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Microservicessystem_design~12 mins

Linkerd overview in Microservices - Architecture Diagram

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System Overview - Linkerd overview

Linkerd is a service mesh that helps microservices communicate securely and reliably. It manages traffic between services, adds observability, and handles failures without changing application code.

Architecture Diagram
User
  |
  v
Load Balancer
  |
  v
+-------------------+       +-------------------+
|  Service A Pod    |<----->|  Service B Pod    |
|  (Linkerd Proxy)  |       |  (Linkerd Proxy)  |
+-------------------+       +-------------------+
          |                          |
          v                          v
      Linkerd Control Plane (Service Discovery, Policy, Telemetry)
          |
          v
      Kubernetes API Server
Components
User
client
Initiates requests to microservices
Load Balancer
load_balancer
Distributes incoming traffic to service pods
Service A Pod
service
Runs microservice A with Linkerd proxy sidecar
Service B Pod
service
Runs microservice B with Linkerd proxy sidecar
Linkerd Proxy
sidecar_proxy
Intercepts and manages service-to-service communication
Linkerd Control Plane
control_plane
Manages service discovery, policy enforcement, and telemetry
Kubernetes API Server
orchestration
Provides cluster state and configuration to Linkerd
Request Flow - 8 Hops
User → Load Balancer
Load Balancer → Service A Pod (Linkerd Proxy)
Service A Pod (Linkerd Proxy) → Service B Pod (Linkerd Proxy)
Service B Pod (Linkerd Proxy) → Service B Pod (application)
Service B Pod (application) → Service B Pod (Linkerd Proxy)
Service B Pod (Linkerd Proxy) → Service A Pod (Linkerd Proxy)
Service A Pod (Linkerd Proxy) → Load Balancer
Load Balancer → User
Failure Scenario
Component Fails:Linkerd Proxy
Impact:Service-to-service communication fails or is delayed; retries and observability data are affected
Mitigation:Linkerd retries requests automatically; fallback to direct communication possible; control plane alerts operators
Architecture Quiz - 3 Questions
Test your understanding
What is the main role of the Linkerd proxy sidecar in each service pod?
ATo manage service-to-service communication securely and reliably
BTo store user data persistently
CTo balance load between different clusters
DTo replace the Kubernetes API server
Design Principle
Linkerd uses a sidecar proxy pattern to transparently manage communication between microservices, adding security, reliability, and observability without changing application code. The control plane manages configuration and telemetry, while the proxies handle data plane traffic.