Why does using ribbonReadTimeout don't break long request with Netflix Ribbon? - spring-boot

Question

We are using Spring Boot 2.0.0.RELEASE with spring-cloud-starter-netflix-ribbon for our micro services. I set ribbon.readTimeout=1000 for slow requests and check it with our micro service setting breakpoint inside #GetMapping method without sending a response. In my test I have been waiting for 10 minutes and did not get any exception. It seems like there is no readTimeout at all.
Service configuration
ribbon:
ReadTimeout: 1000
my-service:
ribbon:
eureka:
enabled: false
listOfServers: localhost:8080
ReadTimeout: 1000
ConnectTimeout: 1000
The only way a can make it work is ribbon.restclient.enabled=true. But this client is deprecated and I don't wont to use it.

Answer 1

Not all the ribbon properties are supported by spring-cloud-netflix while being used with a Spring RestTemplate. There are some ribbon properties that work, as described in the docs, but ReadTimeout is not one of them. So it does not work, but it's by desing (as per the response to this issue). However, if you are using Spring's RestTemplate, you can set it there directly, like so:
#LoadBalanced
#Bean
RestTemplate restTemplate(RestTemplateBuilder restTemplateBuilder) {
return restTemplateBuilder
.setReadTimeout(2000)
.build();
}

Answer 2

I think you need to configure Hystrix timeouts. Take a look at this part of the documentation : http://cloud.spring.io/spring-cloud-static/Edgware.RELEASE/single/spring-cloud.html#_hystrix_timeouts_and_ribbon_clients
It could be something like that :
hystrix.command.default.execution.isolation.thread.timeoutInMilliseconds: 1100
ribbon:
ConnectTimeout: 1000
ReadTimeout: 1000

Answer 3

We find this:
serviceA.ribbon.ReadTimeout=8000
work well with spring boot 2.1.0.RELEASE using spring cloud Finchley.SR2 and
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-netflix-ribbon</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</artifactId>
</dependency>
However, we use ribbon via feign, in a client as so:
#FeignClient(value = "serviceA")
public interface ServiceAClient {
#GetMapping(value = "/test")
String getTest();
}
We then use a wiremock test to introduce a fixed delay above the read timeout to verify it is working fine.