agent-skills/skills/nestjs-best-practices/rules/micro-use-health-checks.md

title, impact, impactDescription, tags

title	impact	impactDescription	tags
Implement Health Checks for Microservices	MEDIUM-HIGH	Health checks enable orchestrators to manage service lifecycle	microservices, health-checks, terminus, kubernetes

Implement Health Checks for Microservices

Implement liveness and readiness probes using @nestjs/terminus. Liveness checks determine if the service should be restarted. Readiness checks determine if the service can accept traffic. Proper health checks enable Kubernetes and load balancers to route traffic correctly.

Incorrect (simple ping that doesn't check dependencies):

// Simple ping that doesn't check dependencies
@Controller('health')
export class HealthController {
  @Get()
  check(): string {
    return 'OK'; // Service might be unhealthy but returns OK
  }
}

// Health check that blocks on slow dependencies
@Controller('health')
export class HealthController {
  @Get()
  async check(): Promise<string> {
    // If database is slow, health check times out
    await this.userRepo.findOne({ where: { id: '1' } });
    await this.redis.ping();
    await this.externalApi.healthCheck();
    return 'OK';
  }
}

Correct (use @nestjs/terminus for comprehensive health checks):

// Use @nestjs/terminus for comprehensive health checks
import {
  HealthCheckService,
  HttpHealthIndicator,
  TypeOrmHealthIndicator,
  HealthCheck,
  DiskHealthIndicator,
  MemoryHealthIndicator,
} from '@nestjs/terminus';

@Controller('health')
export class HealthController {
  constructor(
    private health: HealthCheckService,
    private http: HttpHealthIndicator,
    private db: TypeOrmHealthIndicator,
    private disk: DiskHealthIndicator,
    private memory: MemoryHealthIndicator,
  ) {}

  // Liveness probe - is the service alive?
  @Get('live')
  @HealthCheck()
  liveness() {
    return this.health.check([
      // Basic checks only
      () => this.memory.checkHeap('memory_heap', 200 * 1024 * 1024), // 200MB
    ]);
  }

  // Readiness probe - can the service handle traffic?
  @Get('ready')
  @HealthCheck()
  readiness() {
    return this.health.check([
      () => this.db.pingCheck('database'),
      () =>
        this.http.pingCheck('redis', 'http://redis:6379', { timeout: 1000 }),
      () =>
        this.disk.checkStorage('disk', { path: '/', thresholdPercent: 0.9 }),
    ]);
  }

  // Deep health check for debugging
  @Get('deep')
  @HealthCheck()
  deepCheck() {
    return this.health.check([
      () => this.db.pingCheck('database'),
      () => this.memory.checkHeap('memory_heap', 200 * 1024 * 1024),
      () => this.memory.checkRSS('memory_rss', 300 * 1024 * 1024),
      () =>
        this.disk.checkStorage('disk', { path: '/', thresholdPercent: 0.9 }),
      () =>
        this.http.pingCheck('external-api', 'https://api.example.com/health'),
    ]);
  }
}

// Custom indicator for business-specific health
@Injectable()
export class QueueHealthIndicator extends HealthIndicator {
  constructor(private queueService: QueueService) {
    super();
  }

  async isHealthy(key: string): Promise<HealthIndicatorResult> {
    const queueStats = await this.queueService.getStats();

    const isHealthy = queueStats.failedCount < 100;
    const result = this.getStatus(key, isHealthy, {
      waiting: queueStats.waitingCount,
      active: queueStats.activeCount,
      failed: queueStats.failedCount,
    });

    if (!isHealthy) {
      throw new HealthCheckError('Queue unhealthy', result);
    }

    return result;
  }
}

// Redis health indicator
@Injectable()
export class RedisHealthIndicator extends HealthIndicator {
  constructor(@InjectRedis() private redis: Redis) {
    super();
  }

  async isHealthy(key: string): Promise<HealthIndicatorResult> {
    try {
      const pong = await this.redis.ping();
      return this.getStatus(key, pong === 'PONG');
    } catch (error) {
      throw new HealthCheckError('Redis check failed', this.getStatus(key, false));
    }
  }
}

// Use custom indicators
@Get('ready')
@HealthCheck()
readiness() {
  return this.health.check([
    () => this.db.pingCheck('database'),
    () => this.redis.isHealthy('redis'),
    () => this.queue.isHealthy('job-queue'),
  ]);
}

// Graceful shutdown handling
@Injectable()
export class GracefulShutdownService implements OnApplicationShutdown {
  private isShuttingDown = false;

  isShutdown(): boolean {
    return this.isShuttingDown;
  }

  async onApplicationShutdown(signal: string): Promise<void> {
    this.isShuttingDown = true;
    console.log(`Shutting down on ${signal}`);

    // Wait for in-flight requests
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));
  }
}

// Health check respects shutdown state
@Get('ready')
@HealthCheck()
readiness() {
  if (this.shutdownService.isShutdown()) {
    throw new ServiceUnavailableException('Shutting down');
  }

  return this.health.check([
    () => this.db.pingCheck('database'),
  ]);
}

Kubernetes Configuration

# Kubernetes deployment with probes
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: api-service
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: api
          image: api-service:latest
          ports:
            - containerPort: 3000
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health/live
              port: 3000
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            periodSeconds: 10
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 3
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health/ready
              port: 3000
            initialDelaySeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 5
            timeoutSeconds: 3
            failureThreshold: 3
          startupProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health/live
              port: 3000
            initialDelaySeconds: 0
            periodSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 30

Reference: NestJS Terminus