Kubernetes Istio simply visually explained
So what is this Istio everyone is talking about?
Make sure you understand Kubernetes Services from Part 1:
- Part 1: Kubernetes Services simply visually explained
- Part 2: Kubernetes Ingress simply visually explained
- Part 3: (this article)
- Part 4: Kubernetes Serverless simply visually explained
TL;DR / what is Istio?
Istio is a Service Mesh which allows for more detailed, complex and observable communication between pods and services in the cluster.
It manages this by extending the Kubernetes API with CRDs. It injects proxy containers into all pods which then control the traffic in the cluster.
Kubernetes Services
From here on you should already understand Kubernetes services, you can read part 1 of this series. We will now shortly dive into how Kubernetes services are implemented. I think this helps to understand how Istio does things the same and different.