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Building Distributed Systems with Go and NATS: A Comprehensive Guide

Name: Building Distributed Systems with Go and NATS: A Comprehensive Guide
Author: Delio D'Anna
ISBN: 9798868820892

by Delio D'Anna

January 2026

Intermediate to advanced

555 pages

12h 35m

English

Apress

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Building Distributed Systems with Go and NATS
Table of Contents
About the Author
About the Technical Reviewer
Part I: The Fundamentals: Low-Level Building Blocks and Communication
1. Overview of Distributed Systems
1.1 About This Book1.2 Building Blocks of a Distributed System1.3 Software Systems Architectures1.3.1 Introduction1.3.2 Monolith1.3.3 Kernel-Based1.3.4 Service-Oriented1.3.5 Microservices1.3.6 Space-Based Architecture1.3.7 Reactive Systems1.4 Distributed Systems1.4.1 Distributed System vs. Distributed Computing1.4.2 Synchronous Communication1.4.3 Asynchronous Communication1.5 Summary1.6 Questions
2. Distributed Communication Basics
2.1 Introduction2.2 Communication Items2.2.1 Socket2.2.2 Protocol2.2.3 Transports2.3 Topologies2.3.1 Mangos Library2.3.2 Req/Rep2.3.3 Push/Pull2.3.4 Pub/Sub2.3.5 Composed Topologies2.4 Multitransport2.4.1 TCP2.4.2 IPC2.4.3 Memory2.4.4 Memory Transport for Concurrency2.5 Summary2.6 Questions
3. NATS Fundamentals
3.1 Introduction3.1.1 What Is NATS3.1.2 Alternatives3.1.3 Why NATS3.2 Brokered vs. Unbrokered3.3 Running NATS3.3.1 NATS-Server3.3.2 Docker3.3.3 Kubernetes3.3.4 NATS CLI3.4 NATS Core3.4.1 Command Line3.4.2 Go SDK3.5 Core Topologies3.5.1 Pub/Sub3.5.2 Queue Groups (Push/Pull)3.5.3 Req/Rep (Base for Services)3.5.4 More Complex Topologies3.6 Summary3.7 Questions
4. Working System
4.1 Introduction4.2 NATS4.3 Restaurant Gateway4.4 Order Processor4.5 Delivery Tracker4.6 Customer4.7 Summary4.8 Full Example with Minikube
Part II: Inside a Service: Core Architecture

5. Anatomy of a Service
5.1 Foreword to Part 25.2 From Low-Level Building Blocks to Services5.3 Service or Microservice5.4 Developer vs. Engineer5.5 Summary
6. Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
6.1 Business First6.1.1 A New Approach6.1.2 Cohesion Across Crafts6.1.3 The Importance of Language6.1.4 Product Focus6.2 The Domain6.2.1 Introduction6.2.2 Data Structures6.2.3 Services6.3 App Layer6.4 Infrastructure Layer6.4.1 Introduction6.4.2 Database6.4.3 External Services6.5 Presentation Layer6.6 Summary6.7 Questions
7. Hexagonal Architecture
7.1 Layered Systems7.2 Layered Communication Styles7.3 Hexagonality7.4 Communication in Hexagonal Systems7.5 Summary7.6 Questions
8. Sample Service
8.1 Introduction8.2 Domain Layer8.3 Application Layer8.4 Database Layer8.5 Presentation Layer8.6 Infrastructure8.7 Running Everything8.8 Summary
Part III: Macroscopic View: Designing Distributed Systems
9. A Whole System vs. a Bunch of Services
9.1 Foreword to Part 39.2 One Level Up9.3 Is This the End?9.4 Service-Oriented and Other Experiments9.5 Like Russian Dolls9.6 Infrastructure9.6.1 Distributed Data Management9.6.2 Message Brokers9.6.3 Comprehensive Observability9.6.4 Security Infrastructure9.6.5 Configuration Management9.7 Orchestration9.8 Summary9.9 Questions
10. DDD for Systems
10.1 DDD Refresher10.2 At a System Level10.2.1 Business10.2.2 Layers vs. Components10.2.3 Do We Always Need It?10.3 Bounded Context and Segregation10.4 Different Levels of Depth10.5 What About REST10.6 Infrastructure and Orchestration10.7 Summary10.8 Questions
11. Fully Synchronous Systems
11.1 Introduction11.2 REST and Direct Service Access11.2.1 A Dummy Example11.2.2 Managing Traffic with Nginx11.2.3 Service Mesh11.3 NATS Services11.3.1 Direct Access11.3.2 REST Proxy11.3.3 NATS Microservices Package11.4 Authorization11.5 The API Gateway11.5.1 The Pattern11.5.2 Authentication11.5.3 Authorization11.5.4 First-Level Communication11.5.5 Deeper Level Communication11.6 Space-Based Architecture11.6.1 Refresher11.6.2 Tools11.6.3 Implementation Example11.7 Summary11.8 Questions
12. Asynchronous Systems
12.1 Introduction12.2 Fully Asynchronous12.2.1 Introduction12.2.2 An Example12.3 Internally Asynchronous12.3.1 Introduction12.3.2 API Gateway12.3.3 Actor Model12.3.4 Asynchronous Services12.4 Long-Running Processes12.4.1 Introduction12.4.2 REST12.4.3 Scaling Up12.4.4 Piling Up12.5 JetStream12.5.1 Persistence12.5.2 Retention12.5.3 Consumers12.5.4 Asynchronous Services (JetStream)12.6 NATS KV Store12.7 NATS Object Store12.8 Summary12.9 Questions
13. Reactive Systems
13.1 Reactivity13.1.1 Introduction13.1.2 The Reactive Manifesto13.1.3 Reactive Systems vs. Reactive Programming13.1.4 The Other Reactive Principles13.2 Relation with DDD13.2.1 Introduction13.2.2 Bounded Contexts as Autonomous Units13.2.3 Domain Events and the Ubiquitous Language13.2.4 Aggregates and Consistency Boundaries13.3 Relation with Hexagonality13.3.1 Introduction13.3.2 The Inner Core and the Reactive System13.3.3 Ports and Adapters as Communication Boundaries13.4 Checking the Tools We Have13.5 In-Depth Examples13.6 Summary13.7 Questions
14. A Working System
14.1 Introduction14.2 Minikube Skeleton14.3 GitHub Actions14.4 Dockerfile14.5 NATS Deployment and Initialization14.6 Menu Service: NATS KV and Object Store for Menu Data14.7 Order Processor14.8 Full System Overview and Remaining Services14.9 Database14.10 Conclusion
Correction to: Distributed Communication Basics
Conclusion
Answers to the Questions
Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13
Index

Content preview from Building Distributed Systems with Go and NATS: A Comprehensive Guide

D. D'AnnaBuilding Distributed Systems with Go and NATShttps://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-2089-2_3

3. NATS Fundamentals

Delio D’Anna¹

3.1 Introduction

3.1.1 What Is NATS

NATS is an open-source tool that was born as a messaging system and expanded into much more. Besides the messaging functionalities, it offers a way to communicate between clients via messaging, a shared key/value store, and an object store for sharing bigger files/objects between clients. It also includes a tiny yet powerful framework for building microservices. NATS can be used in most of the same situations where you would use mangos, but it removes a lot of burdens related ...

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Building Distributed Systems with Go and NATS: A Comprehensive Guide

by Delio D'Anna

3. NATS Fundamentals