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=v2.6.0-beta2 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 in ambient mode.

      meshctl install --profiles gloo-core-single-cluster \
  --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
  --set featureGates.ambientMode=true \
  --set licensing.glooMeshCoreLicenseKey=$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          38m
istio-cni-node-7gg8k                                             1/1     Running   0          38m
istio-cni-node-lcrcd                                             1/1     Running   0          38m
istio-cni-node-lws52                                             1/1     Running   0          38m
istio-cni-node-v4fjf                                             1/1     Running   0          38m
istio-cni-node-v7bdc                                             1/1     Running   0          38m

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 in ambient mode.

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