1. Separate Data Store for Each Service
One of the fundamental principles of microservices is to maintain separate data stores for each service. This approach ensures that each microservice has control over its data and avoids tight coupling between services.
2. Keep Code at a Similar Level of Maturity
Maintaining a consistent level of maturity across microservices is essential for a cohesive and maintainable architecture. Avoid situations where some microservices are significantly more mature or advanced than others.
3. Separate Build for Each Microservice
To maintain the independence of microservices, it is essential to separate the build process for each service. This practice enables individual teams to develop, test, and deploy their microservices without impacting others.
4. Separate Repository for Each Microservice
Microservices should have their own code repositories to enable independent versioning, branching, and release management. Separate repositories facilitate decentralized development and deployment, allowing teams to work autonomously.
5. Deploy Using Containers (Docker)
Containerization, particularly with Docker, has become a popular choice for deploying microservices. Containers provide lightweight and isolated runtime environments that encapsulate microservice dependencies and configurations. By packaging microservices into containers, you can achieve consistent deployment across different environments, simplify scaling, and improve portability.
6. Stateless Design (Treat Server as Stateless)
Adopting a stateless design for microservices helps improve scalability and resilience. Each microservice should treat the server as stateless, meaning it does not store session-specific data. Instead, it relies on external services or databases to maintain state if required.
7. Domain-Driven Design
Domain-driven design (DDD) aligns business requirements with the software architecture by organizing microservices around specific domains or business capabilities. DDD emphasizes the modeling of business entities, aggregates, and bounded contexts, ensuring that microservices are closely aligned with business needs.
8. Micro Frontend
Micro frontend architecture extends the principles of microservices to the frontend layer by breaking down the user interface into smaller, self-contained modules. This approach enables independent development and deployment of frontend components, enhancing scalability and user experience.
9. Single Responsibility
Applying the single responsibility principle to microservices ensures that each service has a specific and well-defined purpose. This practice enhances modularity and allows for independent development, testing, and deployment.
10. Loose Coupling and High Cohesion
Microservices should be loosely coupled and have high cohesion. Loose coupling allows for independent scaling, deployment, and modification of services, while high cohesion ensures that components within each microservice are closely related and work together efficiently.
Bonus: Use Kubernetes for Scaling
Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform that simplifies the management and scaling of microservices. It provides features like automatic scaling, load balancing, service discovery, and self-healing capabilities, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.
This content was adapted from an article by Somadev (https://dev.to/somadevtoo) on best practices for microservices.