Building reliable and efficient services through gRPC

Slides for a presentation that describes gRPC as a tool for building reliable and efficient distributed system. The talk shares what exactly is gRPC, its background, which companies are using it and their cases. Also, shares how is the gRPC development workflow through a basic example of service implemented with it. After the example is shown the gRPC internal design, features and security. At the end, a demo and many references links are presented as well.

Transcript

1. Gustavo Pantuza
   Building reliable and efficient services through gRPC
   

   View Slide

2. Agenda
   ● What is gRPC?
   ● Background
   ● Who is using
   ● gRPC Workflow
   ● gRPC Design
   ● Security
   ● Demo
   ● References
   

   View Slide

3. What is gRPC?
   "A high performance, open-source
   universal RPC framework"
   Project site: https://grpc.io
   Github: https://github.com/grpc
   

   View Slide

4. What is gRPC?
   ● Remote Procedure Call
   ● Type Safe
   ● Polyglot
   ● Binary message format
   ● Multiplexed connections
   

   View Slide

5. What is gRPC?
   A bunch of best practices gathered together
   to build a simple distributed systems tool
   My personal opinion
   

   View Slide

6. What is gRPC?
   

   View Slide

7. Background
   ● General-purpose RPC infrastructure called Stubby
   Open Source
   

   View Slide

8. Background
   Connect the large
   number of
   microservices running
   within and across our
   data centers
   

   View Slide

9. Background
   Cloud Native
   Computing
   Foundation To Host
   gRPC from Google
   

   View Slide

10. Who is using?
    "We’ve also seen a
    squishing and a
    narrowing of our
    latency windows"
    https://www.cncf.io/netflix-case-study/
    

    View Slide

11. Who is using?
    "Implementing
    GRPC/Telemetry on
    XR devices"
    https://community.cisco.com/t5/service-providers-documents/implementing-grpc-telemetry-on-xr-devices/ta-p/3393966
    

    View Slide

12. Who is using?
    "distribution layer is
    the first layer to
    communicate with
    other nodes"
    https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/architecture/distribution-layer.html
    

    View Slide

13. Who is using?
    "more compact and
    efficiently serializable
    RPC payload"
    https://cilium.io/blog/grpc/
    

    View Slide

14. Who is using?
    "layers the best
    features of
    IDL-specified RPC
    onto a standard"
    https://linkerd.io/2017/01/11/http2-grpc-and-linkerd/#_ga=2.36853351.619173598.1561427300-69268088.1561427300
    

    View Slide

15. Who is using?
    https://stackshare.io/grpc
    

    View Slide

16. gRPC Workflow
    ● The Message Protocol
    

    View Slide

17. gRPC Workflow
    ● The Message Protocol
    Message
    definition
    protoc
    Compiler
    Python
    Go
    C++
    

    View Slide

18. syntax = "proto3";
    package cheesefarm;
    Define the
    version and the
    package
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

19. syntax = "proto3";
    package cheesefarm;
    message Cheese {
    int32 age = 1;
    CheeseType type = 2;
    }
    enum CheeseType {
    EMMENTAL = 0;
    BRIE = 1;
    PECORINO = 2;
    ROQUEFORT = 3;
    CANASTRA = 4;
    }
    message CheeseRequest {
    CheeseType type = 1;
    }
    Create your
    messages
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

20. syntax = "proto3";
    package cheesefarm;
    message Cheese {
    int32 age = 1;
    CheeseType type = 2;
    }
    enum CheeseType {
    EMMENTAL = 0;
    BRIE = 1;
    PECORINO = 2;
    ROQUEFORT = 3;
    CANASTRA = 4;
    }
    message CheeseRequest {
    CheeseType type = 1;
    }
    service CheeseService {
    rpc Order(CheeseRequest) returns (Cheese);
    }
    Describe your
    Service interface
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

21. $> # Install gRPC libraries
    $> zypper install protobuf-devel
    $> apt install protobuf-compiler
    $> brew install protobuf
    Install gRPC
    dependencies
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

