Service Mesh

Istio Installation

# Install Istio CLI
curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | sh -
export PATH=$PWD/istio-*/bin:$PATH

# Install Istio with default profile
istioctl install --set profile=default -y

# Enable sidecar injection for namespace
kubectl label namespace production istio-injection=enabled

# Verify installation
istioctl verify-install
kubectl get pods -n istio-system

Istio Profiles

# Minimal - only control plane
istioctl install --set profile=minimal

# Default - control plane + ingress gateway
istioctl install --set profile=default

# Demo - includes egress gateway, extra features
istioctl install --set profile=demo

# Production - tuned for production
istioctl install --set profile=default \
  --set values.global.proxy.resources.requests.cpu=100m \
  --set values.global.proxy.resources.requests.memory=128Mi \
  --set values.global.proxy.resources.limits.cpu=500m \
  --set values.global.proxy.resources.limits.memory=256Mi

VirtualService

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
spec:
  hosts:
    - myapp
    - myapp.example.com
  gateways:
    - mesh                    # Internal mesh traffic
    - myapp-gateway           # External gateway
  http:
    # Route based on headers
    - match:
        - headers:
            x-version:
              exact: "v2"
      route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp
            subset: v2

    # Canary release (90/10 split)
    - match:
        - uri:
            prefix: /api
      route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp
            subset: v1
          weight: 90
        - destination:
            host: myapp
            subset: v2
          weight: 10

    # Default route
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp
            subset: v1
      timeout: 30s
      retries:
        attempts: 3
        perTryTimeout: 10s
        retryOn: connect-failure,refused-stream,503

DestinationRule

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
spec:
  host: myapp
  trafficPolicy:
    connectionPool:
      tcp:
        maxConnections: 100
        connectTimeout: 5s
      http:
        h2UpgradePolicy: UPGRADE
        http1MaxPendingRequests: 100
        http2MaxRequests: 1000
        maxRequestsPerConnection: 100
    loadBalancer:
      simple: LEAST_REQUEST
    outlierDetection:
      consecutive5xxErrors: 5
      interval: 10s
      baseEjectionTime: 30s
      maxEjectionPercent: 50
  subsets:
    - name: v1
      labels:
        version: v1
      trafficPolicy:
        loadBalancer:
          simple: ROUND_ROBIN
    - name: v2
      labels:
        version: v2

Gateway

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: myapp-gateway
  namespace: production
spec:
  selector:
    istio: ingressgateway
  servers:
    - port:
        number: 80
        name: http
        protocol: HTTP
      hosts:
        - myapp.example.com
      tls:
        httpsRedirect: true
    - port:
        number: 443
        name: https
        protocol: HTTPS
      hosts:
        - myapp.example.com
      tls:
        mode: SIMPLE
        credentialName: myapp-tls-secret

Traffic Mirroring (Shadow Traffic)

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: myapp-mirror
  namespace: production
spec:
  hosts:
    - myapp
  http:
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp
            subset: v1
      mirror:
        host: myapp
        subset: v2
      mirrorPercentage:
        value: 100.0

mTLS Configuration

# Strict mTLS for namespace
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: PeerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: production
spec:
  mtls:
    mode: STRICT
---
# Per-workload mTLS
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: PeerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: legacy-service
  namespace: production
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: legacy-service
  mtls:
    mode: PERMISSIVE  # Allow both mTLS and plaintext
---
# Mesh-wide mTLS policy
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: PeerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  mtls:
    mode: STRICT

Authorization Policy

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: myapp-authz
  namespace: production
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myapp
  action: ALLOW
  rules:
    # Allow from specific service accounts
    - from:
        - source:
            principals:
              - "cluster.local/ns/production/sa/frontend"
              - "cluster.local/ns/production/sa/api-gateway"
      to:
        - operation:
            methods: ["GET", "POST"]
            paths: ["/api/*"]

    # Allow health checks from anywhere
    - to:
        - operation:
            methods: ["GET"]
            paths: ["/health", "/ready"]

    # Deny all other traffic (implicit deny when rules exist)

Circuit Breaker

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: myapp-circuit-breaker
  namespace: production
spec:
  host: myapp
  trafficPolicy:
    connectionPool:
      tcp:
        maxConnections: 50
      http:
        http1MaxPendingRequests: 100
        http2MaxRequests: 100
        maxRequestsPerConnection: 10
    outlierDetection:
      consecutive5xxErrors: 3
      interval: 10s
      baseEjectionTime: 30s
      maxEjectionPercent: 100
      minHealthPercent: 0

Fault Injection (Testing)

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: myapp-fault
  namespace: production
spec:
  hosts:
    - myapp
  http:
    - match:
        - headers:
            x-test-fault:
              exact: "inject"
      fault:
        delay:
          percentage:
            value: 50
          fixedDelay: 5s
        abort:
          percentage:
            value: 10
          httpStatus: 503
      route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: myapp

Linkerd Installation

# Install Linkerd CLI
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSfL https://run.linkerd.io/install | sh
export PATH=$HOME/.linkerd2/bin:$PATH

# Validate cluster
linkerd check --pre

# Install CRDs
linkerd install --crds | kubectl apply -f -

# Install control plane
linkerd install | kubectl apply -f -

# Check installation
linkerd check

# Enable injection for namespace
kubectl annotate namespace production linkerd.io/inject=enabled

# Inject existing deployments
kubectl get deploy -n production -o yaml | linkerd inject - | kubectl apply -f -

Linkerd Service Profile

apiVersion: linkerd.io/v1alpha2
kind: ServiceProfile
metadata:
  name: myapp.production.svc.cluster.local
  namespace: production
spec:
  routes:
    - name: GET /api/users
      condition:
        method: GET
        pathRegex: /api/users
      responseClasses:
        - condition:
            status:
              min: 500
              max: 599
          isFailure: true
      timeout: 5s

    - name: POST /api/orders
      condition:
        method: POST
        pathRegex: /api/orders
      isRetryable: true
      timeout: 10s

  retryBudget:
    retryRatio: 0.2
    minRetriesPerSecond: 10
    ttl: 10s

Linkerd Traffic Split (Canary)

apiVersion: split.smi-spec.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficSplit
metadata:
  name: myapp-canary
  namespace: production
spec:
  service: myapp
  backends:
    - service: myapp-v1
      weight: 900m    # 90%
    - service: myapp-v2
      weight: 100m    # 10%

Multi-Cluster Mesh (Istio)

# Primary cluster - create remote secret
istioctl x create-remote-secret \
  --context=cluster1 \
  --name=cluster1 | kubectl apply -f - --context=cluster2

# Enable endpoint discovery
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  values:
    global:
      meshID: mesh1
      multiCluster:
        clusterName: cluster1
      network: network1

Kiali Dashboard

# Install Kiali
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/release-1.20/samples/addons/kiali.yaml

# Access dashboard
istioctl dashboard kiali

Jaeger Tracing

# Install Jaeger
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/release-1.20/samples/addons/jaeger.yaml

# Access dashboard
istioctl dashboard jaeger

Service Mesh Comparison

Best Practices

1. Start with permissive mTLS, migrate to strict gradually
2. Use circuit breakers to prevent cascade failures
3. Set reasonable timeouts and retry budgets
4. Enable distributed tracing for observability
5. Test with fault injection before production
6. Monitor sidecar resource usage and tune accordingly
7. Use traffic mirroring to validate new versions safely
8. Implement authorization policies for zero-trust
9. Keep service mesh version updated for security patches
10. Document traffic routing decisions in VirtualServices