control/controlclient: try reconnecting to last successful addr

If we lose our connection to the control server (e.g. due to a restart,
or a network blip, etc), try reconnecting to the same address first
before going through the whole control dialplan and/or DNS flow.

This ensures that we're a bit "sticky", which makes load balancing
easier by improving the chances that this client will hit a server with
a warm cache. It also reduces the thundering herd of requests that hit
other servers after we restart a single one.

Updates #TODO

Signed-off-by: Andrew Dunham <andrew@du.nham.ca>
Change-Id: I6c3ef0b088468a8888c05cf8e3813056118ec835

control/controlclient/direct.go

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import (
 	"tailscale.com/net/tlsdial"
 	"tailscale.com/net/tsdial"
 	"tailscale.com/net/tshttpproxy"
+	"tailscale.com/syncs"
 	"tailscale.com/tailcfg"
 	"tailscale.com/tka"
 	"tailscale.com/tstime"
@@ -82,6 +83,11 @@ type Direct struct {
 
 	dialPlan ControlDialPlanner // can be nil
 
+	// lastServerAddr is set to the most recent address that we
+	// successfully connected to. It is used to prioritize this address
+	// when reconnecting (e.g. when a control server restart happens).
+	lastServerAddr syncs.AtomicValue[netip.Addr]
+
 	mu              sync.Mutex        // mutex guards the following fields
 	serverLegacyKey key.MachinePublic // original ("legacy") nacl crypto_box-based public key; only used for signRegisterRequest on Windows now
 	serverNoiseKey  key.MachinePublic
@@ -1428,6 +1434,8 @@ func sleepAsRequested(ctx context.Context, logf logger.Logf, d time.Duration, cl
 	}
 }
 
+var useLastAddr = envknob.RegisterBool("TS_CONTROLCLIENT_USE_LAST_ADDR")
+
 // getNoiseClient returns the noise client, creating one if one doesn't exist.
 func (c *Direct) getNoiseClient() (*NoiseClient, error) {
 	c.mu.Lock()
@@ -1444,6 +1452,12 @@ func (c *Direct) getNoiseClient() (*NoiseClient, error) {
 	if c.dialPlan != nil {
 		dp = c.dialPlan.Load
 	}
+
+	var lastAddr *syncs.AtomicValue[netip.Addr]
+	if useLastAddr() {
+		lastAddr = &c.lastServerAddr
+	}
+
 	nc, err, _ := c.sfGroup.Do(struct{}{}, func() (*NoiseClient, error) {
 		k, err := c.getMachinePrivKey()
 		if err != nil {
@@ -1451,18 +1465,20 @@ func (c *Direct) getNoiseClient() (*NoiseClient, error) {
 		}
 		c.logf("[v1] creating new noise client")
 		nc, err := NewNoiseClient(NoiseOpts{
-			PrivKey:      k,
-			ServerPubKey: serverNoiseKey,
-			ServerURL:    c.serverURL,
-			Dialer:       c.dialer,
-			DNSCache:     c.dnsCache,
-			Logf:         c.logf,
-			NetMon:       c.netMon,
-			DialPlan:     dp,
+			PrivKey:        k,
+			ServerPubKey:   serverNoiseKey,
+			ServerURL:      c.serverURL,
+			Dialer:         c.dialer,
+			DNSCache:       c.dnsCache,
+			Logf:           c.logf,
+			NetMon:         c.netMon,
+			DialPlan:       dp,
+			LastServerAddr: lastAddr,
 		})
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+
 		c.mu.Lock()
 		defer c.mu.Unlock()
 		c.noiseClient = nc

control/controlclient/noise.go

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"math"
 	"net/http"
+	"net/netip"
 	"net/url"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"tailscale.com/net/dnscache"
 	"tailscale.com/net/netmon"
 	"tailscale.com/net/tsdial"
+	"tailscale.com/syncs"
 	"tailscale.com/tailcfg"
 	"tailscale.com/tstime"
 	"tailscale.com/types/key"
@@ -172,6 +174,8 @@ type NoiseClient struct {
 	// be nil.
 	dialPlan func() *tailcfg.ControlDialPlan
 
+	lastServerAddr *syncs.AtomicValue[netip.Addr] // can be nil
+
 	logf   logger.Logf
 	netMon *netmon.Monitor
 
@@ -207,6 +211,12 @@ type NoiseOpts struct {
 	// DialPlan, if set, is a function that should return an explicit plan
 	// on how to connect to the server.
 	DialPlan func() *tailcfg.ControlDialPlan
+	// LastServerAddr, if non-nil, contains storage for the last address
+	// used to (successfully) connect to the control server. It will be
+	// prioritized when making a connection to the server.
+	//
+	// If nil, no last address will be stored or used.
+	LastServerAddr *syncs.AtomicValue[netip.Addr]
 }
 
