Service mesh
On this page 9 topics
Overview
Topics
- mTLS
- traffic management
- policy enforcement
- trade-offs
Learn first
3 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Explain what a service mesh provides (mTLS, traffic management, telemetry, policy) and how sidecar and sidecar-less meshes differ.
- Configure mTLS and traffic splitting for a canary.
- Decide whether a mesh is worth its operational cost compared with library-based alternatives.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
SRB-009-LAB1 · Mesh decision
Outcomes: 1, 2, 3 · Time: ~3 h
- Define the problems the mesh should solve for Shop and FulfillCo services.
- Trial a mesh on a subset of services with mTLS and a canary.
- Measure latency overhead, resource use, and operational effort.
- Write the adopt or reject ADR with alternatives.
Acceptance: decision supported by measurements.
Exercises
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| SRB-009-EX01 | 1 | List what FulfillCo would gain from a mesh and what it can get without one. |
| SRB-009-EX02 | 1 | Compare sidecar and sidecar-less for 200 small services. |
| SRB-009-EX03 | 2 | Write the policy for mTLS and who may call payments. |
| SRB-009-EX04 | 2 | Design a canary split 95/5 with rollback conditions. |
| SRB-009-EX05 | 3 | A team wants a mesh to fix unclear service ownership. Respond. |
| SRB-009-EX06 | 3 | Spot the problem: mesh retries 3 times and the client retries 3 times. |
Show solutions
- EX01 mTLS, canary, uniform telemetry versus libraries, gateway, cert manager.
- EX02 Sidecar costs 200 proxies of resources; sidecar-less reduces overhead but verify maturity and isolation.
- EX03 Strict mTLS; allow only checkout identity; deny others.
- EX04 Route weights, success-rate and latency thresholds, automatic rollback.
- EX05 A mesh cannot fix ownership; address process; revisit when technical need is proven.
- EX06 Up to 9 attempts; amplification; pick one owner of retries and budget them.
Workplace evidence: a platform technology adoption or rejection you led with evidence.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 mesh capabilities · O2 mTLS and canary · O3 adopt or reject.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
ADR defense: present the lab ADR and defend its measurements. Pass: 70% on the quiz and an ADR citing measured latency and effort.
Common mistakes
Adopting a mesh to fix problems of process; duplicate retries in mesh and code.
Assessment
ADR defense.
Workplace evidence
A platform technology adoption or rejection you led with evidence.
Career relevance
Security architecture (SRB-016) and platform strategy (STF-004).