Overview and State of Linkerd

Conference: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021

2021-10-13

Authors: Oliver Gould

Summary

Overview of Linkerd project and its features for Kubernetes service mesh

Linkerd is a service mesh for Kubernetes that provides observability, reliability, and security
Observability is achieved through sidecar proxies that monitor http, grpc, and tcp metrics
Reliability features include grpc load balancing, connection level load balancing for tcp, and configurable retries and timeouts
Security is provided through transparent mtls for pod-to-pod communication
New features include Linguity SMI extension for managing SMI CRDs and adapters for generating linguistic primitives
Future plans include taking advantage of the new Linux system I/O system called Iou ring for CPU improvements and FIPS 140-2 compliance systems
Users can get involved through talks, meetups, weekly edge releases, and monthly community meetings
Linkerd has a growing set of features that can be added on for traffic shifting and more

One of the top reasons for adopting Linkerd is for grpc load balancing, which eliminates the need to modify grpc clients to deal with request level load balancing. This feature has been particularly useful for those who have multiple languages or headers in their environment and don't want to cobble together visibility systems on top of their applications.

Abstract

In this talk, maintainers from the Linkerd project will present an overview of the project and an update on upcoming releases. They will cover what Linkerd is and how it compares to other service meshes; what the latest features and functionality are; what to expect in upcoming releases; and how you can get involved in one of the CNCF's most talked-about projects. This talk will cover features from the latest Linkerd release, as well as the latest on Linkerd's Rust micro-proxy, Linkerd2-proxy.

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