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Mesh HTTP Route
This policy uses new policy matching algorithm.
It’s recommended to migrate from TrafficRoute. See “Interactions with TrafficRoute” section for more information.
The MeshHTTPRoute policy allows altering and redirecting HTTP requests
depending on where the request coming from and where it’s going to.
TargetRef support matrix
| targetRef | Allowed kinds | 
|---|---|
| targetRef.kind | Mesh,MeshSubset,MeshService,MeshServiceSubset | 
| to[].targetRef.kind | MeshService | 
If you don’t understand this table you should read matching docs.
Configuration
Unlike others outbound policies MeshHTTPRoute doesn’t contain default directly in the to array.
The default section is nested inside rules, so the policy structure looks like this:
spec:
  to:
    - targetRef: {...}
      rules:
        - matches: [...] # various ways to match an HTTP request (path, method, query)
          default: # configuration applied for the matched HTTP request
            filters: [...]
            backendRefs: [...]
Remember to tag your Service ports with appProtocol: http to use
them in a MeshHTTPRoute!
Gateways
In order to route HTTP traffic for a MeshGateway, you need to target the
MeshGateway in spec.targetRef and set spec.to[].targetRef.kind: Mesh.
Interactions with MeshTCPRoute
MeshHTTPRoute takes priority over MeshTCPRoute when a proxy is targeted by both and the matching MeshTCPRoute is ignored.
Interactions with TrafficRoute
MeshHTTPRoute takes priority over TrafficRoute when a proxy is targeted by both policies.
All legacy policies like Retry, TrafficLog, Timeout etc. only match on routes defined by TrafficRoute.
All new recommended policies like MeshRetry, MeshAccessLog, MeshTimeout etc. match on routes defined by MeshHTTPRoute and TrafficRoute.
If you don’t use legacy policies, it’s recommended to remove any existing TrafficRoute.
Otherwise, it’s recommended to migrate to new policies and then removing TrafficRoute.
Examples
Traffic split
We can use MeshHTTPRoute to split an HTTP traffic between services with different tags
implementing A/B testing or canary deployments.
Here is an example of a MeshHTTPRoute that splits the traffic from
frontend_kuma-demo_svc_8080 to backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001 between versions,
but only on endpoints starting with /api. All other endpoints will go to version: 1.0.
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshHTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-route-1
  namespace: kuma-system
  labels:
    kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
  targetRef:
    kind: MeshService
    name: frontend_kuma-demo_svc_8080
  to:
    - targetRef:
        kind: MeshService
        name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
      rules:
        - matches:
            - path:
                type: PathPrefix
                value: /
          default:
            backendRefs:
              - kind: MeshServiceSubset
                name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
                tags:
                  version: "v0"
                weight: 90
              - kind: MeshServiceSubset
                name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
                tags:
                  version: "v1"
                weight: 10
Traffic modifications
We can use MeshHTTPRoute to modify outgoing requests, by setting new path
or changing request and response headers.
Here is an example of a MeshHTTPRoute that adds x-custom-header with value xyz
when frontend_kuma-demo_svc_8080 tries to consume backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001.
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshHTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-route-1
  namespace: kuma-system
  labels:
    kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
  targetRef:
    kind: MeshService
    name: frontend_kuma-demo_svc_8080
  to:
    - targetRef:
        kind: MeshService
        name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
      rules:
        - matches:
            - path:
                type: Exact
                value: /
          default:
            filters:
              - type: RequestHeaderModifier
                requestHeaderModifier:
                  set:
                    - name: x-custom-header
                      value: xyz
Traffic mirror
MeshHTTPRoute can mirror a fraction of requests to another service.
This can be useful when testing a new version of the app with the production payload without
interrupting real users.
apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: MeshHTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: http-route-1
  namespace: kuma-system
  labels:
    kuma.io/mesh: default
spec:
  targetRef:
    kind: MeshSubset
    tags:
      app: frontend
  to:
  - targetRef:
      kind: MeshService
      name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001_svc
    rules:
    - matches:
      - headers:
        - type: Exact
          name: mirror-this-request
          value: 'true'
      default:
        filters:
        - type: RequestMirror
          requestMirror:
            percentage: 30
            backendRef:
              kind: MeshServiceSubset
              name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
              tags:
                version: v1_experimental
        backendRefs:
        - kind: MeshServiceSubset
          name: backend_kuma-demo_svc_3001
          tags:
            version: v0
Merging
When several MeshHTTPRoute policies target the same data plane proxy they’re merged.
Similar to the new policies the merging order is determined by
the top level targetRef.
The difference is in spec.to[].rules.
Kuma treats rules as a key-value map
where matches is a key and default is a value. For example MeshHTTPRoute policies:
# MeshHTTPRoute-1
rules:
  - matches: # key-1
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /orders
        method: GET
    default: CONF_1 # value
  - matches: # key-2
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /payments
        method: POST
    default: CONF_2 # value
---
# MeshHTTPRoute-2
rules:
  - matches: # key-3
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /orders
        method: GET
    default: CONF_3 # value
  - matches: # key-4
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /payments
        method: POST
    default: CONF_4 # value
merged in the following list of rules:
rules:
  - matches:
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /orders
        method: GET
    default: merge(CONF_1, CONF_3) # because 'key-1' == 'key-3'
  - matches:
      - path:
          type: Exact
          name: /payments
        method: POST
    default: merge(CONF_2, CONF_4) # because 'key-2' == 'key-4'
All policy options
Matches
- path- (optional) - HTTP path to match the request on- type- one of- Exact,- PathPrefix,- RegularExpression
- value- actual value that’s going to be matched depending on the- type
 
