Rate Limiting Advanced plugin

IAM only: This plugin is only available with a IAM subscription.

The Rate Limiting Advanced plugin for IAM is a re-engineered version of the incredibly popular IAM Rate Limiting plugin, with greatly enhanced configuration options and performance.

Terminology

plugin: a plugin executing actions inside IAM before or after a request has been proxied to the upstream API.
Service: the IAM entity representing an external upstream API or microservice.
Route: the IAM entity representing a way to map downstream requests to upstream services.
Consumer: the IAM entity representing a developer or machine using the API. When using IAM, a Consumer only communicates with IAM which proxies every call to the said upstream API.
Credential: a unique string associated with a Consumer, also referred to as an API key.
upstream service: this refers to your own API/service sitting behind IAM, to which client requests are forwarded.
API: a legacy entity used to represent your upstream services. Deprecated in favor of Services.

Configuration

Enabling the plugin on a Service

With a database

Configure this plugin on a Service by making the following request:

$ curl -X POST http://localhost:8001/services/{service}/plugins \
    --data "name=rate-limiting-advanced"

Without a database

Configure this plugin on a Service by adding this section do your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: rate-limiting-advanced
  service: {service}
  config:

In both cases, {service} is the id or name of the Service that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Route

With a database

Configure this plugin on a Route with:

$ curl -X POST http://localhost:8001/routes/{route}/plugins \
    --data "name=rate-limiting-advanced"

Without a database

Configure this plugin on a Route by adding this section do your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: rate-limiting-advanced
  route: {route}
  config:

In both cases, {route} is the id or name of the Route that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Consumer

With a database

You can use the http://localhost:8001/plugins endpoint to enable this plugin on specific Consumers:

$ curl -X POST http://localhost:8001/consumers/{consumer}/plugins \
    --data "name=rate-limiting-advanced" \

Without a database

Configure this plugin on a Consumer by adding this section do your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: rate-limiting-advanced
  consumer: {consumer}
  config:

In both cases, {consumer} is the id or username of the Consumer that this plugin configuration will target.

You can combine consumer_id and service_id

in the same request, to furthermore narrow the scope of the plugin.

Global plugins

Using a database, all plugins can be configured using the http://localhost:8001/plugins/ endpoint.
Without a database, all plugins can be configured via the plugins: entry on the declarative configuration file.

A plugin which is not associated to any Service, Route or Consumer (or API, if you are using an older version of IAM) is considered "global", and will be run on every request. Read the Plugin Reference and the Plugin Precedence sections for more information.

Parameters

Here's a list of all the parameters which can be used in this plugin's configuration:

form parameter	description
`name`	The name of the plugin to use, in this case `rate-limiting-advanced`
`service_id`	The id of the Service which this plugin will target.
`route_id`	The id of the Route which this plugin will target.
`enabled` default value: `true`	Whether this plugin will be applied.
`consumer_id`	The id of the Consumer which this plugin will target.
`api_id`	The id of the API which this plugin will target.
`config.limit`	One of more request per window to apply
`config.window_size`	One more more window sizes to apply (defined in seconds)
`config.identifier` default value: consumer	How to define the rate limit key. Can be `ip`, `credential`, `consumer`, `service`, or `header`.
`config.header_name` semi-optional	Header name to use as the rate limit key when the `header` identifier is defined.
`config.dictionary_name` default value: kong_rate_limiting_counters	The shared dictionary where counters will be stored until the next sync cycle
`config.sync_rate`	How often to sync counter data to the central data store. A value of 0 results in synchronous behavior; a value of -1 ignores sync behavior entirely and only stores counters in node memory. A value greater than 0 will sync the counters in that many number of seconds.
`config.namespace` optional default value: random string	The rate limiting library namespace to use for this plugin instance. Counter data and sync configuration is shared in a namespace.
`config.strategy` default value: cluster	The sync strategy to use; `cluster` and `redis` are supported
`config.redis.host` semi-optional	Host to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined
`config.redis.port` semi-optional	Port to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined
`config.redis.timeout` semi-optional default value: 2000	Connection timeout (in milliseconds) to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined
`config.redis.password` semi-optional	Password to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined. If undefined, no AUTH commands are sent to Redis.
`config.redis.database` semi-optional default value: 0	Database to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined
`config.redis.sentinel_master` semi-optional	Sentinel master to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined. Defining this value implies using Redis Sentinel.
`config.redis.sentinel_role` semi-optional	Sentinel role to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined. Defining this value implies using Redis Sentinel.
`config.redis.sentinel_addresses` semi-optional	Sentinel addresses to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined. Defining this value implies using Redis Sentinel.
`config.redis.cluster_addresses` semi-optional	Cluster addresses to use for Redis connection when the `redis` strategy is defined. Defining this value implies using Redis cluster.
`config.window_type` default value: sliding	This sets the time window to either `sliding` or `fixed`

Note: Redis configuration values are ignored if the cluster strategy is used.

Note: PostgreSQL 9.5+ is required when using the cluster strategy with postgres as the backing IAM cluster data store.

Note: The dictionary_name directive was added to prevent the usage of the kong shared dictionary, which could lead to no memory errors

Notes

An arbitrary number of limits/window sizes can be applied per plugin instance. This allows users to create multiple rate limiting windows (e.g., rate limit per minute and per hour, and/or per any arbitrary window size); because of limitation with IAM's plugin configuration interface, each nth limit will apply to each nth window size. For example:

$ curl -i -X POST http://localhost:8001/services/{service}/plugins \
  --data name=rate-limiting-advanced \
  --data config.limit=10,100 \
  --data config.window_size=60,3600 \
  --data config.sync_rate=10

This will apply rate limiting policies, one of which will trip when 10 hits have been counted in 60 seconds, or when 100 hits have been counted in 3600 seconds. For more information, please see Enterprise Rate Limiting Library.