3 Ways to Automate App Deployments with NGINX

MORE INFORMATION AT NGINX.COM

3 Ways to Automate with NGINX and NGINX Plus


Floyd SmithTechnical Marketing Writer at NGINX, Inc.

Formerly:- Apple, Alta Vista, Google, and more- Author of multiple books on technology

Kunal ParianiTechnical Solutions Architect at NGINX, Inc.

Formerly:- Zimbra, Motorola, Cisco- Intern at JPL - yes, a rocket scientist!


• First OSS release in 2004• Company founded in 2011• VC-backed by industry leaders• 165+ million open source users• 800+ customers• 90+ employees

Igor Sysoev, NGINX creator and founder


“How long would it take your organization to

deploy a change that involves just one single line of code?” – Mary Poppendieck, Lean software development guru


Deploying NewApp Versions1


Modifying open source NGINX configuration

1. SSH into NGINX server2. Edit configuration file to add/remove servers3. nginx –t && nginx –s reload

Problems with this approach:4. Have to manually SSH into each server every time5. Not scalable with frequent changes and/or long lived connections


NGINX Plus HTTP-Based API -- Configuration

upstream backend { zone backend 64k; server app-server-v1;}

server { listen 8080; # Listen on a local port location /upstream_conf { allow 10.0.0.0/8; # Allow access only from LAN deny all; # Deny everyone else upstream_conf; }}


NGINX Plus HTTP-Based API -- Commands• Add new server# curl 'http://localhost:8080/upstream_conf?add=&upstream=backend&server=app-server-v2’

• List servers# curl http://localhost:8080/upstream_conf?upstream=backendserver app-server-v1; # id=0server app-server-v2; # id=1

• Mark existing server to draining state# curl http://localhost:8080/upstream_conf?upstream=backend&id=0&drain=1

• Monitor the Live activity monitoring dashboard till the active connections count for this server reaches 0

• Remove existing server# curl 'http://localhost:8080/upstream_conf?remove=&upstream=backend&id=0'


NGINX Plus Health Checks

Alternative method that involves no modification of NGINX at all

1. Configure health check to monitor if a file, such as healthcheck.html, exists

2. Delete or rename healthcheck.html

3. Make changes to production server

4. Recreate or rename healthcheck.html

5. Optional slow_start to gently bring the server back online


Orchestration and Management2


Orchestration and Management


Orchestration and Management


Service Discovery3


NGINX, Inc. Confidential Information 14

• Key component of service-oriented or microservices architecture which has dynamic instances

• Process of discovering the endpoint addresses to which the requests need to be routed

• Automation enables dynamic addition or removal from the load-balanced pool as and when they get created or destroyed

• No modifications to the NGINX configuration, reducing complexity

What It Is and Why It Matters


15


16

• The DNS resolver in NGINX points to the DNS interface of a service discovery tool like Consul, etcd, or ZooKeeper

• NGINX requests DNS A records to get all the IP addresses associated with the domain name, and starts load balancing traffic across these addresses

• NGINX honors the TTL in the DNS response, or you can override it using the valid parameter to the resolver directive

DNS for Service Discovery with NGINX


• Open source NGINX does not support DNS SRV records– NGINX Plus only

• Port numbers have to be statically defined

• Not suitable for microservices environments

Limitations and Caveats


NGINX, Inc. Confidential Information 18

• NGINX Plus can periodically re-resolve DNS SRV records from the service registry

• Additional service and resolve parameters to the server directive (NGINX Plus only)

• Makes it a zero configuration deployment and allows scaling with ease

DNS SRV-Based Service Discovery with NGINX Plus


resolver <dns-server-ip> valid=10s;upstream backend { zone backend 64k; server backends.example.com service=http resolve;}server { location / {

proxy_pass http://$backend; }}

• The service parameter sets the service name and enables resolving of DNS SRV records

• The resolve parameter monitors changes in SRV records and modifies upstream configuration automatically without the need for a reload

Example of NGINX Plus Configuration


• DNS server either needs to be highly available or have a backup server

• An alternative to DNS for service discovery with NGINX Plus is the on-the-fly reconfiguration API

Caveats


Demo(github.com/nginxinc/NGINX-Demos/tree/master/consul-dns-srv-demo)


– Dan Chamberlain, Principal Architect

READ CASE STUDY

https://www.nginx.com/blog/bluestem-brands-migrates-from-monolith-to-microservices-efficiently-with-nginx-plus/


1. On-the-fly reconfiguration API & active health checks with NGINX Plus enable automated deployments

2. Deploying NGINX and NGINX Plus with Ansible, Chef, or Puppet makes it easier to manage large production deployments

3. DNS SRV-based service discovery with NGINX Plus reduces complexity and allows for greater scalability with microservices-based apps

Summary


Resources

1. Ansible blog post

2. Puppet NGINX management module

3. Chef blog post

4. Service Discovery for NGINX Plus w/DNS SRV Records

5. Bluestem Brands case study

https://www.nginx.com/blog/installing-nginx-nginx-plus-ansible/

https://forge.puppet.com/puppetlabs/nginx

https://www.nginx.com/blog/installing-nginx-nginx-plus-chef/

https://www.nginx.com/blog/service-discovery-nginx-plus-srv-records-consul-dns/

https://www.nginx.com/blog/bluestem-brands-migrates-from-monolith-to-microservices-efficiently-with-nginx-plus/


Q & A


Thank you!

Software

3 Ways to Automate App Deployments with NGINX