I've been checking out the interceptor pattern. Tokens, certificates,
metadata make sense to me. I'm confused about "the server decodes the token
and associates the stream with the client". Once a client ID info in any
way, it's unclear to me how the server associates a stream with a client
and then when needed invokes a command on that particular stream.

I'm using go-lang.

On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 2:35 PM, Carl Mastrangelo <[email protected]> wrote:

> The client would need to self identify by setting a header when it
> initiates the RPC.   If you are using auth tokens, you could maybe put the
> identity in the token.  When the client makes an RPC, the server decodes
> the token and associates the stream with the client.
>
> Another option (as mentioned in my first post) would be to use client side
> certificates.  When the server gets the RPC, it can determine the security
> information from the connection and associate it with the stream.
>
> Lastly (and probably easiest) is to add the identity in a custom header
> fields (also called "metadata").   You can do this directly with some gRPC
> APIs and indirectly by making a client side RPC interceptor.  I am more
> familiar with Java, which favors the interceptor approach.  It will depend
> on what language of gRPC library you are using.
>
>
> I would personally suggest the latter, since it is the most flexible, and
> works well with proxies.   It also and expandable, so you can put more info
> in the headers to be identified by.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 2:27 PM John Pearson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I see tunneling is being worked
>> on: https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/14101
>>
>> Question: When I have 15 clients all connected in a bidirectional stream,
>> how does the Server send a message to a particular client? For example in
>> my case: Server needs to tell a client12 to run a particular command, how
>> to identify the right connection/channel Server side?
>>
>> I've tried searching for this:
>> - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/grpc-io/
>> identify$20stream/grpc-io/MAjt9cE_uCU/VMAjo_KiAQAJ
>> - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/grpc-io/
>> identify$20stream/grpc-io/z6aEEiaeopM/AVSZRFPTCAAJ
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 1:18 PM, Carl Mastrangelo <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Your flow is correct.     Is it RPC?  I guess that's a more
>>> philosophical, but I don't think there is anything wrong with it.
>>> Streaming RPCs are already kind of weird anyway.
>>>
>>> A more pure solution would be something akin to tunneling, where a
>>> client connects to a server, but then runs a gRPC server _on top of_ the
>>> client connection allowing the actual server to make client-like requests.
>>> This has been discussed before, but wasn't implemented due to time
>>> constraints.  gRPC is fairly young so more advanced use cases like this
>>> don't have solutions yet.
>>>
>>> Note that even though the flow is reversed, you still get a lot of the
>>> benefits of gRPC.  The real client still can do intelligent fail over
>>> across all your servers.   You get all the stats and trace capabilities.
>>>  Lastly, gRPC is pretty fast!
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 12:46 PM John Pearson <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Got it. So this isn't considered bad form for RPC? Technically it isn't
>>>> RPC? In my case:
>>>>
>>>> - Server implements rpc Link (stream UpLink) returns (stream DownLink)
>>>> {}
>>>> - Client initiates connection
>>>> - Client waits for messages to come down from the server to be executed
>>>> - Clients parses the strings/bytes streamed down and uses a case
>>>> statement to execute commands
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 12:04 PM, Carl Mastrangelo <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Yes, that is correct.  (It's bidirectional because the word "stream"
>>>>> is in both the request (UpLink) and response (DownLink).)
>>>>>
>>>>> I mistakenly thought this was another thread (which I replied to
>>>>> yesterday) which had almost the same issue.   Take a look at
>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/grpc-io/G4eYs1zNMjE/Yh2WJS7TBwAJ
>>>>> where I describe how to do what you want.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 11:38 AM John Pearson <[email protected]>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm unclear on what the last part means: "That's why that issue,
>>>>>> (and my post), suggest treating the message as inverted requests and
>>>>>> responses."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Do you mean rpc Link (stream UpLink) returns (stream DownLink) {} ?
>>>>>> With a bidirectional stream?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 11:27 AM, 'Carl Mastrangelo' via grpc.io <
>>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It's unlikely that gRPC will be able to have servers initiate
>>>>>>> connections / rpcs to clients.   The initial headers need to be sent by 
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> client to the server, and only the server can send trailers to indicate 
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> RPC is done.   But, after these two, the client and server are peers.
>>>>>>> That's why that issue, (and my post), suggest treating the message as
>>>>>>> inverted requests and responses.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 8:55:46 PM UTC-8, John Pearson wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Question regarding bi-directional streaming:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Is this issue(https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go/issues/484#
>>>>>>>> issuecomment-288880402) solved because of bidirectional rpc?  --
>>>>>>>> it is almost exactly the same as my use case.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 3:41 PM, 'Carl Mastrangelo' via grpc.io <
>>>>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Sounds like you want to use a client streaming rpc.  The client
>>>>>>>>> will start an RPC, and periodically send messages to the server, 
>>>>>>>>> which will
>>>>>>>>> never respond.  This works well if the time between updates is small
>>>>>>>>> perhaps no more than a minute apart.   If it's longer, it would be 
>>>>>>>>> better
>>>>>>>>> to just make it unary because the connection will be at risk of being 
>>>>>>>>> torn
>>>>>>>>> down by intermediary things.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If you trust the hardware you are running on, a common way of
>>>>>>>>> authing would be client side certificates, but we leave the problem of
>>>>>>>>> certificate rotation and revocation up to you.  In gRPC, auth is more
>>>>>>>>> commonly (always?) done at the RPC level.  Each RPC would need an auth
>>>>>>>>> token, like a JWT.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If you want a command and control style system, you'll need to use
>>>>>>>>> a bidirectional streaming RPC.   This would let the client phone 
>>>>>>>>> home, and
>>>>>>>>> wait for messages to come down from the server to be executed.  The 
>>>>>>>>> client
>>>>>>>>> must initiate the connection and the RPC, but after that each side is 
>>>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>>>> peer.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> There are examples on how to do each style of these commands in
>>>>>>>>> the github repos.  Look for "Route Guide" examples on how to do it in 
>>>>>>>>> each
>>>>>>>>> language.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 5:37:40 PM UTC-8,
>>>>>>>>> [email protected] wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I manage a fleet of linux devices and I need a way to send
>>>>>>>>>> telemetry data(CPU, memory, drives, etc.)  from devices to a 
>>>>>>>>>> centralized
>>>>>>>>>> server and also send commands(linux service restarts for example) 
>>>>>>>>>> from
>>>>>>>>>> server to devices to execute on the device. The 15 different
>>>>>>>>>> linux devices are bare metal boxes in 15 different locations access 
>>>>>>>>>> to WAN
>>>>>>>>>> with a dynamic IP address. In a year the number of devices could 
>>>>>>>>>> jump to
>>>>>>>>>> 100.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I'm looking for suggestions on:
>>>>>>>>>> - how to gather telemetry data to send to grpc server
>>>>>>>>>> - how authenticate and identify devices
>>>>>>>>>> - how to run commands locally on each device and report back
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>
>>

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