Dapr 1.11: Distributed Application Runtime Evolution

Introduction

Dapr 1.11, released on August 5, 2023, is most relevant if you’re operating Kubernetes in production and want fewer surprises. This post walks through the highlights and the kinds of operational scenarios where the changes tend to matter first.

Runtime Improvements

• Performance optimizations reduce latency and improve throughput for service-to-service communication.
• Resource usage improvements reduce CPU and memory footprint.
• Reliability enhancements provide better error handling and recovery mechanisms.
• Observability improvements provide better metrics, logs, and tracing.

New Components

1. State store components expand support for additional databases and storage systems.
2. Pub/sub components add support for new message brokers and event streaming platforms.
3. Binding components enable integration with external systems and services.
4. Secret store components expand support for additional secret management systems.

Kubernetes Integration

• Operator improvements simplify Dapr installation and management.
• Service discovery enhancements automatically discover services and endpoints.
• Resource management improvements provide better resource allocation and limits.
• Helm chart enhancements simplify deployment and configuration.

Developer Experience

• SDK improvements provide better developer experience across multiple programming languages.
• CLI enhancements simplify development, testing, and debugging workflows.
• Documentation improvements provide better guides and examples.
• Testing tools enable easier application development and validation.

Getting Started

helm repo add dapr https://dapr.github.io/helm-charts/
helm install dapr dapr/dapr --version 1.11.0 --namespace dapr-system --create-namespace

Enable Dapr for a deployment:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        dapr.io/enabled: "true"
        dapr.io/app-id: "my-app"
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: app
        image: my-app:latest

Summary

Dapr 1.11 provides teams with comprehensive capabilities for building resilient, distributed applications on Kubernetes.