Envoy

As explained in Google Anthos in Action

Envoy is an open-source, high-performance proxy designed for service-to-service communication and distributed application networking.

Envoy is an open-source service proxy used as a sidecar in service meshes. Attached to each Kubernetes Pod, it handles application traffic and exposes real-time telemetry without requiring application code changes. section 4.2 section 4.8

In an Anthos Service Mesh deployment, Envoy provides several operational responsibilities:

• Intercepts inbound and outbound microservice communication through a sidecar process. section 4.2
• Collects metrics and logs from proxy traffic and TCP sessions for analysis through Istio observability integrations. section 4.3.4
• Communicates with the control plane through the xDS API, the same technology used by proxyless gRPC deployments. section 4.2
• Supports mesh visibility and operational diagnosis through telemetry consumed by Kiali, Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing systems. section 4.3.4

Sidecar and proxyless choices

A mesh can combine Envoy sidecars with proxyless services. Applications that use gRPC may use Google Cloud Traffic Director and xDS, while non-gRPC services can retain Envoy sidecars. Removing a sidecar removes an extra network hop and can reduce latency. section 4.2

Figure 4.2 Sidecar proxy approach

Shows the sidecar proxy approach, where an Envoy proxy is attached to each Pod to observe service traffic. section 4.2

How Google Anthos in Action covers it

How deep it goes

Explains sidecar placement, proxyless alternatives, xDS communication, and observability integrations, but not Envoy configuration syntax or internals.

Examples

Uses Pod-attached sidecars, proxyless gRPC services, mixed mesh deployments, telemetry dashboards, and service graphs as concrete examples.

What it assumes

Assumes familiarity with microservices, Pods, service meshes, control planes, and gRPC-based communication.

What you can do after

Operate service-mesh traffic observability through Envoy telemetry and select sidecar or proxyless deployment patterns for different services.

How it connects

Connects Envoy with service meshes, Istio, Anthos Service Mesh, gRPC, xDS, Kubernetes, Kiali, Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing.

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Related concepts

• service meshused by · A service mesh is an infrastructure layer that manages communication and cross-cutting concerns such as traffic control, security, and observability between distributed services.
• TLSuses · Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that protects network communications through confidentiality, integrity, and authentication of communicating endpoints.
• proxykind of · A proxy is an intermediary object or component that represents another object or system and mediates interactions with it.
• podpart of · A Kubernetes Pod is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, grouping one or more co-located containers that share networking and other resources.
• sidecar processused by · The sidecar pattern deploys an auxiliary process or component alongside a primary application to provide supporting functionality separately from the application’s core code.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Google Anthos in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.