Introduction

You have two options to install Istio in ambient mode with Gloo Mesh Core.

  • Istio Lifecycle Manager: Manage your Istio installations and upgrades more easily with this Gloo-managed service mesh approach.
  • Manual: Use the Solo build of istioctl to create your own Istio operator to set up ambient mode. This way, you have more responsibility but also more control over your installation.

Before you begin

  1. Create or use an existing Kubernetes cluster, and save the cluster name in an environment variable. Note: The cluster name must be alphanumeric with no special characters except a hyphen (-), lowercase, and begin with a letter (not a number).

      export CLUSTER_NAME=<cluster_name>
      
  2. Install the following command-line (CLI) tools.

    • kubectl, the Kubernetes command line tool. Download the kubectl version that is within one minor version of the Kubernetes clusters you plan to use.
    • meshctl, the Solo command line tool.
        curl -sL https://run.solo.io/meshctl/install | GLOO_MESH_VERSION=v2.5.12 sh -
      export PATH=$HOME/.gloo-mesh/bin:$PATH
        
  3. Set your Gloo Mesh Core license key as an environment variable. If you do not have one, contact an account representative. If you prefer to specify license keys in a secret instead, see Licensing. To check your license’s validity, you can run meshctl license check --key $(echo ${GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY} | base64 -w0).

      export GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY=<license_key>
      
  4. Set environment variables for the Istio repository and image version that you want to install. You can find both values in the Istio images built by Solo.io support article.

      export REPO=<repo-key>
    export ISTIO_IMAGE=<image-tag>
      

  5. Optional: If you already installed Istio in sidecar mode, uninstall your Istio installation. Gloo Mesh Core does not currently support multiple installations of Istio in both sidecar and ambient modes.

Install Istio and Gloo Mesh Core in ambient mode

You can either use an IstioLifecycleManager resource to manage the Istio installations across clusters more easily, or manually install Istio and Gloo Mesh Core in ambient mode.

Istio Lifecycle Manager

  1. Install Gloo Mesh Core.

      meshctl install --profiles gloo-core-single-cluster \
      --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
      --set licensing.glooMeshCoreLicenseKey=$GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY
      

  2. Verify that Gloo Mesh Core is correctly installed. This check might take a few seconds to verify that:

    • Your Gloo Mesh Core product license is valid and current.
    • The Gloo CRDs are installed at the correct version.
    • The Gloo pods are running and healthy.
    • The Gloo agent is running and connected to the management server.
      meshctl check
      
  3. Create an IstioLifecycleManager resource in your cluster to install Istio in ambient mode. For more information about service mesh lifecycle management with Gloo, check out Service mesh lifecycle and Solo distributions of Istio.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
    apiVersion: admin.gloo.solo.io/v2
    kind: IstioLifecycleManager
    metadata:
      name: istiod-control-plane
      namespace: gloo-mesh
    spec:
      installations:
      - clusters:
        - name: $CLUSTER_NAME
          defaultRevision: false
        istioOperatorSpec:
          profile: ambient
          hub: $REPO
          tag: $ISTIO_IMAGE
          namespace: istio-system
          meshConfig:
            defaultConfig:
              holdApplicationUntilProxyStarts: true
              proxyMetadata:
                ISTIO_META_DNS_CAPTURE: "true"
                ISTIO_META_DNS_AUTO_ALLOCATE: "false"
                DNS_PROXY_ADDR: "0.0.0.0:15053"
            accessLogFile: /dev/stdout
            rootNamespace: istio-system
          components:
            cni:
              enabled: true
              namespace: kube-system
            pilot:
              k8s:
                env:
                - name: PILOT_ENABLE_K8S_SELECT_WORKLOAD_ENTRIES
                  value: "false"
                - name: PILOT_SKIP_VALIDATE_TRUST_DOMAIN
                  value: "true"
          values:
             ztunnel:
               meshConfig:
                 defaultConfig:
                   proxyMetadata:
                     ISTIO_META_DNS_CAPTURE: "true"
                     ISTIO_META_DNS_AUTO_ALLOCATE: "false"
                     DNS_PROXY_ADDR: "0.0.0.0:15053"
    EOF
      
  4. Verify that the components of the Istio ambient mesh are successfully installed. Because the ztunnel is deployed as a daemon set, the number of ztunnel pods equals the number of nodes in your cluster. Note that it might take a few seconds for the pods to become available.

