# Configure Request Mirroring

Type of document: How-to guide
Product: NGINX Gateway Fabric

---


Learn how to mirror your HTTP or gRPC traffic using NGINX Gateway Fabric.

## Overview

[HTTPRoute](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/httproute/) and [GRPCRoute](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/grpcroute/) filters can be used to configure request mirroring. Mirroring copies a request to another backend.

In this guide, we will set up two applications, **coffee** and **tea**, and mirror requests between them. All requests
sent to the **coffee** application will also be sent to the **tea** application automatically.

## Before you begin

- [Install](/ngf/install/) NGINX Gateway Fabric.

## Set up

Create the **coffee** and **tea** applications in Kubernetes by copying and pasting the following block into your terminal:

```yaml
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: coffee
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: coffee
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: coffee
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: coffee
        image: nginxdemos/nginx-hello:plain-text
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: coffee
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
    protocol: TCP
    name: http
  selector:
    app: coffee
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: tea
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: tea
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: tea
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: tea
        image: nginxdemos/nginx-hello:plain-text
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: tea
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
    protocol: TCP
    name: http
  selector:
    app: tea
EOF
```

Run the following command to verify the resources were created:

```shell
kubectl get pods,svc
```

Your output should include the pods and services for **coffee** and **tea**:

```text
NAME                          READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE
pod/coffee-676c9f8944-dxvkt   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          3s
pod/tea-6fbfdcb95d-xl22n      0/1     ContainerCreating   0          3s

NAME                 TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)   AGE
service/coffee       ClusterIP   10.96.151.184   <none>        80/TCP    3s
service/tea          ClusterIP   10.96.185.235   <none>        80/TCP    3s
```

---

## Configure request mirroring

First, create the **cafe** Gateway resource:

```yaml
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: cafe
spec:
  gatewayClassName: nginx
  listeners:
  - name: http
    port: 80
    protocol: HTTP
EOF
```

After creating the Gateway resource, NGINX Gateway Fabric will provision an NGINX Pod and Service fronting it to route traffic. Verify the gateway is created:

```shell
kubectl describe gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io cafe
```

Verify the status is `Accepted`:

```text
Status:
  Addresses:
    Type:   IPAddress
    Value:  10.96.36.219
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2026-01-09T05:40:37Z
    Message:               The Gateway is accepted
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Accepted
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Accepted
    Last Transition Time:  2026-01-09T05:40:37Z
    Message:               The Gateway is programmed
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Programmed
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Programmed
```

Save the public IP address and port(s) of the Gateway into shell variables:

```text
GW_IP=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.III
GW_PORT=<port number>
```

**Note:** 

In a production environment, you should have a DNS record for the external IP address that is exposed, and it should refer to the hostname that the gateway will forward for.

Now create an HTTPRoute that defines a RequestMirror filter that copies all requests sent to `/coffee` to be sent to the **coffee** backend and mirrored to the **tea** backend. Use the following command:

```yaml
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: mirror
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: cafe
    sectionName: http
  hostnames:
  - "cafe.example.com"
  rules:
  - matches:
    - path:
        type: PathPrefix
        value: /coffee
    filters:
    - type: RequestMirror
      requestMirror:
        backendRef:
          name: tea
          port: 80
    backendRefs:
    - name: coffee
      port: 80
EOF
```

Test the configuration:

You can send traffic using the external IP address and port saved earlier:

```shell
curl --resolve cafe.example.com:$GW_PORT:$GW_IP http://cafe.example.com:$GW_PORT/coffee
```

This request should receive a response from the `coffee` Pod:

```text
Server address: 10.244.0.13:8080
Server name: coffee-676c9f8944-dxvkt
```

Now, check the logs of the **tea** application:

```shell
kubectl logs deployments/tea
```

You should see a log that looks similar to the following:

```text
10.244.0.12 - - [17/Apr/2025:18:44:21 +0000] "GET /coffee HTTP/1.1" 200 158 "-" "curl/8.7.1" "127.0.0.1"
```

This shows that the request to `/coffee` was mirrored to the **tea** application.

## See also

To learn more about request mirroring using the Gateway API, see the following resource:

- [Gateway API request mirroring](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/guides/http-request-mirroring/)