Technology · Ebook

NATS: Connective Technology for Distributed Systems

by Shriira Press

NATS is the CNCF high-performance messaging system — a connective technology where services, devices, and processes communicate via subjects, decoupled from location, across cloud, edge, and IoT. This free book teaches it from the ground up: the connectivity problem and what NATS is, messaging and connectivity concepts, NATS's architecture (the fast single-binary subject router and lightweight clients), core NATS (subjects, wildcards, publish/subscribe, subject design), request/reply and queue groups (decoupled services and scalable workers), JetStream (persistence and streaming — streams, consumers, delivery guarantees, retention), JetStream in depth (durable work queues, key-value and object stores, use cases), security and multi-tenancy (TLS, authentication, subject-based authorization, accounts), clustering, superclusters, and leaf nodes (high availability, global scale, edge reach), and using NATS in practice. Ten focused chapters with clear diagrams that make NATS approachable — a simple, fast, decoupled connective fabric supporting every messaging pattern, spanning device to global, securely, all from one lightweight binary.

Contents

1. 1Preface
2. 2Chapter 1 — What NATS Is
3. 3Chapter 2 — Messaging and Connectivity
4. 4Chapter 3 — NATS Architecture
5. 5Chapter 4 — Core NATS: Subjects and Pub/Sub
6. 6Chapter 5 — Request/Reply and Queue Groups
7. 7Chapter 6 — JetStream: Persistence and Streaming
8. 8Chapter 7 — JetStream in Depth
9. 9Chapter 8 — Security and Multi-Tenancy
10. 10Chapter 9 — Clustering, Superclusters, and Leaf Nodes
11. 11Chapter 10 — NATS in Practice