The Gloo management server configures the Gloo agents to maintain the desired state of your environment. When you create Gloo custom resources, the server translates these to the appropriate open source custom resources that your Gloo product is based on, such as Istio and Envoy. Then, the server pushes config changes to the agents to apply in the workload clusters.

Debug the management server

Debug the Gloo management server.

  1. Verify that the Gloo management server pod is running.

      kubectl get pods -n gloo-mesh -l app=gloo-mesh-mgmt-server --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}

    If not, describe the pod and look for error messages. If you have multiple replicas, check each pod.

      kubectl describe pod -n gloo-mesh -l app=gloo-mesh-mgmt-server --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}

  2. Optional: To increase the verbosity of the logs, you can patch the management server deployment. This way, you can review logs at the debug level, such as translation errors.

      kubectl patch deploy -n gloo-mesh gloo-mesh-mgmt-server --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT} --type "json" -p '[{"op":"add","path":"/spec/template/spec/containers/0/args/-","value":"--verbose=true"}]'

  3. Check the logs of the Gloo management server pod. To view logs recorded since a relative duration such as 5s, 2m, or 3h, you can specify the --since <duration> flag.

      meshctl logs mgmt -l error --kubecontext ${MGMT_CONTEXT} [--since DURATION]

    Optionally, you can format the output with jq or save it in a local file so that you can read and analyze the output more easily.

      meshctl logs mgmt -l error --kubecontext ${MGMT_CONTEXT} | jq > mgmt-server-logs.json

  4. In the logs, look for error messages. For example, you might see a message similar to the following.

    MessageDescriptionSteps to resolve
    json: cannot unmarshal array into Go struct fieldThe Gloo configuration of the resource does not match the expected configuration in the Gloo custom resource definition. Gloo cannot translate the resource, and dependent resources such as policies do not work.Review the configuration of the resource against the API reference, and try debugging the resource. For example, a field might be missing or have an incorrect value such as the wrong cluster name. If you recently upgraded the management server version, make sure that you reapply the CRDs.
    License is invalid or expired, crashing - license expiredThe Gloo license is expired. Your Gloo management server is in a crash loop, and no Gloo resources can be modified until you update the license.See Updating your Gloo license.

  5. You can also check the logs for other all log levels, such as warn, debug, or info.

      meshctl logs mgmt --kubecontext ${MGMT_CONTEXT} [--since DURATION]

  6. You can optionally generate a .tar.gz file of your Gloo and Istio operational information to help debug issues in your environment. For more information, see the CLI reference.

      meshctl debug report
    • To generate a file for multiple clusters:
         meshctl debug report --kubecontext cluster1,cluster2,cluster3
    • To include information from application namespaces in addition to the gloo-mesh and Istio namespaces:
         meshctl debug report --include-namespaces app1,app2
    • To upload the debug information to a secure repo owned by Solo.io, you can set a folder structure that makes it easy to identify your upload.
         meshctl debug report --upload true --upload-dir <your_name>/<issue_name>

Debug the relay connection

Verify the relay connection between the Gloo management server and agent.

  1. Verify that the Gloo management server and agent pods are running. If not, try troubleshooting the management server or agent.

      kubectl get pods -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT
kubectl get pods -n gloo-mesh --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT

  2. Verify that the workload clusters are successfully identified by the management plane. This check might take a few seconds to ensure that the expected relay agent is now running and is connected to the relay server in the management cluster.

      meshctl check --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT

    Example output:

      ...
🟢 Mgmt server connectivity to workload agents

Cluster  | Registered | Connected Pod                                   
cluster1 | true       | gloo-mesh/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server-676f4b9945-2pngd
cluster2 | true       | gloo-mesh/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server-676f4b9945-2pngd

  3. Check that the relay connection between the management server and workload agents is healthy.

    1. Forward port 9091 of the gloo-mesh-mgmt-server pod to your localhost.
        kubectl port-forward -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT deploy/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server 9091
    2. In your browser, connect to http://localhost:9091/metrics.
    3. In the metrics UI, look for the following lines. If the values are 1, the agents in the workload clusters are successfully registered with the management server. If the values are 0, the agents are not successfully connected. The warmed successful message indicates that the management server can push configuration to the agents.
        relay_pull_clients_connected{cluster="cluster1"} 1
relay_pull_clients_connected{cluster="cluster2"} 1
relay_push_clients_connected{cluster="cluster1"} 1
relay_push_clients_connected{cluster="cluster2"} 1
relay_push_clients_warmed{cluster="cluster1"} 1
relay_push_clients_warmed{cluster="cluster2"} 1
    4. Take snapshots in case you want to refer to the logs later, such as to open a Support issue.
        curl localhost:9091/snapshots/input -o input_snapshot.json 
curl localhost:9091/snapshots/output -o output_snapshot.json

  4. Check that the Gloo management services are running.

    1. Send a gRPC request to the Gloo management server.

        kubectl get secret --context $MGMT_CONTEXT -n gloo-mesh relay-root-tls-secret -o json | jq -r '.data["ca.crt"]' | base64 -d  > ca.crt
grpcurl -authority gloo-mesh-mgmt-server.gloo-mesh --cacert=./ca.crt $MGMT_SERVER_NETWORKING_ADDRESS list

    2. Verify that the following services are listed.

        envoy.service.accesslog.v3.AccessLogService
envoy.service.metrics.v2.MetricsService
envoy.service.metrics.v3.MetricsService
grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection
relay.multicluster.skv2.solo.io.RelayCertificateService
relay.multicluster.skv2.solo.io.RelayPullServer
relay.multicluster.skv2.solo.io.RelayPushServer

  5. Check the logs on the gloo-mesh-mgmt-server pod on the management cluster for communication from the workload cluster.

      meshctl logs mgmt -l error --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT | grep $REMOTE_CLUSTER

    Example output:

      {"level":"debug","ts":1616160185.5505846,"logger":"pull-resource-deltas","msg":"recieved request for delta: response_nonce:\"1\"","metadata":{":authority":["gloo-mesh-mgmt-server.gloo-mesh.svc.cluster.local:11100"],"content-type":["application/grpc"],"user-agent":["grpc-go/1.34.0"],"x-cluster-id":["remote.cluster"]},"peer":"10.244.0.17:40074"}