Service Mesh Integrations

Meshery provides first-class support for multiple service mesh implementations through dedicated adapters. These adapters enable lifecycle management, configuration, performance testing, and best practice validation for your service mesh infrastructure.

Supported Service Meshes

Meshery supports the following service mesh integrations:

Istio

Full-featured service mesh with advanced traffic management, security, and observability

Linkerd

Lightweight, security-focused service mesh with minimal overhead

Consul

HashiCorp’s service networking platform with service discovery and configuration

Kuma

Universal service mesh built on Envoy, works on Kubernetes and VMs

Cilium

eBPF-based service mesh with advanced networking and security features

NGINX Service Mesh

Lightweight service mesh for NGINX Plus users

Traefik Mesh

Simple service mesh built on Traefik proxy

Network Service Mesh

L2/L3 service mesh for cloud native applications

AWS App Mesh

AWS-managed service mesh for applications on AWS

What Are Service Mesh Adapters?

Meshery adapters are gRPC-based microservices that provide:

Lifecycle Management: Install, upgrade, and uninstall service mesh control planes
Workload Management: Deploy and configure sample applications
Performance Testing: Load generation and performance characterization
Configuration Validation: Best practice analysis and policy enforcement
Custom Configuration: Apply service mesh-specific resources (VirtualServices, DestinationRules, etc.)

Adapter Architecture

Each adapter:

Runs as a separate container alongside Meshery Server
Communicates via gRPC protocol (defined in server/meshes/meshops.proto)
Is versioned independently from Meshery
Maintains compatibility with multiple versions of the service mesh

Istio Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-istio
Port: 10000/gRPC
Earliest Version: v1.6.0

Features

Install Istio versions from v1.6.0 to latest
Deploy Istio add-ons (Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Kiali)
Manage Istio resources (VirtualServices, DestinationRules, Gateways, ServiceEntries)
Sample applications: Bookinfo, Httpbin, Online Boutique, Image Hub
Configuration best practice analysis

Installation

Meshery UI
Helm
mesheryctl

Navigate to Lifecycle > Adapters
Select Meshery Adapter for Istio
Click Deploy to install the adapter
Choose Istio version and configuration profile
Click Install to deploy Istio to your cluster

helm repo add meshery https://meshery.io/charts
helm install meshery-istio meshery/meshery-istio \
  --namespace meshery --create-namespace

mesheryctl system start --adapter meshery-istio

Configuration Example

Apply custom Istio configuration:

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: reviews-route
  namespace: default
spec:
  hosts:
  - reviews
  http:
  - match:
    - headers:
        end-user:
          exact: jason
    route:
    - destination:
        host: reviews
        subset: v2
  - route:
    - destination:
        host: reviews
        subset: v3

Paste this configuration in the Meshery UI under Lifecycle > Configuration and click Apply.

Linkerd Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-linkerd
Port: 10001/gRPC
Earliest Version: v2.8.0

Features

Install Linkerd stable and edge releases
Automatic mTLS between services
Traffic splitting and golden metrics
Sample applications: Emojivoto, Books
Tap and profile debugging tools

Installation

helm install meshery-linkerd meshery/meshery-linkerd \
  --namespace meshery

Sample Application

Deploy the Emojivoto sample app:

In Meshery UI, go to Lifecycle > Sample Applications
Select Emojivoto
Click Deploy to install to your cluster
Meshery will automatically inject Linkerd proxies

Consul Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-consul
Port: 10002/gRPC
Earliest Version: v1.8.0

Features

Install Consul with service mesh enabled
Service discovery and health checking
Intentions for service-to-service authorization
Multi-datacenter support
Connect native integrations

Installation

helm install meshery-consul meshery/meshery-consul \
  --namespace meshery

Configuration Example

Define service intentions:

apiVersion: consul.hashicorp.com/v1alpha1
kind: ServiceIntentions
metadata:
  name: web-to-api
spec:
  destination:
    name: api
  sources:
  - name: web
    action: allow

Kuma Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-kuma
Port: 10007/gRPC

Features

Universal mode: Kubernetes and VM support
Multi-zone deployment
Traffic policies (retries, timeouts, circuit breakers)
Built-in observability with Prometheus and Grafana

Installation

helm install meshery-kuma meshery/meshery-kuma \
  --namespace meshery

Cilium Service Mesh Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-cilium
Port: 10012/gRPC

Features

eBPF-based service mesh with no sidecars
Layer 3/4 and Layer 7 policy enforcement
Hubble observability
Network policies and encryption

Installation

helm install meshery-cilium meshery/meshery-cilium \
  --namespace meshery

NGINX Service Mesh Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-nginx-sm
Port: 10010/gRPC

Features

Based on NGINX Plus
SMI (Service Mesh Interface) compatible
Automatic sidecar injection
Traffic splitting and access control

Traefik Mesh Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-traefik-mesh
Port: 10006/gRPC

Features

Non-intrusive service mesh
No sidecar injection required
HTTP/TCP routing and load balancing
Traffic mirroring and access control

Network Service Mesh (NSM) Integration

Repository: github.com/meshery/meshery-nsm
Port: 10004/gRPC

Features

L2/L3 connectivity for cloud native applications
Network service composition
Support for CNFs (Cloud Native Network Functions)

AWS App Mesh Integration

Features

AWS-managed service mesh control plane
Integration with AWS services (ECS, EKS, Fargate)
Traffic routing and monitoring
End-to-end encryption with TLS

AWS App Mesh is managed through Meshery’s AWS integration components. Ensure you have AWS credentials configured.

