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Installation options

Learn about your options for installing Gloo Gateway in your environment.

Deployment modes

Choose whether you want to deploy Gloo Gateway in one cluster, or across multiple clusters.

Single cluster mode

Gloo Gateway is fully functional when the management plane (management server) and data plane (agent and gateway proxy) both run within the same cluster. You can easily install both the control and data plane components by using one installation process. If you choose to install the components in separate processes, ensure that you use the same name for the cluster during both processes.

Multicluster mode

A multicluster Gloo Gateway setup consists of one management cluster that you install the Gloo management server in, and one or more workload clusters that serve as the data plane (agent and gateway proxies). By running the management plane in a dedicated management cluster, you can ensure that no workload pods consume cluster resources that might impede management processes. Many guides throughout the documentation use one management cluster and two workload clusters as an example setup.

Sidecar deployment options

You can deploy some Gloo components as either standalone pods or as sidecar containers to other component pods. Deploying components as sidecars can help reduce the amount of compute resources required to run Gloo Gateway.

The following components can be deployed either as standalone pods or as sidecars. For more information about the installed components, review the Gloo Gateway architecture.

Component deployed as a sidecar Main component pod Installation setting
Gloo agent Gloo management server glooAgent.runAsSidecar: true
Note that the agent is available as a sidecar only in single-cluster environments.

meshctl profiles

In Gloo Gateway version 2.3 and later, you can use profiles that are packaged in the meshctl CLI for quick Gloo Gateway installations. Profiles provide basic Helm settings for a minimum installation, and are suitable for testing setups.

In your meshctl install and meshctl cluster register commands, you can specify one or more profiles in the --profile flag. Multiple profiles can be applied in a comma-delimited list, in which merge priority is left to right. Note that any values you specify in --set or --gloo-mesh-agent-chart-values flags have highest merge priority.

The following profiles are supported. You can review the Helm settings in a profile by running curl https://storage.googleapis.com/gloo-platform/helm-profiles/2.5.5/<profile>.yaml > profile-values.yaml. You can also check out Gloo Mesh-specific profiles in the Gloo Mesh setup documentation.

Demo profiles

The following profiles provide “all-in-one” setups that are suitable for demo environments. To set up Gloo Gateway with these profiles, see the single-cluster or multicluster getting started guides.

Profile Use case Deployed components
gloo-gateway-demo Set up a Gloo Gateway demo environment in a single-cluster Kubernetes setup. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OpenTelemetry (OTel) collector agents, managed gateway proxy
Profile Use case Deployed components
gloo-gateway-demo-openshift Set up a Gloo Gateway demo environment in a single-cluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel collector agents, managed gateway proxy

Standard profiles

The following profiles provide standard setups, which can be useful starting points for building a customized and robust set of Helm installation values. To set up Gloo Gateway with these profiles, see the single-cluster or multicluster setup guides.

Profile Use case Deployed components
gloo-gateway-single Set up all Gloo Gateway components in a single-cluster Kubernetes setup. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel collector agents, managed gateway proxy
mgmt-server Set up a Gloo Platform product in the management cluster in a multicluster Kubernetes setup. Default profile for meshctl install. Gloo management server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel gateway
agent Register a workload cluster in a multicluster Kubernetes setup. Default profile for meshctl cluster register. Gloo agent, Gloo OTel collector agents
Profile Use case Deployed components
gloo-gateway-single-openshift Set up all Gloo Gateway components in a single-cluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel collector agents, managed gateway proxy
mgmt-server-openshift Set up a Gloo Platform product in the management cluster in a multicluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo management server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel gateway
agent-openshift Register a workload cluster in a multicluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo agent, Gloo OTel collector agents

Add-on profiles

The following profiles install Gloo Platform add-ons, which are often used additively with standard profiles. To set up add-ons with these profiles, see the rate limiting and external authentication or portal setup guides.

Profile Use case Deployed components
extauth Use external authentication in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Gloo external auth server
portal Deploy Gloo Portal in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster Kubernetes setup. Uses the local Redis instance as the backing storage. Gloo Portal server, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server
ratelimit Use rate limiting in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Gloo rate limiting server
Profile Use case Deployed components
extauth Use external authentication in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Gloo external auth server
portal-openshift Deploy Gloo Portal in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster OpenShift setup. Uses the local Redis instance as the backing storage. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo Portal server, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server
ratelimit Use rate limiting in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Gloo rate limiting server

gloo-platform Helm chart

All Gloo Platform components are available in a single Helm chart, gloo-platform. Additionally, the custom resource definitions (CRDs) that are required by Gloo Platform controllers are maintained by the gloo-platform-crds Helm chart.

Helm installations allow for extensive customization of Gloo settings, and are suitable for proof-of-concept or production setups. Within the gloo-platform chart, you can find the configuration options for all components in the following sections.

Component section Description
clickhouse Configuration for the Clickhouse deployment, which stores logs from Gloo Platform Telemetry Collectors. See the Bitnami Clickhouse Helm chart for the complete set of values.
common Common values shared across components. When applicable, these can be overridden in specific components.
demo Demo-specific features that improve quick setups. Do not use in production.
experimental Deprecated: Use featureGates fields instead.
extAuthService Configuration for the Gloo external authentication service.
featureGates Experimental features for Gloo Platform. Disabled by default.
glooAgent Configuration for the Gloo agent.
glooMgmtServer Configuration for the Gloo management server.
glooNetwork Gloo Network configuration options.
glooPortalServer Configuration for the Gloo Platform Portal server deployment.
glooSpireServer Configuration for the Gloo Platform Spire server deployment.
glooUi Configuration for the Gloo UI.
istioInstallations Configuration for deploying managed Istio control plane and gateway installations by using the Istio lifecycle manager.
jaeger Configuration for the Gloo Platform Jaeger instance.
legacyMetricsPipeline Configuration for the legacy metrics pipeline, which is unsupported in Gloo Platform version 2.4 and later.
licensing Gloo Platform product licenses.
postgresql Configuration for Gloo Platform PostgreSQL instance.
prometheus Helm values for configuring Prometheus. See the Prometheus Helm chart for the complete set of values.
rateLimiter Configuration for the Gloo rate limiting service.
redis Configuration for the default Redis instance.
telemetryCollector Configuration for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Collector. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values.
telemetryCollectorCustomization Optional customization for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Collector.
telemetryGateway Configuration for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Gateway. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values.
telemetryGatewayCustomization Optional customization for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Gateway.

For more information about the settings you can configure:

To set up Gloo Gateway with Helm, see the single-cluster or multicluster setup guides.

Looking for Helm charts such as gloo-mesh-enterprise and gloo-mesh-agent? In Gloo Platform 2.5 and later, these Helm charts are unsupported, and are replaced by the gloo-platform chart. For more information, see the migration guide.

Supported platforms

You can install Gloo Mesh on Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters. For more information about the requirements for clusters on each platform, see the System requirements.

Kubernetes

Gloo Gateway and Istio are fully supported on Kubernetes clusters. Throughout the installation guides, use installation commands that are labeled for use with Kubernetes.

OpenShift

Gloo Gateway is fully supported on OpenShift clusters. However, there are some changes you must make to allow Istio to run on an OpenShift cluster. To make these changes, use commands througout the installation guides that are labeled for use with OpenShift. For more information about the required changes, see the Istio on OpenShift documentation.