Service Mesh

Jan 1, 0001

Definition

A service mesh is an infrastructure layer that manages service-to-service communication within a microservices architecture. It provides features such as load balancing, service discovery, encryption, authentication, and observability, often through sidecar proxies deployed alongside application services. Service meshes help decouple complex networking logic from application code, enhancing security and reliability.

Secure Settings Example

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: secure-service
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    tls:
      mode: ISTIO_MUTUAL

In this Istio example, mutual TLS (mTLS) is enabled to encrypt traffic between services, ensuring secure communication.

Insecure Settings Example

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: insecure-service
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    tls:
      mode: DISABLE

This configuration disables TLS, leaving service-to-service communication unencrypted and vulnerable to interception.