Common Operations

Deploy a Service Mesh

Select Adapter

In Meshery UI, navigate to Lifecycle > Adapters and choose your service mesh adapter.

Deploy Adapter

Click Deploy to install the adapter if not already running.

Install Service Mesh

Click on the adapter card, select a version, and click Install.

Verify Installation

Check the deployment status in the Lifecycle page. The adapter will report when installation is complete.

Apply Custom Configuration

Go to Lifecycle > Configuration
Select your service mesh adapter
Paste your YAML configuration (VirtualServices, DestinationRules, etc.)
Click Apply Configuration
Meshery validates and applies the configuration to your cluster

Deploy Sample Applications

Navigate to Lifecycle > Sample Applications
Select an application (e.g., Bookinfo for Istio)
Click Deploy
Access the application using the provided URL
Use the app to generate traffic for testing

Performance Testing

Go to Performance in the Meshery UI
Select your service mesh
Choose a load generator (Fortio, Wrk2, or Nighthawk)
Configure test parameters:
- URL endpoint
- Concurrent connections
- Requests per second
- Duration
Run the test and view results with latency percentiles and throughput

Configuration Best Practices

Navigate to Lifecycle > Validate Configuration
Select your service mesh adapter
Click Run Validation
Meshery analyzes your configuration against best practices
Review recommendations and apply suggested fixes

Service Mesh Comparison

Feature	Istio	Linkerd	Consul	Kuma	Cilium
Architecture	Envoy sidecars	Linkerd2-proxy	Envoy sidecars	Envoy sidecars	eBPF (no sidecar)
mTLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-cluster	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-tenancy	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
VM Support	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Limited
Observability	Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Kiali	Prometheus, Grafana	Prometheus, Grafana	Prometheus, Grafana	Hubble, Prometheus, Grafana
Traffic Management	Advanced	Basic	Basic	Advanced	Advanced
Complexity	High	Low	Medium	Medium	Medium

Adapter Management via CLI

List Available Adapters

mesheryctl system adapter list

Deploy Specific Adapter

mesheryctl system adapter deploy meshery-istio

Remove Adapter

mesheryctl system adapter remove meshery-istio

Troubleshooting

Adapter Not Connecting

Symptom: Adapter shows as disconnected in Meshery UISolutions:

Verify adapter pod is running: kubectl get pods -n meshery
Check adapter logs: kubectl logs -n meshery <adapter-pod-name>
Ensure gRPC port is accessible
Restart the adapter: kubectl rollout restart deployment/<adapter-name> -n meshery

Service Mesh Installation Fails

Symptom: Mesh installation fails or times outSolutions:

Check cluster resources (CPU, memory)
Verify RBAC permissions for Meshery service account
Review Kubernetes events: kubectl get events -n <mesh-namespace>
Check adapter version compatibility with mesh version

Configuration Not Applied

Symptom: Custom configuration doesn’t take effectSolutions:

Validate YAML syntax
Ensure namespace exists
Check for conflicting configurations
Verify CRDs are installed: kubectl get crds

Next Steps

Performance Testing

Learn how to benchmark your service mesh

Design Patterns

Explore service mesh design patterns

Observability

Set up monitoring for your service mesh

Policy Engine

Configuration best practices and validation

Get Started

Core Concepts

Features

Guides

Integrations

​Service Mesh Integrations

​Supported Service Meshes

Istio

Linkerd

Consul

Kuma

Cilium

NGINX Service Mesh

Traefik Mesh

Network Service Mesh

AWS App Mesh

​What Are Service Mesh Adapters?

​Adapter Architecture

​Istio Integration

​Features

​Installation

​Configuration Example

​Linkerd Integration

​Features

​Installation

​Sample Application

​Consul Integration

​Features

​Installation

​Configuration Example

​Kuma Integration

​Features

​Installation

​Cilium Service Mesh Integration

​Features

​Installation

​NGINX Service Mesh Integration

​Features

​Traefik Mesh Integration

​Features

​Network Service Mesh (NSM) Integration

​Features

​AWS App Mesh Integration

​Features

​Common Operations

​Deploy a Service Mesh

​Apply Custom Configuration

​Deploy Sample Applications

​Performance Testing

​Configuration Best Practices

​Service Mesh Comparison

​Adapter Management via CLI

​List Available Adapters

​Deploy Specific Adapter

​Remove Adapter

​Troubleshooting

​Next Steps

Performance Testing

Design Patterns

Observability

Policy Engine

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Service Mesh Integrations

Supported Service Meshes

What Are Service Mesh Adapters?

Adapter Architecture

Istio Integration

Features

Installation

Configuration Example

Linkerd Integration

Features

Installation

Sample Application

Consul Integration

Features

Installation

Configuration Example

Kuma Integration

Features

Installation

Cilium Service Mesh Integration

Features

Installation

NGINX Service Mesh Integration

Features

Traefik Mesh Integration

Features

Network Service Mesh (NSM) Integration

Features

AWS App Mesh Integration

Features

Common Operations

Deploy a Service Mesh

Apply Custom Configuration

Deploy Sample Applications

Performance Testing

Configuration Best Practices

Service Mesh Comparison

Adapter Management via CLI

List Available Adapters

Deploy Specific Adapter

Remove Adapter

Troubleshooting

Next Steps