../../../internal/controller
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Previously, adding features to Consul involved making changes at every layer of
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the stack, including: HTTP handlers, RPC handlers, MemDB tables, Raft
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operations, and CLI commands.
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This architecture made sense when the product was maintained by a small core
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group who could keep the entire system in their heads, but presented significant
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collaboration, ownership, and onboarding challenges when our contributor base
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expanded to many engineers, across several teams, and the product grew in
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complexity.
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In the new model, teams can work with much greater autonomy by building on top
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of a shared platform and own their resource types and controllers.
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## Architecture Overview
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<sup>[source](https://whimsical.com/state-store-v2-UKE6SaEPXNc4UrZBrZj4Kg)</sup>
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Our resource-oriented architecture comprises the following components:
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#### Resource Service
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[Resource Service](../../../proto-public/pbresource/resource.proto) is a gRPC
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service that contains the shared logic for creating, reading, updating,
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deleting, and watching resources. It will be consumed by controllers, our
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Kubernetes integration, the CLI, and mapped to an HTTP+JSON API.
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#### Type Registry
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[Type Registry](../../../internal/resource/registry.go) is where teams register
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their resource types, along with hooks for performing structural validation,
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authorization, etc.
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#### Storage Backend
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[Storage Backend](../../../internal/storage/storage.go) is an abstraction over
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low-level storage primitives. Today, there are two implementations (Raft and
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an in-memory backend for tests) but in the future, we envisage external storage
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systems such as the Kubernetes API or an RDBMS could be supported which would
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reduce operational complexity for our customers.
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#### Controllers
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[Controllers](../../../internal/controller/api.go) implement Consul's business
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logic using asynchronous control loops that respond to changes in resources.
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Please see [Controller docs](controllers.md) for more details about controllers
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## Raft Storage Backend
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Our [Raft Storage Backend](../../../internal/storage/raft/backend.go) integrates
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with the existing Raft machinery (e.g. FSM) used by the [old state store]. It
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also transparently forwards writes and strongly consistent reads to the leader
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over gRPC.
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There's quite a lot going on here, so to dig into the details, let's take a look
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at how a write operation is handled.
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[old state store]: ../persistence/
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<sup>[source](https://whimsical.com/state-store-v2-UKE6SaEPXNc4UrZBrZj4Kg)</sup>
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#### Steps 1 & 2
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User calls the resource service's `Write` endpoint, on a Raft follower, which
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in-turn calls the storage backend's `WriteCAS` method.
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#### Steps 3 & 4
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The storage backend determines that the current server is a Raft follower, and
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forwards the operation to the leader via a gRPC [forwarding service] listening
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on the multiplexed RPC port ([`ports.server`]).
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[forwarding service]: ../../../proto/private/pbstorage/raft.proto
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[`ports.server`]: https://developer.hashicorp.com/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#server_rpc_port
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#### Step 5
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The leader's storage backend serializes the operation to protobuf and applies it
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to the Raft log. As we need to share the Raft log with the old state store, we go
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through the [`consul.raftHandle`](../../../agent/consul/raft_handle.go) and
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[`consul.Server`](../../agent/consul/server/server.go) which applies a msgpack
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envelope and type byte prefix.
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#### Step 6
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Raft consensus happens! Once the log has been committed, it is applied to the
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[FSM](../../../agent/consul/fsm/fsm.go) which calls the storage backend's `Apply`
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method to apply the protobuf-encoded operation to the [`inmem.Store`].
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[`inmem.Store`]: ../../../internal/storage/inmem/store.go
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#### Steps 7, 8, 9
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At this point, the operation is complete. The forwarding service returns a
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successful response, as does the follower's storage backend, and the user
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gets a successful response too.
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#### Steps 10 & 11
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Asynchronously, the log is replicated to followers and applied to their storage
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backends.
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