 // NewNoiseClient returns a new noiseClient for the provided server and machine key.
@@ -237,16 +247,17 @@ func NewNoiseClient(opts NoiseOpts) (*NoiseClient, error) {
 	}
 
 	np := &NoiseClient{
-		serverPubKey: opts.ServerPubKey,
-		privKey:      opts.PrivKey,
-		host:         u.Hostname(),
-		httpPort:     httpPort,
-		httpsPort:    httpsPort,
-		dialer:       opts.Dialer,
-		dnsCache:     opts.DNSCache,
-		dialPlan:     opts.DialPlan,
-		logf:         opts.Logf,
-		netMon:       opts.NetMon,
+		serverPubKey:   opts.ServerPubKey,
+		privKey:        opts.PrivKey,
+		host:           u.Hostname(),
+		httpPort:       httpPort,
+		httpsPort:      httpsPort,
+		dialer:         opts.Dialer,
+		dnsCache:       opts.DNSCache,
+		dialPlan:       opts.DialPlan,
+		lastServerAddr: opts.LastServerAddr,
+		logf:           opts.Logf,
+		netMon:         opts.NetMon,
 	}
 
 	// Create the HTTP/2 Transport using a net/http.Transport
@@ -334,6 +345,14 @@ func (nc *NoiseClient) getConn(ctx context.Context) (*noiseConn, error) {
 		})
 		var ce contextErr
 		if err == nil || !errors.As(err, &ce) {
+			// Store this address as our last-successful address for future
+			// use if we need to reconnect.
+			if nc.lastServerAddr != nil {
+				if addr, err := netip.ParseAddrPort(conn.RemoteAddr().String()); err == nil {
+					nc.lastServerAddr.Store(addr.Addr())
+				}
+			}
+
 			return conn, err
 		}
 		if ctx.Err() == nil {
@@ -429,6 +448,16 @@ func (nc *NoiseClient) dial(ctx context.Context) (*noiseConn, error) {
 	// handshake.
 	timeoutSec += 5
 
+	// If we have a last server address, then give ourselves a bit more
+	// time to try it first.
+	var lastAddr netip.Addr
+	if nc.lastServerAddr != nil {
+		lastAddr = nc.lastServerAddr.Load()
+	}
+	if lastAddr.IsValid() {
+		timeoutSec += 5
+	}
+
 	// Be extremely defensive and ensure that the timeout is in the range
 	// [5, 60] seconds (e.g. if we accidentally get a negative number).
 	if timeoutSec > 60 {
@@ -451,6 +480,7 @@ func (nc *NoiseClient) dial(ctx context.Context) (*noiseConn, error) {
 		Dialer:          nc.dialer.SystemDial,
 		DNSCache:        nc.dnsCache,
 		DialPlan:        dialPlan,
+		LastServerAddr:  lastAddr,
 		Logf:            nc.logf,
 		NetMon:          nc.netMon,
 		Clock:           tstime.StdClock{},

control/controlhttp/client.go

@@ -95,6 +95,17 @@ func (a *Dialer) httpsFallbackDelay() time.Duration {
 var _ = envknob.RegisterBool("TS_USE_CONTROL_DIAL_PLAN") // to record at init time whether it's in use
 
 func (a *Dialer) dial(ctx context.Context) (*ClientConn, error) {
+	// If we have a last used address, try that first, but time out fairly
+	// aggressively in case it's actually down.
+	if a.LastServerAddr.IsValid() {
+		lastDialCtx, lastDialCancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 5*time.Second)
+		defer lastDialCancel()
+		conn, err := a.dialHost(lastDialCtx, a.LastServerAddr)
+		if err == nil {
+			return conn, nil
+		}
+	}
+
 	// If we don't have a dial plan, just fall back to dialing the single
 	// host we know about.
 	useDialPlan := envknob.BoolDefaultTrue("TS_USE_CONTROL_DIAL_PLAN")

control/controlhttp/constants.go

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package controlhttp
 
 import (
 	"net/http"
+	"net/netip"
 	"net/url"
 	"time"
 
@@ -84,6 +85,11 @@ type Dialer struct {
 	// plan before falling back to DNS.
 	DialPlan *tailcfg.ControlDialPlan
 
+	// LastServerAddr, if valid, is the address that was last used to
+	// (successfully) connect to the control server. It will be prioritized
+	// when making a connection to the server.
+	LastServerAddr netip.Addr
+
 	proxyFunc func(*http.Request) (*url.URL, error) // or nil
 
 	// For tests only