NATS by Example - Pull Consumer - Applying Limits (Go)

Pull Consumer - Applying Limits in JetStream

When configuring a pull consumer, there are a few limits that can be set that are enforced server-side. There are several options including:

the maximum number of non-acked in-flight messages
the maximum number of in-flight pull requests (across subscribers)
the maximum pull batch size for any given request
the maximum timeout on a given pull request
the maximum total size (in bytes) of a pulled batch

In addition, when a pull request (fetch) is made, both the batch size and the timeout can be specified (and changed) per request and across different subscribers if desired.

CLI Go Python JavaScript Rust C# Java Ruby Elixir Crystal C

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$ nbe run jetstream/pull-consumer-limits/go

View the source code or learn how to run this example yourself

Code

package main


import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"time"


	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go/jetstream"
)


func main() {

Use the env variable if running in the container, otherwise use the default.

	url := os.Getenv("NATS_URL")
	if url == "" {
		url = nats.DefaultURL
	}

Create an unauthenticated connection to NATS.

	nc, _ := nats.Connect(url)
	defer nc.Drain()

Access JetStream for managing streams and consumers as well as for publishing and subscription convenience methods.

	js, _ := jetstream.New(nc)

Declare a simple limits-based stream.

	streamName := "EVENTS"

JetStream API uses context for timeouts and cancellation.

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
	defer cancel()


	stream, _ := js.CreateStream(ctx, jetstream.StreamConfig{
		Name:     streamName,
		Subjects: []string{"events.>"},
	})

Define a basic pull consumer without any limits and a short ack wait time for the purpose of this example. These default options will be reused when we update the consumer to show-case various limits. If you haven’t seen the first pull consumer example yet, check that out first!

	consumerName := "processor"
	ackWait := 10 * time.Second
	ackPolicy := jetstream.AckExplicitPolicy
	maxWaiting := 1

One quick note. This example show cases how consumer configuration can be changed on-demand. This one exception is MaxWaiting which cannot be updated on a consumer as of now. This must be set up front when the consumer is created.

	cons, _ := stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Durable:    consumerName,
		AckPolicy:  ackPolicy,
		AckWait:    ackWait,
		MaxWaiting: maxWaiting,
	})

Max in-flight messages

The first limit to explore is the max in-flight messages. This will limit how many un-acked in-flight messages there are across all subscriptions bound to this consumer. We can update the consumer config on-the-fly with the MaxAckPending setting.

	fmt.Println("--- max in-flight messages (n=1) ---")


	stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Name:          consumerName,
		AckPolicy:     ackPolicy,
		AckWait:       ackWait,
		MaxWaiting:    maxWaiting,
		MaxAckPending: 1,
	})

Let’s publish a couple events for this section.

	js.Publish(ctx, "events.1", nil)
	js.Publish(ctx, "events.2", nil)

We can request a larger batch size, but we will only get one back since only one can be un-acked at any given time. This essentially forces serial processing messages for a pull consumer.

	msgs, _ := cons.FetchNoWait(3)


	var received []jetstream.Msg
	for msg := range msgs.Messages() {
		received = append(received, msg)
	}
	fmt.Printf("requested 3, got %d\n", len(received))

This limit becomes more apparent with the second fetch which would timeout without any messages since we haven’t acked the previous one yet.

	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(time.Second))
	var received2 []jetstream.Msg
	for msg := range msgs.Messages() {
		received2 = append(received2, msg)
	}
	fmt.Printf("requested 1, got %d\n", len(received2))

Let’s ack it and then try another fetch.

	received[0].Ack()

It works this time!

	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(1)
	for msg := range msgs.Messages() {
		received2 = append(received2, msg)
		msg.Ack()
	}
	fmt.Printf("requested 1, got %d\n", len(received2))

Max fetch batch size

This one limits the max batch size any one fetch can receive. This can be used to keep the fetches to a reasonable size.

	fmt.Println("\n--- max fetch batch size (n=2) ---")


	cons, _ = stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Name:            consumerName,
		AckPolicy:       ackPolicy,
		AckWait:         ackWait,
		MaxWaiting:      maxWaiting,
		MaxRequestBatch: 2,
	})

Publish a couple events for this section…

	js.Publish(ctx, "events.1", []byte("hello"))
	js.Publish(ctx, "events.2", []byte("world"))

If a batch size is larger than the limit, it is considered an error. Because Fetch is non-blocking, we need to wait for the operation to complete before checking the error.

