rate limiting not working

[RaresPauna]

    async with meraki.aio.AsyncDashboardAPI(

    api_key='xyz',

    base_url='https://api.meraki.com/api/v1',

    output_log=False,

    print_console=True,

    suppress_logging=True,

    wait_on_rate_limit=True,

    maximum_retries=100,

    maximum_concurrent_requests=5

) as aiomeraki:

        org_vlan_tasks = [asyncio.create_task(process_organization_vlans(aiomeraki,org,vlan_std_keys,severities)) for org in organizations]

        await asyncio.gather(*org_vlan_tasks)

    for network in organization['networks']:

        tasks.append(asyncio.create_task((process_organization_vlans(aiomeraki,network,vlan_std_keys,organization,severities))))

The smallest function in the chain, uses the initialized meraki.aio dashboard to get vlans. I get multiple 429 errors, and i don't understand why, because i used maximum_concurent_requests at half the threshold, and I am the only one doing api calls on this organization

[RaresPauna]

Looking at logs, I see more than 5 calls pers second, I can't see where the issue is hiding

[sungod]

When I've tried maximum_concurent_requests it didn't seem to work.

Don't worry about 429s, use wait/retry

Of course if there are too many retries the Python library call will eventualy fail (with 429), so you just add an extra delay then try it again.

This works for me across many organizations, some with hundreds of networks and thousands of devices, i.e. a lot of concurrent calls, and of course a lot of 429s, which are not a problem as they are handled as above.

[RaresPauna]

Thank you @sungod. Can you show me an example of o the wait/retry mechanism ?

[sungod]

It's built into the Meraki Python library, you can see it in the github repository.

If you mean the additional one I sometimes add to scripts that can generate lots of calls, just put the library call inside a loop, then use try/except to detect a 429 (i.e. the internal wait/retry in the library call has had too many retries), if there's a 429, wait a while, then do continue to restart the loop, if all went well, exit the loop.

I use an increasing delay inside the loop, ten seconds first time, increasing exponentially to about 5 minutes, after that give up and exit as there's either a fault or someone else is constantly hitting the API and using up the call budget.

[RaresPauna]

There is one thing i don't understand. How do you use try/except to detect a 429 ? Because the

AsyncRestSession code for 429 is this: 

                elif status == 429:

                    wait = 0

                    if "Retry-After" in response.headers:

                        wait = int(response.headers["Retry-After"])

                    else:

                        wait = random.randint(1, self._nginx_429_retry_wait_time)

                    if self._logger:

                        self._logger.warning(

                            f"{tag}, {operation} > {abs_url} - {status} {reason}, retrying in {wait} seconds"

                        )

                    await asyncio.sleep(wait)
So it is not raising any exception, therefore you can't catch it in your functions.

[sungod]

This detects 429, it's from a 4-year old snippet of code, but it's still running ok...

        try:
            # get list of devices on network
            connectstats = await aiomeraki.wireless.getNetworkWirelessDevicesConnectionStats(net['id'], t0=starttime, t1=endtime, ssid=netssid['number'])
        except meraki.AsyncAPIError as e:
            if "429 Too Many Requests" in str(e):
                #print(f'stats had a 429', file=sys.stderr)
                time.sleep(10 * attempt)
                continue
            print(f'mrssids stats Meraki API error: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
            return
        except Exception as e:
            continue
#            print(f'mrssids stats some other error: {e}',

[RaresPauna]

I can't enter the except block, when i ecnonter 429, meraki aio returns it as a warning, so it's not being raised

[sungod]

If you are seeing 'warnings' in the log, that is irrelevant, it just means a 429 occurred and a retry will be performed, that is correct behaviour, it is not an error.

An APIError exception is only raised when the Meraki library 429 retry limit is reached.

See the Meraki library code...

                # Rate limit 429 errors
                elif status == 429:
                    if 'Retry-After' in response.headers:
                        wait = int(response.headers['Retry-After'])
                    else:
                        wait = random.randint(1, self._nginx_429_retry_wait_time)
                    if self._logger:
                        self._logger.warning(f'{tag}, {operation} - {status} {reason}, retrying in {wait} seconds')
                    time.sleep(wait)
                    retries -= 1
                    if retries == 0:
                        raise APIError(metadata, response)

[RaresPauna]

Hello, one question here. I see that you use sleep, but how do you retry the endpoint after ?

[Oren]

As @sungod mentioned, the Python SDK should take care of it automatically. 
If your calls fail with 100 max retries, I’d look at the API analytics page and check what’s consuming your budget.

[sungod]

I posted two things wth a sleep....

Above is the 429 code in the Meraki Python library itself, so you can see what it does when the retry limit is reached.

This is where it raises the exception once it has run out of retries.

Then you can catch that exception, and decide what to do.

The code snippet before that is mine, you can see how the except catches the exception raised by the Meraki library call and then decides whether to add extra delay and continue (it is sitting in a while loop) to try the call again, or give up and exit.