istio.io/istio@v0.0.0-20240520182934-d79c90f27776/README.md (about)

     1  # Istio
     2  
     3  [![CII Best Practices](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/1395/badge)](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/1395)
     4  [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/istio/istio)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/istio/istio)
     5  [![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/istio.io/istio?status.svg)](https://godoc.org/istio.io/istio)
     6  
     7  <a href="https://istio.io/">
     8      <img src="https://github.com/istio/istio/raw/master/logo/istio-bluelogo-whitebackground-unframed.svg"
     9           alt="Istio logo" title="Istio" height="100" width="100" />
    10  </a>
    11  
    12  ---
    13  
    14  Istio is an open source service mesh that layers transparently onto existing distributed applications. Istio’s powerful features provide a uniform and more efficient way to secure, connect, and monitor services. Istio is the path to load balancing, service-to-service authentication, and monitoring – with few or no service code changes.
    15  
    16  - For in-depth information about how to use Istio, visit [istio.io](https://istio.io)
    17  - To ask questions and get assistance from our community, visit [Github Discussions](https://github.com/istio/istio/discussions)
    18  - To learn how to participate in our overall community, visit [our community page](https://istio.io/about/community)
    19  
    20  In this README:
    21  
    22  - [Introduction](#introduction)
    23  - [Repositories](#repositories)
    24  - [Issue management](#issue-management)
    25  
    26  In addition, here are some other documents you may wish to read:
    27  
    28  - [Istio Community](https://github.com/istio/community#istio-community) - describes how to get involved and contribute to the Istio project
    29  - [Istio Developer's Guide](https://github.com/istio/istio/wiki/Preparing-for-Development) - explains how to set up and use an Istio development environment
    30  - [Project Conventions](https://github.com/istio/istio/wiki/Development-Conventions) - describes the conventions we use within the code base
    31  - [Creating Fast and Lean Code](https://github.com/istio/istio/wiki/Writing-Fast-and-Lean-Code) - performance-oriented advice and guidelines for the code base
    32  
    33  You'll find many other useful documents on our [Wiki](https://github.com/istio/istio/wiki).
    34  
    35  ## Introduction
    36  
    37  [Istio](https://istio.io/latest/docs/concepts/what-is-istio/) is an open platform for providing a uniform way to [integrate
    38  microservices](https://istio.io/latest/docs/examples/microservices-istio/), manage [traffic flow](https://istio.io/latest/docs/concepts/traffic-management/) across microservices, enforce policies
    39  and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction
    40  layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes.
    41  
    42  Istio is composed of these components:
    43  
    44  - **Envoy** - Sidecar proxies per microservice to handle ingress/egress traffic
    45     between services in the cluster and from a service to external
    46     services. The proxies form a _secure microservice mesh_ providing a rich
    47     set of functions like discovery, rich layer-7 routing, circuit breakers,
    48     policy enforcement and telemetry recording/reporting
    49     functions.
    50  
    51    > Note: The service mesh is not an overlay network. It
    52    > simplifies and enhances how microservices in an application talk to each
    53    > other over the network provided by the underlying platform.
    54  
    55  - **Istiod** - The Istio control plane. It provides service discovery, configuration and certificate management. It consists of the following sub-components:
    56  
    57      - **Pilot** - Responsible for configuring the proxies at runtime.
    58  
    59      - **Citadel** - Responsible for certificate issuance and rotation.
    60  
    61      - **Galley** - Responsible for validating, ingesting, aggregating, transforming and distributing config within Istio.
    62  
    63  - **Operator** - The component provides user friendly options to operate the Istio service mesh.
    64  
    65  ## Repositories
    66  
    67  The Istio project is divided across a few GitHub repositories:
    68  
    69  - [istio/api](https://github.com/istio/api). This repository defines
    70  component-level APIs and common configuration formats for the Istio platform.
    71  
    72  - [istio/community](https://github.com/istio/community). This repository contains
    73  information on the Istio community, including the various documents that govern
    74  the Istio open source project.
    75  
    76  - [istio/istio](README.md). This is the main code repository. It hosts Istio's
    77  core components, install artifacts, and sample programs. It includes:
    78  
    79      - [istioctl](istioctl/). This directory contains code for the
    80  [_istioctl_](https://istio.io/latest/docs/reference/commands/istioctl/) command line utility.
    81  
    82      - [operator](operator/). This directory contains code for the
    83  [Istio Operator](https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/install/operator/).
    84  
    85      - [pilot](pilot/). This directory
    86  contains platform-specific code to populate the
    87  [abstract service model](https://istio.io/docs/concepts/traffic-management/#pilot), dynamically reconfigure the proxies
    88  when the application topology changes, as well as translate
    89  [routing rules](https://istio.io/latest/docs/reference/config/networking/) into proxy specific configuration.
    90  
    91      - [security](security/). This directory contains [security](https://istio.io/latest/docs/concepts/security/) related code,
    92  including Citadel (acting as Certificate Authority), citadel agent, etc.
    93  
    94  - [istio/proxy](https://github.com/istio/proxy). The Istio proxy contains
    95  extensions to the [Envoy proxy](https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy) (in the form of
    96  Envoy filters) that support authentication, authorization, and telemetry collection.
    97  
    98  - [istio/ztunnel](https://github.com/istio/ztunnel). The repository contains the Rust implementation of the ztunnel
    99  component of Ambient mesh.
   100  
   101  ## Issue management
   102  
   103  We use GitHub to track all of our bugs and feature requests. Each issue we track has a variety of metadata:
   104  
   105  - **Epic**. An epic represents a feature area for Istio as a whole. Epics are fairly broad in scope and are basically product-level things.
   106  Each issue is ultimately part of an epic.
   107  
   108  - **Milestone**. Each issue is assigned a milestone. This is 0.1, 0.2, ..., or 'Nebulous Future'. The milestone indicates when we
   109  think the issue should get addressed.
   110  
   111  - **Priority**. Each issue has a priority which is represented by the column in the [Prioritization](https://github.com/orgs/istio/projects/6) project. Priority can be one of
   112  P0, P1, P2, or >P2. The priority indicates how important it is to address the issue within the milestone. P0 says that the
   113  milestone cannot be considered achieved if the issue isn't resolved.
   114  
   115  ---
   116  
   117  <div align="center">
   118      <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cncf/artwork/master/other/cncf/horizontal/color/cncf-color.svg" width="300" alt="Cloud Native Computing Foundation logo"/>
   119      <p>Istio is a <a href="https://cncf.io">Cloud Native Computing Foundation</a> project.</p>
   120  </div>