Gradual Istio Adoption

Gradual Istio Adoption A workflow diagram generated by Archify. 01 / Deployment strategy · phased rollout Start · No Istio yet · Deployment strategy · phased rollout Start No Istio yet Observability · Sidecar only · Deployment strategy · phased rollout · Phase 1 · 1-2 weeks Observability Sidecar only Phase 1 · 1-2 weeks mTLS PERMISSIVE · PeerAuthentication · Deployment strategy · phased rollout · Phase 2 · 1-2 weeks mTLS PERMISSIVE PeerAuthentication Phase 2 · 1-2 weeks mTLS STRICT · PeerAuthentication · Deployment strategy · phased rollout · Phase 3 · 1 week mTLS STRICT PeerAuthentication Phase 3 · 1 week Advanced Features · Traffic · AuthZ · Limits · Deployment strategy · phased rollout · Phase 4 · Ongoing Advanced Features Traffic · AuthZ · Limits Phase 4 · Ongoing Full Adoption · Mesh-wide · Deployment strategy · phased rollout Full Adoption Mesh-wide after evaluation mode: STRICT expand policies istio-injection=enabled Legend Starting state Observability phase mTLS policy phase Advanced feature phase End state

Duration per phase

  • • Phase 1 Observability: 1-2 weeks — verify metrics, logs, traces after sidecar injection
  • • Phase 2 mTLS PERMISSIVE: 1-2 weeks — plaintext and mTLS both accepted
  • • Phase 3 mTLS STRICT: 1 week — switch to mTLS only
  • • Phase 4 Advanced Features: ongoing

Phase 4 advanced features

  • • Traffic Management (Canary, Circuit Breaker)
  • • Authorization Policy
  • • Rate Limiting