|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +description: > |
| 3 | + We are excited to announce the v0.8.0 release of Gateway API, where the GAMMA |
| 4 | + project has reached implementable! |
| 5 | +--- |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +# Gateway API: Welcome, GAMMA! |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +<small style="position:relative; top:-30px;"> |
| 10 | + :octicons-calendar-24: August 01, 2023 · |
| 11 | + :octicons-clock-24: 5 min read |
| 12 | +</small> |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +We are thrilled to announce the v0.8.0 release of the Gateway API! With this |
| 15 | +release, the work the GAMMA initiative has been doing over the past year has |
| 16 | +reached [Experimental status][status], with two conformant implementations at |
| 17 | +present (Linkerd and Istio). We look forward to your feedback! |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +As [Experimental][status] features, you will find the GAMMA CRDs in the |
| 20 | +Gateway API [`experimental`][ch] channel. |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +## What is the GAMMA initiative? |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +Almost from the point where the Gateway API was itself implementable, |
| 25 | +questions have been raised about how it could be used for configuring service |
| 26 | +meshes. The GAMMA initiative, started in 2022, is a dedicated vendor-neutral |
| 27 | +workstream within the Gateway API, working on examining how best to fit the |
| 28 | +service mesh into the framework of the Gateway API resources, without |
| 29 | +requiring users of the Gateway API to relearn everything they understand about |
| 30 | +the Gateway API itself. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +Over the last year, GAMMA has dug deeply into the challenges and possible |
| 33 | +solutions around using the Gateway API for service mesh. The end result is a |
| 34 | +small number of [enhancement |
| 35 | +proposals](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1beta1/contributing/gep/) that |
| 36 | +subsume many hours of thought and debate, and provide a minimum viable path to |
| 37 | +allow the Gateway API can be used for service mesh. Of particular note: |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +- [GEP-1324](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1324/) provides an |
| 40 | + overview of the GAMMA goals and some important definitions. This GEP is well |
| 41 | + worth a read for its discussion of the problem space. |
| 42 | +- [GEP-1426](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1426/) defines how to |
| 43 | + use Gateway API route resources, such as HTTPRoute, to manage traffic within |
| 44 | + a service mesh. |
| 45 | +- [GEP-1686](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1686/) builds on the |
| 46 | + work of [GEP-1709](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1709/) to define |
| 47 | + a _conformance profile_ for service meshes to be declared conformant with |
| 48 | + the Gateway API. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +### How will mesh routing work when using the Gateway API? |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +All the details are in |
| 53 | +[GEP-1426](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1426/), but the short |
| 54 | +version for Gateway API 0.8.0 is that an HTTPRoute can now have a `parentRef` |
| 55 | +that is a Service, rather than just a Gateway. We anticipate future GEPs in |
| 56 | +this area as we gain more experience with service mesh use cases -- binding to |
| 57 | +a Service makes it possible to use the Gateway API with a service mesh, but |
| 58 | +there are several interesting use cases that remain difficult to cover. |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +### How does Gateway API conformance work for a service mesh? |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +One of the challenges that the GAMMA initiative ran into is that Gateway API |
| 63 | +conformance was strongly tied to the idea that a given implementation provides |
| 64 | +an ingress controller. Many service meshes don't, and requiring a |
| 65 | +GAMMA-conformant mesh to also implement an ingress controller seemed |
| 66 | +impractical at best. This resulted in work restarting on Gateway API |
| 67 | +_conformance profiles_, as discussed in |
| 68 | +[GEP-1709](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1709/). |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +The basic idea of conformance profiles is that we can define subsets of the |
| 71 | +Gateway API, and allow implementations to choose - and document! - which |
| 72 | +subsets they conform to. GAMMA is adding a new profile, named `Mesh`, which |
| 73 | +checks only the mesh functionality as defined by GAMMA; SIG-Network-Policy is |
| 74 | +going to be using this concept as well. |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +## What else is in Gateway API 0.8.0? |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +In addition to GAMMA becoming experimental, Gateway API 0.8.0 also includes a |
| 79 | +way to configure routing scope for a given Gateway (see |
| 80 | +[GEP-1651](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1651/) and updates the |
| 81 | +HTTPRoute resource to include native configuration for timeouts (see |
| 82 | +[GEP-1742](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-1742/). |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +Additionally, we have (by necessity) taken a hard look at some |
| 85 | +[Experimental][status] GEPs which have been lingering long enough that |
| 86 | +projects have come to rely on them in production use. This is a bit of a |
| 87 | +breakdown of the GEP process; in order to prevent it happening in the future, |
| 88 | +we have changed the GEP process such that reaching [Experimental][status] |
| 89 | +_requires_ that a GEP include both the graduation criteria by which the GEP |
| 90 | +will become [Standard][status], and a probationary period after which the GEP |
| 91 | +will be dropped if does not meet its graduation criteria. |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +For an exhaustive list of changes included in the `v0.8.0` release, please see |
| 94 | +the [v0.8.0 release |
| 95 | +notes](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/tag/v0.8.0). |
| 96 | +For more information on Gateway API versioning, refer to the [official |
| 97 | +documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/versioning/). |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +## How can I get started with the Gateway API? |
| 100 | + |
| 101 | +At this point, the Gateway API is supported by a number of |
| 102 | +[implementations][impl] of both ingress controllers and service meshes. To get |
| 103 | +started, take a look at the [API concepts documentation][concepts] and check |
| 104 | +out some of the [Guides][guides] to learn about the Gateway API, or check out |
| 105 | +the [implementations page][impl] and select an implementation that you're |
| 106 | +familiar with to try it out. Gateway API is a [Custom Resource Definition |
| 107 | +(CRD)][crd] based API so you'll need to [install the CRDs][install-crds] onto |
| 108 | +a cluster to use the API. |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +If you're specifically interested in helping to contribute to Gateway API, we |
| 111 | +would love to have you! Please feel free to [open a new issue][issue] on the |
| 112 | +repository, or join in the [discussions][disc]. Also check out the [community |
| 113 | +page][community] which includes links to the Slack channel and community meetings. We look forward to seeing you!! |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +[status]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/overview/#status |
| 116 | +[ch]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/versioning/#release-channels-eg-experimental-standard |
| 117 | +[crd]:https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/extend-kubernetes/custom-resources/custom-resource-definitions/ |
| 118 | +[concepts]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/api-overview/ |
| 119 | +[guides]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/guides/getting-started/ |
| 120 | +[impl]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/implementations/ |
| 121 | +[install-crds]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/guides/getting-started/#install-the-crds |
| 122 | +[issue]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/issues/new/choose |
| 123 | +[disc]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/discussions |
| 124 | +[community]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/community/ |
| 125 | + |
0 commit comments