Sidecar & Service Mesh
Studies in this cluster, in series order. Each one keeps its own URL.
Networking
TCP, TLS, load balancers, and why the p99 lives in the handshake.
Sidecar & Service Mesh
6 studies- 1.Sidecar Pattern & Service Mesh — Out-of-Process Proxies, Architecture & TradeoffsA sidecar is an out-of-process data plane next to the app: the workload speaks plain HTTP/gRPC, the proxy owns identity, retries, telemetry, and traffic policy. This hub maps mechanics, proxy choices, control-plane discovery, cloud equivalents, and when not to mesh.
- 2.Sidecar Mechanics — Transparent Proxy, iptables/eBPF Capture & Container LifecycleA sidecar only works if app traffic actually hits it. Transparent capture (redirect without app config) and pod lifecycle (init, ready, drain) are where interviews get concrete. Envoy, nginx, and Linkerd-proxy all need a capture story and a start/stop story.
- 3.Data-Plane Proxies — Envoy, nginx, Linkerd-proxy & What They OwnThe data plane is the process that touches every request. Envoy, nginx, and Linkerd-proxy play the same role with different L7 depth, memory, and ops. Interviews want what lives in the proxy vs the app — not an Envoy product tutorial.
- 4.Control Plane & Discovery — xDS-style Config, Endpoints & ConvergenceSidecars are useless with stale config. The control plane discovers endpoints, compiles routes and listeners, and pushes them until the fleet converges. Envoy xDS is the best-known API shape — the ideas apply to any mesh.
- 5.Cloud Equivalents — App Mesh, ALB/NLB, VPC Lattice & When Not to MeshOn AWS and peers you can buy pieces of the mesh story without running your own control plane. App Mesh is managed Envoy sidecars; ALB/NLB cover north-south; VPC Lattice is a service network. Interviews want honest tradeoffs and a clear when-not-to-mesh.
- 6.Mesh vs Library vs Gateway — Latency Tax, Blast Radius & MigrationCross-cutting policy has three classic homes: in-process library, per-pod sidecar/mesh, and edge gateway. Ambient/eBPF is a fourth. Each shifts latency, failure blast radius, and who upgrades what. This page ties the cluster together — and repeats when not to mesh.