Merge pull request #5 from markdroth/service_config_dns

Service configs in DNS.

Author: a11r

A2-service-configs-in-dns.md

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+Service Config via DNS
+----------------------
+* Author(s): Mark D. Roth (roth@google.com)
+* Approver: a11r
+* Status: Draft
+* Implemented in: N/A
+* Last updated: 2017-01-19
+* Discussion at: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/grpc-io/DkweyrWEXxU/discussion
+
+## Abstract
+
+This document proposes a mechanism for encoding gRPC service config data
+in DNS for use in the open-source world.
+
+## Background
+
+The [service
+config](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/doc/service_config.md)
+mechanism was originally designed for use inside of Google.  However, all
+but one part of the original design works fine in the open-source world.
+That one part is the specification of how the service config data will
+be encoded in DNS.  This proposal fills in this missing piece.
+
+### Related Proposals: 
+
+N/A
+
+## Proposal
+
+There are two parts to this proposal.  The first part is to add some
+JSON wrapping for controlling how service config changes are canary
+tested.  The second part describes how the service config is encoded in
+DNS.
+
+### Canarying Changes
+
+When deploying a change to a service config, it is useful to be able to
+canary test changes to avoid wide-spread breakage by slowly increasing the
+number of clients that see the new version.  To that end, multiple
+service configs choices can be listed, in order, along with criteria that
+determine which choice will be selected by a given client:
+
+```
+// A list of one or more service config choices.
+// The first matching entry wins.
+[
+  {
+    // Criteria used to select this choice.
+    // If a field is absent or empty, it matches all clients.
+    // All fields must match a client for this choice to be selected.
+    //
+    // Client language(s): a list of strings (e.g., 'c++', 'java', 'go',
+    // 'python', etc).
+    'clientLanguage': [string],
+    // Percentage: integer from 0 to 100 indicating the percentage of
+    // clients that should use this choice.
+    'percentage': number,
+    // Client hostname(s): a list of strings.
+    'clientHostname': [string],
+
+    // The service config data object for clients that match the above
+    // criteria.  (The format for this object is defined in
+    // https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/doc/service_config.md.)
+    'serviceConfig': object
+  }
+]
+```
+
+### Encoding in DNS TXT Records
+
+In DNS, the service config data (in the form documented in the previous
+section) will be encoded in a TXT record via the mechanism described in
+[RFC-1464](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1464) using the attribute name
+`grpc_config`.  The attribute value will be a JSON list containing service
+config choices.  For example, here is an example TXT record:
+
+```
+myserver  3600  TXT  "grpc_config=[{'serviceConfig':{'loadBalancingPolicy':'round_robin','methodConfig':[{'name':[{'service':'MyService','method':'Foo'}],'waitForReady':true}]}}]"
+```
+
+Note that TXT records are limited to 255 bytes per string, as per
+[RFC-1035 section 3.3](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1035#section-3.3).
+However, there can be multiple strings, which will be
+concatenated together, as described in [RFC-4408 section
+3.1.3](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4408#section-3.1.3).  The total
+DNS response cannot exceed 65535 bytes.  (See the "Open Issues"
+section below for more discussion.)
+
+Note that because TXT records must be ASCII, this also imposes the
+restruction that the contents of the service config are also ASCII
+(e.g., service and method names, load balancing policy names, etc).
+
+## Rationale
+
+The service config is designed to be returned as part of name
+resolution, so encoding it in DNS makes the most sense.  Sites that use
+a naming system other than DNS can, of course, implement their own
+resolvers with their own mechanism for encoding service config data.
+
+When encoding the service config in DNS, TXT records are the "obvious"
+choice, since the service config is effectively additional metadata
+associated with the DNS name.
+
+## Implementation
+
+The implementation will be done in C-core first.  Once the new c-ares
+DNS resolver code (https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/7771) has been
+merged, we will extend it to query for the TXT records and return the
+resulting service config JSON data.
+
+Note that, due to platform support issues, we will initially *not*
+support the c-ares resolver under Windows or for Node.  Alternatives
+will need to be found for these environments.
+
+## Open issues (if applicable)
+
+DNS TXT records do have some limitations that need to be taken into
+account here.  In particular:
+
+- If a DNS response exceeds 512 bytes, it will fall back from UDP to
+  TCP, which adds overhead.
+- The total DNS response cannot exceed 65535 bytes.
+- It is not clear whether individual DNS implementations will allow
+  anywhere close to 65535 bytes, even though the spec says that they
+  should.
+
+Feedback is requested on whether these considerations will be a
+significant drawback for this design (in which case the design will
+probably have to be changed).