Service Mesh Guide

This guide covers the implementation and management of service mesh architecture to enhance microservices communication, security, and observability.

Service Mesh Fundamentals

Core Concepts

1. Service Mesh Architecture

   • Control plane
   • Data plane
   • Sidecar proxies
   • Service discovery

2. Key Features

   • Traffic management
   • Security
   • Observability
   • Policy enforcement

3. Design Patterns

   • Circuit breaking
   • Retry policies
   • Load balancing
   • Fault injection

Basic Configuration

Initial Setup

# Initialize service mesh
./mesh-setup.sh --init \
  --provider istio \
  --profile production \
  --auto-inject

# Configure basic features
./mesh-setup.sh --configure \
  --mtls enabled \
  --tracing enabled \
  --metrics enabled

Basic Operations

# Deploy service mesh
./mesh-setup.sh --deploy \
  --namespace production \
  --gateway enabled \
  --monitoring enabled

# Configure routing
./mesh-setup.sh --routing \
  --service frontend \
  --destination backend \
  --timeout 2s

Configuration Files

Basic Mesh Configuration

# /etc/lambdasoftworks/mesh/config.yml
mesh:
  name: "production-mesh"
  version: "1.0"
  
  global:
    mtls: true
    proxy:
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: "100m"
          memory: "128Mi"
        limits:
          cpu: "2000m"
          memory: "1024Mi"
          
  gateways:
    - name: "public-gateway"
      selector:
        istio: ingressgateway
      servers:
        - port:
            number: 80
            name: http
            protocol: HTTP
          hosts:
            - "*"
            
  services:
    - name: "frontend"
      namespace: "production"
      version: "v1"
      ports:
        - name: http
          port: 80
          
    - name: "backend"
      namespace: "production"
      version: "v1"
      ports:
        - name: http
          port: 8080

Advanced Mesh Configuration

# /etc/lambdasoftworks/mesh/advanced-config.yml
mesh:
  name: "enterprise-mesh"
  provider: "istio"
  
  control_plane:
    components:
      pilot:
        enabled: true
        k8s:
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: "500m"
              memory: "2048Mi"
            limits:
              cpu: "4000m"
              memory: "4096Mi"
              
      citadel:
        enabled: true
        self_signed_ca: true
        
      galley:
        enabled: true
        validation:
          enabled: true
          
    monitoring:
      prometheus:
        enabled: true
        retention: "15d"
      grafana:
        enabled: true
        dashboards: ["mesh-overview", "service-dashboard"]
        
  data_plane:
    proxy:
      image: "istio/proxyv2"
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: "100m"
          memory: "128Mi"
        limits:
          cpu: "2000m"
          memory: "1024Mi"
          
      networking:
        dns_refresh: "5s"
        protocol_detection: true
        upstream_timeout: "15s"
        
      telemetry:
        stats_tags: ["service", "version", "namespace"]
        access_logging: true
        
  security:
    authentication:
      mtls:
        mode: "STRICT"
        auto_upgrade: true
        
      jwt:
        enabled: true
        issuer: "https://auth.company.com"
        
    authorization:
      enabled: true
      mode: "CUSTOM"
      policies:
        - name: "service-to-service"
          namespace: "production"
          rules:
            - from:
                source:
                  principals: ["cluster.local/ns/production/*"]
              to:
                operation:
                  methods: ["GET", "POST"]
                  paths: ["/api/*"]
                  
  traffic_management:
    load_balancing:
      simple: "ROUND_ROBIN"
      consistent_hash:
        http_header: "x-user-id"
        
    circuit_breaking:
      default:
        max_connections: 100
        max_pending_requests: 100
        max_requests: 1000
        max_retries: 3
        
    fault_injection:
      delay:
        percentage:
          value: 0.1
        fixed_delay: "5s"
      abort:
        percentage:
          value: 0.01
        http_status: 500
        
    retry:
      attempts: 3
      per_try_timeout: "2s"
      retryOn:
        - "connect-failure"
        - "refused-stream"
        - "unavailable"
        - "cancelled"
        - "retriable-status-codes"
        
  observability:
    tracing:
      provider: "jaeger"
      sampling: 100
      
    metrics:
      prometheus:
        - name: "request_duration_seconds"
          help: "Request duration in seconds"
          type: "histogram"
          buckets: [0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 5]
          
    logging:
      access_log:
        file:
          path: "/dev/stdout"
          format: "json"
        filter:
          response_flag: "NR"

Advanced Operations

Traffic Management

# Configure traffic routing
./mesh-manage.sh --traffic \
  --service frontend \
  --subset v1=90,v2=10 \
  --timeout 2s

# Set up circuit breaking
./mesh-manage.sh --circuit-breaker \
  --service backend \
  --max-requests 1000 \
  --max-retries 3

Security Configuration

# Configure mTLS
./mesh-manage.sh --security \
  --mtls strict \
  --auto-upgrade \
  --rotation-interval 24h

# Set up authorization
./mesh-manage.sh --auth \
  --policy service-to-service \
  --namespace production \
  --rules auth-rules.yaml

Monitoring and Observability

Setup Monitoring

# Configure mesh monitoring
./mesh-monitor.sh --setup \
  --components "tracing,metrics,logging" \
  --retention 30d \
  --dashboards all

# Configure alerts
./mesh-monitor.sh --alerts \
  --rules-file mesh-alerts.yml \
  --notification-channels all

Example Alert Rules

# /etc/lambdasoftworks/mesh/alerts.yml
groups:
  - name: "mesh-alerts"
    rules:
      - alert: "HighLatency"
        expr: |
          histogram_quantile(0.95, 
            sum(rate(request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m])) 
            by (le, service)
          ) > 1
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
          
      - alert: "HighErrorRate"
        expr: |
          sum(rate(request_total{response_code=~"5.*"}[5m])) 
          / 
          sum(rate(request_total[5m])) 
          > 0.05
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: critical

Best Practices

Implementation

1. Architecture

   • Gradual adoption
   • Service isolation
   • Resource allocation
   • Failure domains

2. Security

   • mTLS everywhere
   • Authorization policies
   • Certificate management
   • Security monitoring

3. Performance

   • Resource optimization
   • Cache strategies
   • Connection pooling
   • Load balancing

Operations

1. Deployment

   • Canary releases
   • Blue-green deployment
   • Traffic shifting
   • Rollback procedures

2. Monitoring

   • Service metrics
   • Distributed tracing
   • Access logging
   • Health checks

3. Maintenance

   • Version upgrades
   • Configuration updates
   • Policy management
   • Performance tuning

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Connectivity Problems

# Diagnose connectivity
./mesh-manage.sh --diagnose \
  --service frontend \
  --destination backend \
  --verbose

# Test service mesh
./mesh-manage.sh --test \
  --service all \
  --generate-load \
  --duration 5m

2. Performance Issues

# Analyze performance
./mesh-manage.sh --analyze \
  --service backend \
  --metrics all \
  --time-range 1h

# Optimize resources
./mesh-manage.sh --optimize \
  --component proxy \
  --auto-tune \
  --apply

Next Steps

• Auto Scaling Guide
• Load Balancing Guide
• Traffic Management
• Security Policies