Istio Authorization stability

voanhduy1512 · 2019-02-01 01:51:22 UTC

Hi,
I am evaluating istio to use it for my next project. Everything works nicely and i am really happy about it. But there is one thing i would like to ask for more clarification.

As https://istio.io/about/feature-stages/ authorization is an alpha feature. And the doc mentions that alpha feature means it can be removed and has no deprecation policy. That makes me a bit uncomfortable to use it in production. So i would like to ask how stable is authorization feature, or the reason why it is still an alpha feature (lack of testing, document, api not stable or performance reason)?
Thanks.

YangminZhu · 2019-02-02 03:00:21 UTC

The alpha is mainly about the API interface in my opinion, which means the API could change without backward compatible in next version (We will also do our best to avoid this.)

Recently we’re proposing the Authorization v2 API to the community, see it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1diwa9oYVwmLtarXb-kfWPq-Ul3O2Ic3b8Y21Z3R8DzQ/edit

I would love to hear your comments, especially the concerns and suggestions if you’re planning to use it in production. Thank you.

sdake · 2019-02-02 19:25:12 UTC

The alpha/beta/stable features have different definitions which can be found here:

The short version:

github.com

istio/community/blob/126414304f379f40fd1572e4fe847f4177a7d29d/FEATURE-LIFECYCLE-CHECKLIST.md

# Feature Lifecycle Checklist

This is the checklist describing the essential requirements for a feature to
be labeled as Alpha, Beta, or Stable. This is a shortened version of the full
[Feature Lifecycle](FEATURE-LIFECYCLE.md) document.

- [Alpha](#alpha)
- [Beta](#beta)
- [Stable](#stable)

## Alpha

A development feature can be officially labeled as Alpha once it meets the following
requirements:

* Config
    * Requires explicit user action to enable (e.g. a config field, config resource, or installation action).

* Docs
    * Reference docs are published on istio.io.

This file has been truncated. show original

The long version:

github.com

istio/community/blob/126414304f379f40fd1572e4fe847f4177a7d29d/FEATURE-LIFECYCLE.md

# Feature Lifecycle

This table describes the requirements for a feature to
be labeled as Alpha, Beta, or Stable. You can find a checklist rendition
of this information at [Feature Lifecycle Checklist](FEATURE-LIFECYCLE-CHECKLIST.md).

<table>
  <tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Development (pre-alpha)</td>
    <td>Alpha</td>
    <td>Beta</td>
    <td>Stable</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Purpose</td>
    <td>Active development of a feature, not for use by end users directly.</td>
    <td>Used to get feedback on a design or feature or see how a tentative design performs, etc. Targeted at developers and expert users.</td>
    <td>Used to vet a solution in production without committing to it in the long term, to assess its viability, performance, usability, etc. Targetted at all users.</td>
    <td>Dependable, production hardened</td>

This file has been truncated. show original

Cheers
-steve