22. gRPC Design
    $> # Compile only messages with Golang
    $> # as target in the current directory
    $> protoc --go_out=. cheese.proto
    $> # Compile messages and services with Golang
    $> # as target in the current directory
    $> protoc --go_out=plugins=grpc:. cheese.proto
    Compilation
    time
    

    View Slide

23. $> # One new file generated:
    $> # . cheese.pb.go
    $> # Protocol Buffer message
    $> # and gRPC code
    $> ls
    cheese.proto cheese.pb.go
    Compilation
    Results
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

24. Resulted code
    example
    gRPC Workflow
    // protoc resulted file: cheese.pb.go
    // Code generated by protoc-gen-go. DO NOT EDIT.
    // source: cheese.proto
    package cheesefarm
    import (
    context "context"
    fmt "fmt"
    proto "github.com/golang/protobuf/proto"
    grpc "google.golang.org/grpc"
    math "math"
    )
    // Reference imports to suppress errors if they are not
    otherwise used.
    var _ = proto.Marshal
    var _ = fmt.Errorf
    var _ = math.Inf
    // This is a compile-time assertion to ensure that this
    generated file
    // is compatible with the proto package it is being
    compiled against.
    // A compilation error at this line likely means your
    copy of the
    // proto package needs to be updated.
    const _ = proto.ProtoPackageIsVersion3 // please upgrade
    the proto package
    type CheeseType int32
    

    View Slide

25. package main
    import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "net"
    "os"
    "path/filepath"
    "google.golang.org/grpc"
    "google.golang.org/grpc/credentials"
    pb "github.com/pantuza/grpc/cheese"
    )
    func main() {
    wd, _ := os.Getwd()
    certFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "cert.pem")
    keyFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "private.key")
    creds, _ := credentials.NewServerTLSFromFile(certFile, keyFile)
    serverAddr := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", pb.ADDR, pb.PORT)
    listen, err := net.Listen("tcp", serverAddr)
    if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to listen: %v", err)
    }
    grpcServer := grpc.NewServer(grpc.Creds(creds))
    pb.RegisterCheeseServiceServer(grpcServer, pb.NewServer())
    fmt.Printf("Listening gRPC on %s\n", serverAddr)
    grpcServer.Serve(listen)
    }
    Server
    Implementation
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

26. package cheesefarm
    import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "time"
    "math/rand"
    )
    const (
    ADDR string = "localhost"
    PORT int = 4000
    )
    type CheeseServer struct {
    }
    func NewServer() *CheeseServer {
    rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
    server := &CheeseServer{}
    return server
    }
    func (s *CheeseServer) Order(ctx context.Context, r *CheeseRequest) (*Cheese, error) {
    time.Sleep(time.Duration(rand.Intn(3))*time.Second)
    fmt.Printf("[gRPC] Order=%s\n", r.GetType())
    cheese := &Cheese{}
    cheese.Age = 10
    cheese.Type = r.GetType()
    return cheese, nil
    }
    Service
    Implementation
    gRPC Workflow
    

    View Slide

27. Client
    Implementation
    gRPC Workflow
    package main
    import (
    ...
    "google.golang.org/grpc"
    "google.golang.org/grpc/credentials"
    pb "github.com/pantuza/grpc/cheese"
    )
    func main() {
    rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
    wd, _ := os.Getwd()
    certFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "cert.pem")
    creds, err := credentials.NewClientTLSFromFile(certFile, "")
    if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("Error: %v", err)
    }
    serverAddr := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", pb.ADDR, pb.PORT)
    conn, err := grpc.Dial(serverAddr, grpc.WithTransportCredentials(creds))
    if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("Fail to dial: %v", err)
    }
    defer conn.Close()
    client := pb.NewCheeseServiceClient(conn)
    ctx := context.Background()
    for {
    order := &pb.CheeseRequest{Type: pb.CheeseType(rand.Intn(100) % 5)}
    cheese, err := client.Order(ctx, order)
    if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("Error: %v", err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("[gRPC] Received=%s\n", cheese.GetType())
    }
    }
    

