Istio: Up and Running: Using a Service Mesh to Connect, Secure, Control, and Observe

by Lee calcote, Zack Butcher

You did it. You successfully transformed your application into a microservices architecture. But now that you’re running services across different environments―public to public, private to public, virtual machine to container―your cloud native software is beginning to encounter reliability issues. How do you stay on top of this ever-increasing complexity? With the Istio service mesh, you’ll be able to manage traffic, control access, monitor, report, get telemetry data, manage quota, trace, and more with resilience across your microservice. In this book, Lee Calcote and Zack Butcher explain why your services need a service mesh and demonstrate step-by-step how Istio fits into the life cycle of a distributed application. You’ll learn about the tools and APIs for enabling and managing many of the features found in Istio.

Genres: Technology, Programming

268 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2019

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski]

No rating, for a few reasons:
* I haven't tried the example scenarios - can't tell whether they work or not
* advanced scenario & many of observability considerations required expertise I don't have atm
* this book has a composition of a technology tutorial - it tries to present the technology in details, but it doesn't "jump into your shoes" - e.g. it doesn't try to answer practical questions regarding to migration, running services at scale, etc. - it assumes that when you build the "hard-skill" expertise, you'll answer the questions yourself

OK, so what did I like? Introduction to service meshes, description of Istio architecture (which component does what, etc.), being K8s-agnostic (but other options where not presented in detail), up-to-dateness, in-depth description of the service proxy & control plane, clear chapter about security.

What didn't I like? Some chapters felt like they are super-specific, but in a way that will quickly get outdated or will be useful in a very few, specific cases: e.g. the one about Mixer (c'mon, the next chapter is on observability anyway ...) & trouble-shooting. The biggest disappointment was "real-life considerations" - totally NOT what I was expecting - more like a collection of fuck-up scenarios than a guideline to application of service mesh concept in practical reality.

In the end: it's not a bad book. I've got what I wanted, but in my specific case - I believe I could have got it from 30% of book's capacity. Still - if you want a book on Istio, this is probably the best option at the moment.

[Aboullaite Mohammed · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the greatest book available about istio in the market at the moment of writing this comment!

[Srinivasan Nanduri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike other Up & Running series books. Deficient explanation on critical concepts. Inadequate illustrations / diagrams evident through out

[Nofar Spalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on Istio and service meshes. It’s somewhat dated though, so make sure to consult the current documentation while you read it to better understand Istio’s moving parts.