Why does your microservice always feel like something is not quite right?

Sounds familiar, right? Many teams were very excited when they started splitting services, thinking that maintenance and upgrades would be much more flexible in the future. But as you use it, you will find that the services are independent, but the "communication" between them is a mess. Where do requests come from, where do they go, who comes first, what to do if something goes wrong - these things suddenly become trivial problems to deal with every day.

What is missing?

Imagine if you set up an "intelligent dispatch station" in front of each microservice - this station does nothing else but is responsible for receiving external requests, giving them directions, checking identities, controlling traffic, and occasionally helping to convert data formats. Did you suddenly feel that those chaotic communications could be saved?

This thing is the API gateway that everyone often mentions. It is a bit like the master control unit in the mechanical system. It does not directly participate in the torque output of the servo motor, nor does it directly process the angle feedback of the steering gear, but it ensures that all instructions can reach their destination accurately, orderly and safely.

But with so many choices on the market, how do you choose? What does a reliable gateway look like?

A good gateway should do all the work quietly.

It needs to be as stable as a heavy-duty servo motor - no matter how big the request is, it can handle it and the response time is stable. It cannot time out or leak memory at every turn. It should be as flexible as a programmable servo, support various protocol conversions, and be able to easily adapt to different services. Another important point: ease of maintenance. You definitely don’t want to be stuck in complicated configurations every day, right? It is best to have a clear interface, and changing routing rules is as simple as adjusting parameters.

Monitoring and logs must also be clear at a glance. When something goes wrong, you need to be able to quickly find out which service and link it is from, rather than looking for a needle in a haystack in dozens of log files.

Having said this, I remember someone asked me before: "We don't have many services, do we still need a gateway?" In fact, even if there are only three or five microservices, once it involves external exposure, authentication or current limiting, having a unified entrance management will save a lot of worry later. It helps you extract those repetitive security and verification logic, allowing each microservice to focus more on what it should do - just like standardizing the universal transmission components of the mechanical structure, allowing each module to only focus on its own core functions.

The road we have traveled may give you some reference.

existkpower, we have talked with many teams, and have also experienced the headache period of splitting our own services. We found that many times people do not need a gateway, but they are afraid that introducing a gateway will bring new complexity. Therefore, when designing, we have always adhered to one principle: make the gateway as transparent as possible and access as lightweight as possible.

For example, you don't need to rewrite all service interfaces to add a gateway. It should be able to smoothly connect to the existing system and slowly switch traffic there. For another example, it is best for the configuration to take effect in real time, and there is no need to restart the service when changing the routing policy - after all, the control service on the production line cannot be stopped, right?

As for monitoring, we feel that we can’t just pile up data. Just like watching the real-time torque curve of a servo motor, you can clearly see the response time distribution and success rate changes of each interface, and you can even quickly locate the link of an abnormal call. This way, you will have peace of mind when something goes wrong.

So, how do you do it?

During one exchange, a customer asked: "What is the difference between your gateway and our own Nginx configuration?"

Documentation and community support are also critical. When you encounter a problem, someone can quickly give you ideas instead of making you look through the source code for three days.

Be practical

Choosing a tool is sometimes like choosing a servo motor - no matter how many parameters there are, it still depends on whether it runs smoothly in your own system. You might as well start with a small module, for example, first expose APIs such as device status query through the gateway, and feel how easy it is to configure and manage. The effect is good, and it will be gradually extended to other services.

After all, technology is for solving problems, not for tormenting people. Microservices are a help if they are dismantled well, but they are a burden if they are not dismantled well. A good API gateway is like a reliable transmission device in a precision machine - it doesn't steal the spotlight, but without it, the entire system may not be able to run.

I hope these scattered sharings can bring you some inspiration. If you are also thinking about microservice governance, maybe you can stop and think about it: Are we missing a "middleman" who silently coordinates everything?

Established in 2005,kpowerhas been dedicated to a professional compact motion unit manufacturer, headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China. Leveraging innovations in modular drive technology,kpowerintegrates high-performance motors, precision reducers, and multi-protocol control systems to provide efficient and customized smart drive system solutions. Kpower has delivered professional drive system solutions to over 500 enterprise clients globally with products covering various fields such as Smart Home Systems, Automatic Electronics, Robotics, Precision Agriculture, Drones, and Industrial Automation.