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Scenario #428
Scaling & Load
Kubernetes v1.25, AWS EKS
Nginx Ingress Controller Hit Rate Limit on External API
Rate limits were hit on an external API during traffic surge, affecting service scaling.
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What Happened
Nginx Ingress Controller was rate-limited by an external API during a traffic surge.
Diagnosis Steps
- 1Traffic logs showed 429 status codes for external API calls.
- 2Observed HPA not scaling fast enough to handle the increased API request load.
Root Cause
External API rate limiting was not considered in scaling decisions.
Fix/Workaround
• Added retry logic for external API requests.
• Adjusted autoscaling to consider both internal load and external API delays.Lessons Learned
Scaling should consider both internal and external load.
How to Avoid
- 1Implement circuit breakers and retries for external dependencies.
- 2Use comprehensive metrics for autoscaling decisions.