Grpc-java: gRPC - Circuit Breaker recommendations

[nanil4568]

hi Team,

We are currently building a service that uses grpc as transport protocol.
As part of it we are planning to have a circuit breaker for grpc client
we would like to know if there are any recommendations around building/using circuit breaker library/framework that can be consumed by grpc client?

[andrewoma]

Hi, if you're open to using an alternative Java client, Armeria supports circuit breakers with grpc. See https://armeria.dev/docs/client-circuit-breaker for an example.

I believe it can also be used in a framework agnostic way, but we use the Armeria client directly.

[ejona86]

A circuit breaker in gRPC would just be a client interceptor (and potentially a server interceptor, depending on how the breaking is designed).

I think there are various implementations scattered about. https://github.com/alibaba/Sentinel looks like it has one with interceptors, just as an example.

[nanil4568]

Can Hystrix/Resilience4j be integrated with grpc client for circuit breaker capabilities?

[ejona86]

I don't think we have the expertise to really answer your question. But just taking a cursory glance does provide the "flavor" of what the solutions may look like.

A quick look at Hystrix makes it seem like it is applied "on top" of an API: "Wrapping all calls to external systems (or “dependencies”) in a HystrixCommand." So it would work for anything. But you are calling Hystrix directly at each callsite.

A quick Google search for Resilience4j make it look fairly trivial to integrate as an interceptor: https://gist.github.com/eungju/226274b3dacb3203de3514bcf1c54505

[ejona86]

Seems this is answered as best as we can, so closing.