- method- (optional) - HTTP2 method, available values are- CONNECT,- DELETE,- GET,- HEAD,- OPTIONS,- PATCH,- POST,- PUT,- TRACE
- queryParams- (optional) - list of HTTP URL query parameters. Multiple matches are combined together such that all listed matches must succeed- type- one of- Exactor- RegularExpression
- name- name of the query parameter
- value- actual value that’s going to be matched depending on the- type
 
Default conf
- filters- (optional) - a list of modifications applied to the matched request- type- available values are- RequestHeaderModifier,- ResponseHeaderModifier,- RequestRedirect,- URLRewrite.
- requestHeaderModifier- HeaderModifier, must be set if the- typeis- RequestHeaderModifier.
- responseHeaderModifier- HeaderModifier, must be set if the- typeis- ResponseHeaderModifier.
- requestRedirect- must be set if the- typeis- RequestRedirect- scheme- one of- httpor- http2
- hostname- is the fully qualified domain name of a network host. This matches the RFC 1123 definition of a hostname with 1 notable exception that numeric IP addresses are not allowed.
- port- is the port to be used in the value of the- Locationheader in the response. When empty, port (if specified) of the request is used.
- statusCode- is the HTTP status code to be used in response. Available values are- 301,- 302,- 303,- 307,- 308.
 
- urlRewrite- must be set if the- typeis- URLRewrite- hostname- (optional) - is the fully qualified domain name of a network host. This matches the RFC 1123 definition of a hostname with 1 notable exception that numeric IP addresses are not allowed.
- path- (optional)- type- one of- ReplaceFullPath,- ReplacePrefixMatch
- replaceFullPath- must be set if the- typeis- ReplaceFullPath
- replacePrefixMatch- must be set if the- typeis- ReplacePrefixMatch
 
 
- requestMirror- must be set if the- typeis- RequestMirror- percentage- percentage of requests to mirror. If not specified, all requests to the target cluster will be mirrored.
- backendRef- BackendRef, destination to mirror request to
 
 
- backendRefs- BackendRef (optional), list of destinations to redirect requests to
Header modification
- set- (optional) - list of headers to set. Overrides value if the header exists.- name- header’s name
- value- header’s value
 
- add- (optional) - list of headers to add. Appends value if the header exists.- name- header’s name
- value- header’s value
 
- remove- (optional) - list of headers’ names to remove
Backends
- kind- one of- MeshService,- MeshServiceSubset
- name- service name
- tags- service tags, must be specified if the- kindis- MeshServiceSubset
- weight- when a request matches the route, the choice of an upstream cluster is determined by its weight. Total weight is a sum of all weights in- backendRefslist.