Installation options
Learn about your options for installing Gloo Mesh Enterprise in your environment.
Deployment modes
Choose whether you want to deploy Gloo Mesh Enterprise in one cluster, or across multiple clusters.
Single cluster
Gloo Mesh Enterprise is fully functional when the management plane (management server) and data plane (agent and service mesh) 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
A multicluster Gloo Mesh Enterprise setup consists of one management cluster that you install the Gloo management plane (management server) in, and one or more workload clusters that serve as the data plane (agent and service mesh). 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 Mesh Enterprise.
The following components can be deployed either as standalone pods or as sidecars. For more information about the installed components, review the Gloo Mesh Enterprise architecture.
| Component deployed as a sidecar | Main component pod | Installation setting |
|---|---|---|
| Gloo agent | Gloo management server | glooAgent.runAsSidecar: trueNote that the agent is available as a sidecar only in single-cluster environments. |
Installation methods
After you decide on a single or multicluster environment, choose whether to use the meshctl CLI or Helm charts to install Gloo Mesh Enterprise.
CLI install profiles
Gloo packages profiles in the meshctl CLI for quick Gloo Mesh Enterprise installations. Profiles provide basic Helm settings for a minimum installation, and are suitable for testing setups. Because the profiles provide standard setups, they can also be useful starting points for building a customized and robust set of Helm installation values.
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/2.5.11/<profile>.yaml > profile-values.yaml.
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 Mesh Enterprise with these profiles, see the get started guides.
Add-on profiles
The following profiles install Gloo 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 guide.
| 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 |
ratelimit | Use rate limiting in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. | Gloo rate limiting server |
Helm charts
To extensively customize the settings of your Gloo Mesh Enterprise installation, you can use the gloo-platform and gloo-platform-crds Helm charts.
Installation Helm chart
All components for a full Gloo Mesh Enterprise installation are available in the gloo-platform Helm chart.
In Gloo version 2.5 and later, the legacy gloo-mesh-enterprise, gloo-mesh-agent, gloo-mesh-managed-installations, and other included Helm charts are unsupported. If you installed Gloo Mesh Enterprise by using these legacy Helm charts, or if you used meshctl version 2.2 or earlier to install Gloo Mesh Enterprise, you must migrate your legacy installation to the new gloo-platform 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 telemetry collector agents. 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. Disabled by default. |
glooAgent | Configuration for the Gloo agent. |
glooAnalyzer | Configuration for the Gloo analyzer, which gathers data on Gloo and Istio components. |
glooInsightsEngine | Configuration for the Gloo insights engine, which creates Solo insights. |
glooMgmtServer | Configuration for the Gloo management server. |
glooNetwork | Gloo Network agent configuration options. |
glooPortalServer | Configuration for the Gloo Portal server deployment. |
glooSpireServer | Configuration for the Gloo 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. The istioInstallations Helm settings can be helpful for simple use cases to set up Istio quickly, such as single cluster Gloo Mesh Gateway demos. Otherwise, install Istio by using the IstioLifecycleManager and GatewayLifecycleManager custom resources. |
jaeger | Configuration for the Gloo Jaeger instance. |
licensing | Gloo product licenses. |
postgresql | Configuration for Gloo 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 telemetry collector agents. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values. |
telemetryCollectorCustomization | Optional customization for the Gloo telemetry collector agents. |
telemetryGateway | Configuration for the Gloo telemetry gateway. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values. |
telemetryGatewayCustomization | Optional customization for the Gloo telemetry gateway. |
You can see all possible fields that you can set for the chart by running the following command.
helm show values gloo-platform/gloo-platform --version v2.5.11 > all-values.yaml
For more information about each field, see the Helm values documentation. To set up Gloo Mesh Enterprise with Helm, see the advanced installation guide.
CRD Helm chart
All CRDs that are required for a Gloo Mesh Enterprise installation are available in the gloo-platform-crds Helm chart. To see all CRD installation options, see the Helm values documentation. If you already installed the chart, you can run kubectl get crds -A | grep gloo.solo.io to see the installed CRDs.
Supported platforms
You can install Gloo Mesh Enterprise on Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters. For more information about the requirements for clusters on each platform, see the System requirements.
Kubernetes
Gloo Mesh Enterprise and Istio are fully supported on Kubernetes clusters. Throughout the installation guides, use installation commands that are labeled for use with Kubernetes.
OpenShift
Gloo Mesh Enterprise 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 throughout the installation guides that are labeled for use with OpenShift. For more information about the required changes, see the Istio on OpenShift documentation.
- Dynamic user ID: The pods of all the Gloo components’ deployments must be assigned a dynamic user ID for the Istio sidecar to use. However, this user ID is not permitted in OpenShift by default. In the installation guides, follow the OpenShift commands to use OpenShift-specific install profiles, which include the
floatingUserId=trueinstallation setting for each Gloo component. For example, you might use themgmt-server-openshiftprofile. - Service account permissions: For any pods that require an Istio sidecar, such as your workload pods, you must elevate the permissions of the service account for that namespace. These elevated permissions allow the pods to make use of a user ID that is normally restricted by OpenShift. In the Istio installation guides, you follow the OpenShift commands to elevate the service account permissions for the Istio and your workload projects.
- Network attachment definition: The CNI on OpenShift requires a
NetworkAttachmentDefinitionin each workload project in order to invoke theistio-cniplug-in. For each workload project where you deploy applications in your service mesh, you must create aNetworkAttachmentDefinitionresource. For example, follow the OpenShift steps in when you deploy the sample apps to create the resource in each sample app project.