alibaba/tengine
Tengine
Tengine is an enhanced Nginx web server distribution designed for high-traffic environments. It functions as a high-performance reverse proxy, dynamic load balancer, and HTTP/3 proxy server, integrating an embedded Lua scripting engine to allow for custom business logic and dynamic request processing.
The project distinguishes itself through a focus on modern transport protocols and efficiency, featuring native support for QUIC and HTTP/3 to reduce connection latency. It implements userspace UDP forwarding to bypass the kernel for higher throughput and provides the ability to dynamically update routing rules, domains, and TLS protocols without restarting worker processes.
The server provides broad capabilities across traffic orchestration, including consistent hashing for load balancing, encrypted traffic proxying via HTTP CONNECT tunneling, and request body filtering. Its operational surface includes upstream health monitoring, asynchronous logging, and the ability to process mixed encrypted and unencrypted traffic on a single port.
The project includes a build system for compiling source code into Debian package files for Linux installation.
Features
- Non-blocking IO Architectures - Uses an event-driven non-blocking architecture to process thousands of concurrent connections with minimal worker processes.
- High-Performance HTTP Servers - Provides a high-performance HTTP server distribution optimized for low-latency and high-throughput delivery in high-traffic environments.
- Dynamic Configuration - Applies changes to domains and routing rules dynamically to ensure zero-downtime updates.
- HTTP/3 Implementations - Delivers web content using QUIC and HTTP/3 to reduce latency and improve data transfer speeds.
- Load Balancers - Distributes network requests across backend servers using consistent hashing and proactive health checks.
- Real-Time Rule Management - Updates routing rules and backend server configurations in real time without restarting the server.
- QUIC Implementations - Implements a UDP-based multiplexed transport via QUIC to reduce handshake latency and improve connection reliability.
- Traffic Routing - Directs requests based on header values, cookies, or query parameters without requiring a server restart.
- Embedded Scripting Engines - Integrates an embedded Lua scripting engine to execute custom business logic directly within the request processing pipeline.
- Lua - Embeds the Lua dynamic scripting language to add custom business logic to the core server.
- Scriptable Web Servers - Embeds the Lua scripting engine to enable custom business logic and dynamic request processing.
- Load Balancing Ring Hashing - Provides session persistence by distributing network requests across backend servers using a circular hash space.
- Dynamic Route Reloading - Allows updating routing rules and upstream server lists in real time without restarting worker processes.
- Reverse Proxies - Operates as a high-performance reverse proxy optimizing encrypted traffic and UDP transmission to reduce kernel overhead.
- Web Server Logic Extensions - Extends server functionality by embedding Lua scripting to implement custom business rules and request filtering.
- Single Port Protocol Multiplexing - Detects and routes encrypted and unencrypted traffic on a single port based on initial packet bytes.
- System Stability Protections - Limits requests and restricts traffic when system load or memory usage exceeds safe thresholds to maintain stability.
- TCP and UDP Forwarders - Routes UDP packets in userspace to bypass the kernel for higher throughput and lower latency.
- Userspace UDP Forwarding - Bypasses the operating system kernel to route UDP packets directly in userspace for higher throughput.
- Userspace UDP Acceleration - Transfers UDP data at higher speeds by bypassing the kernel to reduce processing overhead.
- Web Traffic Accelerators - Optimizes encrypted connections using asynchronous processing and hardware acceleration.
- Encrypted Tunneling - Establishes secure tunnels and routes encrypted traffic using the HTTP CONNECT method.
- Security Request Filters - Intercepts and processes request payloads to implement security measures like web application firewalls.
- Dynamic TLS Configuration - Assigns different TLS protocols to specific server names on the fly without restarting the server.
- Upstream Health Monitoring - Tracks the operational status of backend servers and exports health metrics in Prometheus or JSON formats.
- Web Server Performance Monitoring - Tracks memory usage and server availability through proactive health checks and asynchronous logging.
- Infrastructure and Backend - Web server based on Nginx with advanced features.
- Systems And Services - Listed in the “Systems And Services” section of the The Book Of Secret Knowledge awesome list.
- Nginx Distributions - Enhanced Nginx distribution with advanced features and optimizations.