    View Slide

28. gRPC Design
    Http/2 by design
    ● Binary payload
    ● Multiplexed connections
    ● Extensible
    

    View Slide

29. gRPC Design
    Streaming
    // From Server to Client
    rpc ListFeatures(Rectangle) returns (stream Feature) {}
    // From Client to Server
    rpc RecordRoute(stream Point) returns (RouteSummary) {}
    // Bidirectional
    rpc RouteChat(stream RouteNote) returns (stream RouteNote) {}
    The classic pair Send() and Recv() from socket library
    

    View Slide

30. gRPC Design
    Server streaming
    // From Server to Client
    rpc Watch(Match) returns (stream Video) {}
    

    View Slide

31. gRPC Design
    Client streaming
    // From client to Client
    rpc Upload(stream chunks) returns (Done) {}
    

    View Slide

32. syntax = "proto3";
    package stream;
    message Match {
    string id = 1;
    }
    message Video {
    bytes data = 1;
    string data_type = 2;
    string data_shape = 3;
    }
    service Soccer {
    rpc Watch (Match) returns (stream Video) {}
    }
    Protocol
    Buffer
    Example
    

    View Slide

33. gRPC Design
    Bidirectional streaming
    // Bidirectional
    rpc Chat(stream video) returns (stream video) {}
    

    View Slide

34. gRPC Design
    Blocking & Non-Blocking
    

    View Slide

35. gRPC Design
    Cancellation & Timeout
    

    View Slide

36. gRPC Design
    Pluggable
    Large distributed systems need:
    ● Security
    ● Health-checking
    ● Load-balancing
    ● Failover
    ● Monitoring
    ● Tracing
    ● logging
    Golang Interceptor example
    

    View Slide

37. gRPC Design
    Standardized Status Codes
    CODE NUMBER
    OK 0
    CANCELLED 1
    UNKNOWN 2
    INVALID_ARGUMENT 3
    ... ...
    https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/doc/statuscodes.md
    

    View Slide

38. gRPC security
    Supported and
    Authentication
    methods
    https://grpc.io/docs/guides/auth/
    

    View Slide

39. gRPC security
    TLS
    On the Server
    // Loads Certificate and private key
    certFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "cert.pem")
    keyFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "private.key")
    // Creates the credentials object
    creds, _ := credentials.NewServerTLSFromFile(certFile, keyFile)
    // Adds credentials to the gRPC server
    grpcServer := grpc.NewServer(grpc.Creds(creds))
    

    View Slide

40. gRPC security
    TLS
    On the Client
    // Loads client certficate
    certFile := filepath.Join(wd, "ssl", "cert.pem")
    creds, err := credentials.NewClientTLSFromFile(certFile, "")
    // Adds certficate on the connection
    conn, err := grpc.Dial(
    serverAddr,
    grpc.WithTransportCredentials(creds)
    )
    

    View Slide

41. Demo
    The Cheese
    SECURE Service
    

    View Slide

42. gRPC References
    ● Official project site
    ● Official project Repositories
    ● Awesome gRPC project
    ● Official examples for other languages
    ● Protocol Buffer official site
    

    View Slide

43. gRPC Golang Examples
    ● A simplified guide to gRPC in Golang
    ● gRPC Basics - Golang
    ● Python Quick Start
    ● Python gRPC official example
    ● A brief introduction to gRPC in Go
    

    View Slide

44. Cheese Farm example
    https://github.com/pantuza/grpc-golang-examples
    

    View Slide

45. Hey developers,
    please,
    play with me <3
    

    View Slide

46. Questions?
    Comments?
    https://blog.pantuza.com
    https://github.com/pantuza
    https://twitter.com/gpantuza
    gifts
    

    View Slide