In today's highly interconnected digital landscape, web applications face the constant challenge of handling a high volume of incoming requests. However, not all requests are equal, and excessive traffic can put a strain on resources, leading to service disruptions or even potential security risks. To address this, implementing request rate limiting is crucial to preserve the stability and security of your environment.
Request rate limiting allows you to control the number of requests per unit of time that a server or application can handle. By setting limits, you can prevent abuse, manage resource allocation, and mitigate the risk of malicious attacks such as DDoS or brute-force attempts. In this article, we will explore how to set up request rate limiting using NGINX Ingress, a popular Kubernetes Ingress Controller. We will also demonstrate how to test the rate-limiting configuration using Locust, a load-testing tool.