      kubectl get pods -n istio-system
      

    Example output:

      istiod-d765ff7cf-46dbm                  1/1     Running   0          2m4s
    ztunnel-648wc                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-6rhp5                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-hllxg                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-mg4w7                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-s8j5t                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-xgvnc                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
      
  5. Verify that the Istio CNI pods are up and running. Because the Istio CNI is deployed as a daemon set, the number of Istio CNI pods equals the number of nodes in your cluster.

      kubectl get pods -n kube-system | grep istio-cni
      

    Example output:

      istio-cni-node-6q26l       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
    istio-cni-node-7gg8k       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
    istio-cni-node-lcrcd       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
    istio-cni-node-lws52       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
    istio-cni-node-v4fjf       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
    istio-cni-node-v7bdc       1/1     Running   0          3m18s
      
  6. Optional: Review the ClusterIstioInstallation resources in your workload cluster. For example, you might describe one of the resources to the check the status of your Istio installations. Gloo Mesh Core translates input Istio configuration into these internal resources, which represent the state of the Istio installations in each workload cluster.

      kubectl get ClusterIstioInstallation -A
      

Manual installation

  1. Install the CLI for the Solo distribution of Istio. You can find the CLI version and the repository from which to download that version in the Istio images built by Solo.io support article.

  2. Install the Istio operator.

      istioctl operator init \
      --hub $REPO \
      --tag $ISTIO_IMAGE
      
  3. Create the istio-system namespace.

      kubectl create ns istio-system
      
  4. Create an Istio operator CRD to set up Istio with the ambient profile.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
    apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
    kind: IstioOperator
    metadata:
      namespace: istio-system
      name: example-istiocontrolplane
    spec:
      hub: $REPO
      tag: $ISTIO_IMAGE
      components:
        cni:
          enabled: true
          namespace: kube-system
      profile: ambient
      values:
        ztunnel:
          meshConfig:
            defaultConfig:
              proxyMetadata:
                ISTIO_META_DNS_CAPTURE: "true"
                ISTIO_META_DNS_AUTO_ALLOCATE: "false"
                DNS_PROXY_ADDR: "0.0.0.0:15053"
        meshConfig:
          defaultConfig:
            proxyMetadata:
              ISTIO_META_DNS_CAPTURE: "true"
              ISTIO_META_DNS_AUTO_ALLOCATE: "false"
              DNS_PROXY_ADDR: "0.0.0.0:15053"
          accessLogFile: /dev/stdout
    EOF
      
  5. Verify that the components of the Istio ambient mesh are successfully installed. Because the ztunnel is deployed as a daemon set, the number of ztunnel pods equals the number of nodes in your cluster. Note that it might take a few seconds for the pods to become available.

      kubectl get pods -n istio-system
      

    Example output:

      istiod-d765ff7cf-46dbm                  1/1     Running   0          2m4s
    ztunnel-648wc                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-6rhp5                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-hllxg                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-mg4w7                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-s8j5t                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
    ztunnel-xgvnc                           1/1     Running   0          2m8s
      
  6. Verify that the Istio CNI pods are up and running. Because the Istio CNI is deployed as a daemon set, the number of Istio CNI pods equals the number of nodes in your cluster.

      kubectl get pods -n kube-system | grep istio-cni
      

    Example output:

      istio-cni-node-55kj6       2/2     Running   0          62s
    istio-cni-node-5cz2q       2/2     Running   0          62s
    istio-cni-node-cp469       2/2     Running   0          62s
    istio-cni-node-h2ckw       2/2     Running   0          62s
    istio-cni-node-mdsnt       2/2     Running   0          62s
    istio-cni-node-s7wb2       2/2     Running   0          62s
      
  7. Install Gloo Mesh Core.

      meshctl install --profiles gloo-core-single-cluster \
      --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
      --set licensing.glooMeshCoreLicenseKey=$GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY
      

  8. Verify that Gloo Mesh Core is correctly installed. This check might take a few seconds to verify that:

    • Your Gloo Mesh Core product license is valid and current.
    • The Gloo CRDs are installed at the correct version.
    • The Gloo pods are running and healthy.
    • The Gloo agent is running and connected to the management server.
      meshctl check
      

Next

Deploy sample apps and add them to the ambient mesh.