Cloud DevOps Admin Guide

Microservices are a popular architecture choice for building modern, scalable applications. However, as applications become more distributed and complex, security becomes a larger concern. In this article, we will explore how Istio, an open-source service mesh, can be used to secure microservices running on Kubernetes.

What is Istio?

Istio is an open-source service mesh that provides a number of capabilities for securing, controlling, and observing microservices. It consists of a number of components, including:

• Envoy: A high-performance, open-source edge and service proxy that runs alongside each service in a microservices environment.
• Mixer: A policy and telemetry hub that enforces access controls and gathers telemetry data from Envoy proxies.
• Pilot: A traffic management hub that provides traffic routing, resiliency, and observability features.

How Istio Secures Microservices

Istio provides a number of features for securing microservices, including:

• Mutual TLS: Istio can be configured to enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) between all services in the mesh. This ensures that all communication between services is encrypted and authenticated.
• Access control: Istio's Mixer component can be used to enforce fine-grained access controls on service requests. For example, it can be used to block requests from certain IP addresses or to require certain headers to be present in requests.
• Rate limiting: Istio can be configured to rate limit requests to certain services in order to prevent abuse or denial of service attacks.

How to Install Istio on Kubernetes

Installing Istio on Kubernetes is relatively straightforward. The first step is to download and extract the Istio package:

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curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | sh -
cd istio-*

Next, we need to add the Istio executables to our PATH:

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export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH

Now we can use the istioctl tool to install Istio into our Kubernetes cluster. We will use the default, non-mutual TLS configuration:

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istioctl install --set profile=default

This will create a number of resources in our Kubernetes cluster, including Deployments, Services, and ConfigMaps.

Conclusion

Istio is a powerful tool for securing microservices running on Kubernetes. Its features, such as mutual TLS and access control, make it easy to secure communication between services and protect against attacks. By installing Istio on your Kubernetes cluster, you can gain a higher level of security and visibility into your microservices environment.