http: prefetch for upstreams

api/envoy/config/cluster/v3/cluster.proto

@@ -583,11 +583,10 @@ message Cluster {
     google.protobuf.Duration max_interval = 2 [(validate.rules).duration = {gt {nanos: 1000000}}];
   }
 
-  // [#not-implemented-hide:]
   message PreconnectPolicy {
     // Indicates how many streams (rounded up) can be anticipated per-upstream for each
     // incoming stream. This is useful for high-QPS or latency-sensitive services. Preconnecting
-    // will only be done if the upstream is healthy.
+    // will only be done if the upstream is healthy and the cluster has traffic.
     //
     // For example if this is 2, for an incoming HTTP/1.1 stream, 2 connections will be
     // established, one for the new incoming stream, and one for a presumed follow-up stream. For
@@ -605,8 +604,7 @@ message Cluster {
     //
     // If this value is not set, or set explicitly to one, Envoy will fetch as many connections
     // as needed to serve streams in flight. This means in steady state if a connection is torn down,
-    // a subsequent streams will pay an upstream-rtt latency penalty waiting for streams to be
-    // preconnected.
+    // a subsequent streams will pay an upstream-rtt latency penalty waiting for a new connection.
     //
     // This is limited somewhat arbitrarily to 3 because preconnecting too aggressively can
     // harm latency more than the preconnecting helps.
@@ -616,24 +614,25 @@ message Cluster {
     // Indicates how many many streams (rounded up) can be anticipated across a cluster for each
     // stream, useful for low QPS services. This is currently supported for a subset of
     // deterministic non-hash-based load-balancing algorithms (weighted round robin, random).
-    // Unlike per_upstream_preconnect_ratio this preconnects across the upstream instances in a
+    // Unlike *per_upstream_preconnect_ratio* this preconnects across the upstream instances in a
     // cluster, doing best effort predictions of what upstream would be picked next and
     // pre-establishing a connection.
     //
+    // Preconnecting will be limited to one preconnect per configured upstream in the cluster and will
+    // only be done if there are healthy upstreams and the cluster has traffic.
+    //
     // For example if preconnecting is set to 2 for a round robin HTTP/2 cluster, on the first
     // incoming stream, 2 connections will be preconnected - one to the first upstream for this
     // cluster, one to the second on the assumption there will be a follow-up stream.
     //
-    // Preconnecting will be limited to one preconnect per configured upstream in the cluster.
-    //
     // If this value is not set, or set explicitly to one, Envoy will fetch as many connections
     // as needed to serve streams in flight, so during warm up and in steady state if a connection
     // is closed (and per_upstream_preconnect_ratio is not set), there will be a latency hit for
     // connection establishment.
     //
     // If both this and preconnect_ratio are set, Envoy will make sure both predicted needs are met,
-    // basically preconnecting max(predictive-preconnect, per-upstream-preconnect), for each upstream.
-    // TODO(alyssawilk) per LB docs and LB overview docs when unhiding.
+    // basically preconnecting max(predictive-preconnect, per-upstream-preconnect), for each
+    // upstream.
     google.protobuf.DoubleValue predictive_preconnect_ratio = 2
         [(validate.rules).double = {lte: 3.0 gte: 1.0}];
   }
@@ -1028,7 +1027,6 @@ message Cluster {
   // Configuration to track optional cluster stats.
   TrackClusterStats track_cluster_stats = 49;
 
-  // [#not-implemented-hide:]
   // Preconnect configuration for this cluster.
   PreconnectPolicy preconnect_policy = 50;
 

docs/root/version_history/current.rst

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ Removed Config or Runtime
 New Features
 ------------
 * access log: added the :ref:`formatters <envoy_v3_api_field_config.core.v3.SubstitutionFormatString.formatters>` extension point for custom formatters (command operators).
+* http: added support for :ref:`:ref:`preconnecting <envoy_v3_api_msg_config.cluster.v3.Cluster.PreconnectPolicy>`. Preconnecting is off by default, but recommended for clusters serving latency-sensitive traffic, especially if using HTTP/1.1.
 * tcp_proxy: add support for converting raw TCP streams into HTTP/1.1 CONNECT requests. See :ref:`upgrade documentation <tunneling-tcp-over-http>` for details.
 
 Deprecated