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Interactive Explainer

Istio Multi-Cluster Deployments

Federate multiple Kubernetes clusters under one Istio mesh for cross-cluster service discovery, routing, and failover.

🎯Key Takeaways
Primary-Remote: simpler but control plane is a SPOF
Multi-Primary: resilient, each cluster independent
Cross-cluster traffic uses east-west gateways

Istio Multi-Cluster Deployments

Federate multiple Kubernetes clusters under one Istio mesh for cross-cluster service discovery, routing, and failover.

~1 min read
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What you'll learn
  • Primary-Remote: simpler but control plane is a SPOF
  • Multi-Primary: resilient, each cluster independent
  • Cross-cluster traffic uses east-west gateways

Multi-Cluster Istio Models

Istio supports three multi-cluster models: Primary-Remote (one control plane, simpler but single point of failure), Multiple Primaries (each cluster has istiod, shared root CA, resilient), and External Control Plane. Cross-cluster service calls use east-west gateways.

Key takeaways

  • Primary-Remote: simpler but control plane is a SPOF
  • Multi-Primary: resilient, each cluster independent
  • Cross-cluster traffic uses east-west gateways

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