	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(10)
	for range msgs.Messages() {
	}
	fmt.Printf("%s\n", msgs.Error())

Using the max batch size (or less) will, of course, work.

	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(2)
	var i int
	for msg := range msgs.Messages() {
		fmt.Printf("received %q\n", msg.Data())
		msg.Ack()
		i++
	}
	fmt.Printf("requested 2, got %d\n", i)

Max waiting requests

The next limit defines the maximum number of fetch requests that are all waiting in parallel to receive messages. This prevents building up too many requests that the server will have to distribute to for a given consumer.

	fmt.Println("\n--- max waiting requests (n=1) ---")

Since MaxWaiting was already set to 1 when the consumer was created, this is a no-op.

	stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Name:       consumerName,
		AckPolicy:  ackPolicy,
		AckWait:    ackWait,
		MaxWaiting: maxWaiting,
	})


	msgs1, _ := cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(time.Second))
	msgs2, _ := cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(time.Second))
	msgs3, _ := cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(time.Second))


	time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)


	fmt.Printf("fetch 1: %v\n", msgs1.Error())
	fmt.Printf("fetch 2: %v\n", msgs2.Error())
	fmt.Printf("fetch 3: %v\n", msgs3.Error())

Max fetch timeout

Normally each fetch call can specify it’s own max wait timeout, i.e. how long the client wants to wait to receive at least one message. It may be desirable to limit defined on the consumer to prevent requests waiting too long for messages.

	fmt.Println("\n--- max fetch timeout (d=1s) ---")


	stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Name:              consumerName,
		AckPolicy:         ackPolicy,
		AckWait:           ackWait,
		MaxWaiting:        maxWaiting,
		MaxRequestExpires: time.Second,
	})

Using a max wait equal or less than MaxRequestExpires not return an error and return expected number of messages (zero in that case, since there are no more).

	t0 := time.Now()
	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(time.Second))
	for range msgs.Messages() {
	}
	fmt.Printf("error? %v in %s\n", msgs.Error() != nil, time.Since(t0))

However, trying to use a longer timeout will return immediately with an error.

	t0 = time.Now()
	msgs, _ = cons.Fetch(1, jetstream.FetchMaxWait(5*time.Second))
	for range msgs.Messages() {
	}
	fmt.Printf("%s\n", msgs.Error())

Max total bytes per fetch

	fmt.Println("\n--- max total bytes per fetch (n=4) ---")


	stream.CreateOrUpdateConsumer(ctx, jetstream.ConsumerConfig{
		Name:               consumerName,
		AckPolicy:          ackPolicy,
		AckWait:            ackWait,
		MaxWaiting:         maxWaiting,
		MaxRequestMaxBytes: 3,
	})


	js.Publish(ctx, "events.3", []byte("hola"))
	js.Publish(ctx, "events.4", []byte("again"))


	msgs, _ = cons.FetchBytes(4)
	for range msgs.Messages() {
	}
	fmt.Printf("%s\n", msgs.Error())
}

Output

--- max in-flight messages (n=1) ---
requested 3, got 1
requested 1, got 0
requested 1, got 1

--- max fetch batch size (n=2) ---
nats: Exceeded MaxRequestBatch of 2
received "hello"
received "world"
requested 2, got 2

--- max waiting requests (n=1) ---
fetch 1: <nil>
fetch 2: nats: Exceeded MaxWaiting
fetch 3: nats: Exceeded MaxWaiting

--- max fetch timeout (d=1s) ---
error? false in 1.001727375s
nats: Exceeded MaxRequestExpires of 1s

--- max total bytes per fetch (n=4) ---
nats: Exceeded MaxRequestMaxBytes of 3

Recording

Note, playback is half speed to make it a bit easier to follow.