Fatigue failure is one of the important forms of metal structure failure. Improving the fatigue performance of parts can effectively increase the life of structure. For low and high cycle fatigue, the majority of the fatigue cracks are born on the surface of the parts. Therefore, the surface integrity has important influence on the fatigue behavior of metal materials. The connotation of surface integrity was briefly introduced in this review, pointing out that surface integrity does not only include the surface characteristics such as roughness, waviness and surface crack, but also the physical and chemical characteristics such as surface residual stress, plastic deformation and microstructure of the processed parts. The current research status of surface integrity process was summarized, showing the effects of mechanical milling, wire-electrode cutting, grinding, shot peening, and light decoration on the surface integrity. The building of description models for surface integrity was overviewed. The importance of every element to the surface integrity was pointed out. The domestic development trends of surface integrity were analyzed. It was pointed out that process technology of surface integrity and surface integrity characterization model promote each other, and interdisciplinary research on surface integrity process and surface integrity description model was proposed. Finally, suggestions were put forward to improve the surface integrity, and to establish the model of surface integrity.