Chaos Monkey Alternatives - Private Cloud

4 minute read

GomJabbar

GomJabbar is an open-source implementation of Chaos Monkey written in Java and designed to perform attacks within a private cloud architecture. Attacks are defined through the YAML configuration file and are executed as plain shell commands (e.g. sudo service ${module} stop). It also integrates with Ansible and Rundeck.

Attacks are defined in the config.yaml within the commands block. The fail value is the fault command to be executed, while the (optional) revert value is executed to attempt reversion. For example, here the shutdown_service command calls sudo service <service-name> stop as a fault and the opposite to revert.

commands:
  kill_service:
    description: "Kills services."
    fail: "sudo pkill -s 9 -f ${module}"
    revert: "sudo service ${module} start"

  shutdown_service:
    description: "Shuts down services."
    fail: "sudo service ${module} stop"
    revert: "sudo service ${module} start"

The filters block in config.yaml defines a list of clusters, modules, and tags to either be whitelisted or blacklisted via include or exclude, respectively.

filters:
  clusters:
    include:
      - gremlin-chaos
    exclude:
      - grandmas-cluster

  modules:
    include:
      - nginx
      - redis-server
    exclude:
      - critical

  tags:
    include:
      - development
      - production
    exclude:
      - test

As we saw in the commands block above ${module} can be referenced in fault commands and will automatically be replaced with the relevant service name. Once configured you can start the server by exporting the generated GJ_OPTIONS and calling the gomjabbar.sh script.

export GJ_OPTIONS="-Dcom.outbrain.gomjabbar.configFileUrl=<config file url> ..."
./gomjabbar.sh

You can then use the REST API to trigger attacks and revert faults.

Failure Injection on Your Private Cloud with Gremlin

Gremlin’s Failure as a Service locates weaknesses in your private cloud architecture before they cause problems. Gremlin makes Chaos Engineering simple, safe, and secure, improving your private cloud’s stability and resilience. You can begin executing Chaos Experiments in just a few minutes by signing up for an account and installing Gremlin. Gremlin can perform a variety of attacks against every major type of private cloud infrastructure including Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenStack, VMware, and many more.

Check out these tutorials to learn how to install Gremlin and start Chaos Engineering your private cloud today.

Muxy

Muxy is an open-source tool written in Go that allows you to tamper with network traffic at the transport, TCP, or HTTP protocol layers of your systems. In can simulate real-world network connectivity problems and can also be extended with plugins via the Plugo interface.

Muxy is configured through a YAML file that defines a number of proxy and middleware blocks.

Start by installing Muxy with go get.
```
 go get github.com/mefellows/muxy
```

Create a YAML file and paste the following test configuration in it.

 # gremlin.yml
 proxy:
   - name: http_proxy
     config:
       host: 0.0.0.0
       port: 8181
       proxy_host: www.gremlin.com
       proxy_port: 443

 # Proxy plugins
 middleware:
   - name: http_tamperer
     config:
       request:
         host: www.gremlin.com
         port: 443

   # Message Delay request/response plugin
   - name: delay
     config:
       request_delay:  2500
       response_delay: 2500

   # Log in/out messages
   - name: logger

This configuration creates a localhost:8181 proxy that targets www.gremlin.com:443. It also creates an http_tamperer middleware that catches requests made to www.gremlin.com:443 and adds a 2.5-second delay to both requests and responses. Finally, it outputs Muxy messages to the default terminal logger.

Start Muxy with the following command, ensuring that you specify the location of the YAML configuration file.

 muxy proxy --config ./gremlin.yml

 # OUTPUT
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179395 [INFO]		Loading plugin 	http_tamperer
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179415 [INFO]		Loading plugin 	delay
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179419 [INFO]		Loading plugin 	logger
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179451 [INFO]		Loading proxy 	http_proxy
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179465 [DEBUG]		HTTP Tamperer Setup()
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179476 [DEBUG]		Delay Symptom - Setup()
 2018/09/18 22:47:39.179578 [INFO]		HTTP proxy listening on http://0.0.0.0:8181

Now that Muxy is listening at http://0.0.0.0:8181 you can make a request to www.gremlin.com through the proxy to test it out. Muxy should add a delay of approximately 5 seconds to the request.
```
 time curl -H"Host: www.gremlin.com" http://localhost:8181/
```
```
 # OUTPUT
 real	0m5.070s
 user	0m0.000s
 sys	0m0.004s
```
Now try the same timed test but without passing through the localhost:8181 proxy, and you’ll see Muxy doesn’t catch or muck with this request.
```
 time curl -o /dev/null https://www.gremlin.com
```
```
 # OUTPUT
 real	0m0.257s
 user	0m0.036s
 sys	0m0.012s
```

Check out the official Muxy documentation for more information on integrating Muxy into your private cloud Chaos Engineering.