Enable backoff/retries on scaling up

- this change is needed for Docker Swarm which may give an error
when several concurrent requests come in to scale a deployment.

Tested on Docker Swarm before/after with the hey tool and figlet
scaled down to zero replicas.

Signed-off-by: Alex Ellis (VMware) <alexellis2@gmail.com>

gateway/scaling/function_scaler.go

@@ -57,12 +57,31 @@ func (f *FunctionScaler) Scale(functionName string) FunctionScaleResult {
 			minReplicas = queryResponse.MinReplicas
 		}
 
-		log.Printf("[Scale] function=%s 0 => %d requested", functionName, minReplicas)
+		scaleResult := backoff(func(attempt int) error {
+			queryResponse, err := f.Config.ServiceQuery.GetReplicas(functionName)
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+
+			f.Cache.Set(functionName, queryResponse)
+
+			if queryResponse.Replicas > 0 {
+				return nil
+			}
+
+			log.Printf("[Scale %d] function=%s 0 => %d requested", attempt, functionName, minReplicas)
+			setScaleErr := f.Config.ServiceQuery.SetReplicas(functionName, minReplicas)
+			if setScaleErr != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("unable to scale function [%s], err: %s", functionName, setScaleErr)
+			}
 
-		setScaleErr := f.Config.ServiceQuery.SetReplicas(functionName, minReplicas)
-		if setScaleErr != nil {
+			return nil
+
+		}, int(f.Config.SetScaleRetries), f.Config.FunctionPollInterval)
+
+		if scaleResult != nil {
 			return FunctionScaleResult{
-				Error:     fmt.Errorf("unable to scale function [%s], err: %s", functionName, err),
+				Error:     scaleResult,
 				Available: false,
 				Found:     true,
 				Duration:  time.Since(start),
@@ -106,3 +125,23 @@ func (f *FunctionScaler) Scale(functionName string) FunctionScaleResult {
 		Duration:  time.Since(start),
 	}
 }
+
+type routine func(attempt int) error
+
+func backoff(r routine, attempts int, interval time.Duration) error {
+	var err error
+
+	for i := 0; i < attempts; i++ {
+		res := r(i)
+		if res != nil {
+			err = res
+
+			log.Printf("Attempt: %d, had error: %s\n", i, res)
+		} else {
+			err = nil
+			break
+		}
+		time.Sleep(interval)
+	}
+	return err
+}

gateway/scaling/scaling_config.go

@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@ type ScalingConfig struct {
 	// MaxPollCount attempts to query a function before giving up
 	MaxPollCount uint
 
-	// FunctionPollInterval delay or interval between polling a function's readiness status
+	// FunctionPollInterval delay or interval between polling a function's
+	// readiness status
 	FunctionPollInterval time.Duration
 
 	// CacheExpiry life-time for a cache entry before considering invalid
@@ -17,4 +18,8 @@ type ScalingConfig struct {
 
 	// ServiceQuery queries available/ready replicas for function
 	ServiceQuery ServiceQuery
+
+	// SetScaleRetries is the number of times to try scaling a function before
+	// giving up due to errors
+	SetScaleRetries uint
 }

gateway/server.go

@@ -137,7 +137,8 @@ func main() {
 	if config.ScaleFromZero {
 		scalingConfig := scaling.ScalingConfig{
 			MaxPollCount:         uint(1000),
-			FunctionPollInterval: time.Millisecond * 10,
+			SetScaleRetries:      uint(20),
+			FunctionPollInterval: time.Millisecond * 50,
 			CacheExpiry:          time.Second * 5, // freshness of replica values before going stale
 			ServiceQuery:         alertHandler,
 		}