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For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. Markdown versions of all docs pages are available by appending .md to any docs URL.

Traffic Mirroring

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Convert the NGINX mirror-target annotation to a Gateway API HTTPRoute RequestMirror filter.

          
Traffic mirroring (shadowing) allows you to copy live traffic to a test service without impacting the original request/response flow. NGINX uses the mirror-target annotation, while Gateway API uses the RequestMirror filter.


Before: Ingress with Mirror Target
    
This Ingress mirrors all traffic from production-svc to staging-svc:





cat <<'EOF' > shadow-ingress.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: shadow-demo
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/mirror-target: "staging-svc"
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
  - host: app.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          service:
            name: production-svc
            port:
              number: 80
        path: /
        pathType: Prefix
EOF

  





Convert
    



ingress2gateway print --providers=ingress-nginx --emitter=kgateway \
  --input-file shadow-ingress.yaml > shadow-kgateway.yaml

  





After: HTTPRoute with RequestMirror Filter
    
The resulting HTTPRoute copies traffic to the mirrored backend:





apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: shadow-demo-app-example-com
spec:
  hostnames:
  - app.example.com
  parentRefs:
  - name: nginx
  rules:
  - backendRefs:
    - name: production-svc
      port: 80
    filters:
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          name: staging-svc
          port: 80

  





Apply and verify
    



kubectl apply -f shadow-kgateway.yaml
kubectl get httproutes

  





        

        
Request BufferingClient TLS (mTLS)

  

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