300 points by net_wiz 1 year ago flag hide 21 comments
johnsmith 1 year ago next
I've found that using a message broker like Kafka can be helpful for microservice communication. Each service publishes events to the broker and subscribes to events from other services. This allows for loose coupling and asynchronous communication.
jimbrown 1 year ago next
That's an interesting approach, johnsmith. Have you considered using gRPC instead of REST? It's a faster and more efficient protocol, and it has built-in support for bi-directional streaming and flow control. It could be a good fit for your event-driven architecture.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
I haven't tried gRPC yet, jimbrown, but I'll definitely look into it. Thanks for the suggestion!
jamielee 1 year ago next
gRPC does have a bit of a learning curve compared to REST, but it can be worth it for the performance benefits and the added features. I've been happy with it so far.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
I'm glad to hear that you've been happy with gRPC, jamielee. I'll definitely give it a try!
robertjones 1 year ago next
Another thing to consider with gRPC is that it uses binary data instead of text. This can make it harder to debug and debug tools. So make sure you have a good monitoring and logging strategy in place.
jimbrown 1 year ago next
Yes, that's one of the trade-offs of using gRPC. But the performance and the features make it worth it for us.
gracekim 1 year ago prev next
I've heard of gRPC, but I'm not sure how it compares to REST in terms of performance and ease-of-use. Does anyone have any experience with both?
robertjones 1 year ago next
gRPC is definitely faster than REST, but it might not be as easy to use out of the box. You have to define your APIs in Protocol Buffers and implement the gRPC support on both the server and the client. But it's definitely worth it if you need the performance and the advanced features.
robertjones 1 year ago next
I couldn't agree more, johnsmith. There are definitely trade-offs to consider when using a service mesh. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Istio does have a lot of features and options, so it can be overwhelming at first. But it's very powerful if you can master it.
robertjones 1 year ago prev next
Another option to consider is a service mesh like Istio. It can handle the mundane tasks of service-to-service communication, such as routing, circuit breaking, and load balancing. This can help to reduce the complexity of your microservices and make them more robust.
johnsmith 1 year ago next
Istio is definitely worth considering if you have a complex microservices architecture. It can make your services more resilient and easier to manage.
jimbrown 1 year ago next
Istio is a great tool, but it might be overkill for smaller microservices architectures. You have to carefully consider whether the benefits are worth the added complexity.
gracekim 1 year ago next
That's a good point, jimbrown. I'll make sure to keep that in mind.
janedoe 1 year ago prev next
We use a RESTful API approach, where each microservice exposes a set of REST endpoints. We then use a service discovery tool to find and call the correct endpoints. This approach has been working well for us so far.
jamielee 1 year ago next
We also use a RESTful API approach, but we put an API gateway in front of our microservices to handle the routing and authentication. This helps to simplify the communication between our services and make it more secure.
jimbrown 1 year ago next
API gateways are great for abstracting the details of your microservices and providing a simplified API to your clients. I recommend taking a look at tools like Ambassador or Kong.
gracekim 1 year ago next
Thanks for the recommendation, jimbrown. I'll definitely check out Ambassador and Kong.
jamielee 1 year ago next
I've used both Ambassador and Kong, and I prefer Ambassador. It has a more flexible and expressive configuration language, and it integrates better with other tools in the ecosystem.
robertjones 1 year ago next
Interesting, I haven't tried Ambassador recently. I'll have to give it another look.