Overview

DynamicEnv is an innovative Kubernetes operator created to empower developers by simplifying the process of launching on-demand environments. This operator enables developers to efficiently deploy different versions of specific services within a single Kubernetes cluster.

This approach offers a cost-effective and streamlined solution for testing and development, as opposed to the conventional method of setting up the entire architecture for each iteration.

DynamicEnv harnesses the capabilities of Istio to achieve this goal.

Let's consider a service description:

This service consists of the following components:

• Front-end
• Backend (deployment is named my-namespace/backend)
• Database

Typically, regular traffic flows from the front-end to the backend and then to the database.

When you need to test a new version of the backend, you can create a new manifest like this:

apiVersion: riskified.com/v1alpha1
kind: DynamicEnv
metadata:
  name: dynamicenv-sample
spec:
  istioMatches:
    - headers:
        user:
          exact: test-user
  subsets:
    - name: backend
      namespace: my-namespace
      containers:
        - containerName: backend
          image: backend-image:test-version

DynamicEnv triggers the deployment of an additional backend (referred to as the "Tested Version" in the diagram) featuring the version that requires testing. It directs all incoming traffic with a "user" header set to "test-user" toward this newly deployed backend.

To enable testing, a test client can add a user=test-user header. If the front-end forwards this header to the backend (note that this is the application's responsibility, not the operator's), the request will be routed to the test backend ¹. This ensures requests are directed to the appropriate backend while maintaining connectivity with the upstream database.

Footnotes

1. Alternatively, send a request directly to the backend with the header user=test-user. ↩