CheckEnv: Fast Detection of RPC Calls Between Environments Powered by Graphs

CheckEnv: Fast Detection of RPC Calls Between Environments Powered by Graphs

摘要

Uber consists of a large number of loosely coupled microservices that interact with each other through remote procedure calls (RPCs). These RPC calls serve as the communication mechanism between services, allowing them to exchange data and invoke specific actions. The complex nature of the call chain, combined with the involvement of numerous services, can potentially lead to cross-environment communication, particularly between the production and non-production environments.

The intricate call chain arises due to the distributed nature of microservices, where each service performs a specific function and may depend on the outputs of other services. As data flows through the system, it traverses multiple services, triggering RPC calls at each step. The complex call chain may involve numerous services, each initiating calls to other services based on their specific requirements.

This complexity becomes a critical factor when environments such as production and staging coexist. If not carefully managed, RPC calls within the microservices architecture can inadvertently cross environment boundaries, leading to unintended interactions between the production and staging environments. Such cross-environment calls can have undesirable consequences, including data inconsistencies, unexpected behavior, or potential incidents. It is worth noting that while cross-environment calls are permissible, for example, shadowing production traffic in staging for feature validation, the focus is on preventing unintended ones.