Supported versions

Review the following information about supported release versions for Gloo Platform, including dependencies on open source projects like Istio.

Supported versions

Solo supports n-3 versions for Gloo Platform. Within each Gloo Platform version, different open source project versions are supported, including n-4 version support for the Solo distribution of Istio.

Gloo Platform

The following versions of Gloo Platform are supported with the compatible open source project versions of Istio and Kubernetes. Later versions of the open source projects that are released after Gloo Platform might also work, but are not tested as part of the Gloo Platform release.

Gloo Platform Release date Supported Solo distributions of Istio and related Kubernetes versions tested by Solo Supported Solo distributions of Cilium versions tested by Solo
2.5 09 Jan 2024
  • Istio 1.20 on Kubernetes 1.25 - 1.28
  • Istio 1.19 on Kubernetes 1.25 - 1.28
  • Istio 1.18 on Kubernetes 1.24 - 1.27
  • Istio 1.17 on Kubernetes 1.23 - 1.26
  • Istio 1.16 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.25
Cilium 1.12 - 1.14 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.28
2.4 28 Aug 2023
  • Istio 1.18 on Kubernetes 1.24 - 1.27
  • Istio 1.17 on Kubernetes 1.23 - 1.26
  • Istio 1.16 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.25
  • Istio 1.15 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.25
  • Istio 1.14 on Kubernetes 1.21 - 1.24
Cilium 1.12 or 1.13 on Kubernetes 1.21 - 1.27
2.3 17 Apr 2023
  • Istio 1.18 on Kubernetes 1.24 - 1.27
  • Istio 1.17 on Kubernetes 1.23 - 1.26
  • Istio 1.16 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.25
  • Istio 1.15 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.25
  • Istio 1.14 on Kubernetes 1.21 - 1.24
Cilium 1.12 on Kubernetes 1.20 - 1.25
2.2 20 Jan 2023
  • Istio 1.18 on Kubernetes 1.24
  • Istio 1.17 on Kubernetes 1.23 - 1.24
  • Istio 1.16 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.24
  • Istio 1.15 on Kubernetes 1.22 - 1.24
  • Istio 1.14 on Kubernetes 1.21 - 1.24
Cilium 1.12 on Kubernetes 1.19 - 1.24

Solo distribution of Istio

Keep in mind that Gloo Platform offers n-4 security patching support only with Solo distributions of Istio, not community Istio versions. Solo distributions of Istio support the same patch versions as community Istio. You can review community Istio patch versions in the Istio release documentation. You must run the latest Gloo Platform patch version to get the backported Istio support.

Supported Istio versions by Kubernetes or OpenShift version

The supported version of Istio, and Kubernetes or OpenShift are dependent on each other. For example, if you plan to use Gloo Platform with Istio 1.18, you must make sure that you use a Kubernetes or OpenShift version that is compatible with Istio 1.18. The same is true if you decided on a specific Kubernetes or OpenShift version, and you must find an Istio version that is compatible.

To find a list of supported Kubernetes versions in Istio, see the Istio docs. For supported OpenShift, go to the OpenShift knowledgebase (requires login).

Known Istio issues

Feature gates

To review the required Gloo Mesh versions for specific features that you can optionally enable, see Feature gates.

Upgrading versions

The upgrade process depends on which software you need to upgrade and your infrastructure provider.

Gloo Mesh Enterprise

Consider the following rules before you plan your Gloo Mesh upgrade. For steps on how to perform the upgrade, see the Upgrading guide.

General:
Always upgrade the Gloo management server first. Then, roll out the upgrade to the Gloo agents in your workload clusters. For more information, see the version skew policy for management and remote clusters.

Patch version upgrades:
You can skip patch versions within the same minor release. For example, you can upgrade from version 2.4.0 to 2.4.5 directly, and skip the patch versions in between.

Minor version upgrades:

Version skew policy for management and remote clusters

Plan to always upgrade your Gloo management server and agents to the same target version. During the upgrade process, your management server and agents can be one minor version apart. For example, let's say you want to upgrade from 2.4.12 to 2.5.x. Start by upgrading your management server to the latest patch version of the 2.5 minor release. Your management server and agent are still compliant as they are one minor version apart. Then, roll out the 2.5 minor release upgrade to the agents in your workload clusters.

If you plan to upgrade more than one minor releases, you must perform one minor release upgrade at a time. For example, to upgrade your management server and agent from 2.3.x to 2.5.x, you upgrade your management server to the latest patch version of the 2.4 minor release first. Your management server and agent are compliant because they are one minor version apart. Then, you upgrade your agents to the 2.4 minor release. After you verify the 2.4 upgrade, use the same approach to upgrade the management server and agents from 2.4 to the target 2.5 minor release.

If both your management server and agent run the same minor version, the agent can run any patch version that is equal or lower than the management server's patch version.

Consider the following example version skew scenarios:

Supported? Management server version Agent version Requirement
2.4.4 2.4.2 The management server and agents run the same minor version. The agent patch version is equal to or lower than the management server.
2.4.4 2.4.5 The agent runs the same minor version as the server, but has a patch version greater than the server.
2.4.4 2.3.4 The agent runs a minor version no greater than n-1 behind the server.
2.4.4 2.2.9 The agent runs a minor version that is greater than n-1 behind the server.

Istio

The process for updating Istio depends on how you installed Istio. If you used the Istio lifecycle manager, follow the Upgrade Gloo Mesh-managed Istio guide. If you manually installed Istio in your clusters, see Upgrading Istio.

Kubernetes or OpenShift

Consult your infrastructure provider's upgrade process. For example, you might use Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), or Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Solo distributions of Istio

For information about the Solo distribution of Istio, see the Solo distribution of Istio reference.

Download a specific image

You can download a particular image for Gloo Platform and the Solo distribution of Istio, such as for the following use cases.

Get the Gloo Platform version that you want to use

  1. Find the version tag in the changelog, such as 2.5.4.
  2. To download the package for all Gloo components that you deploy in your management and workload clusters, append the <version_tag> to the following URL.
    https://storage.googleapis.com/gloo-platform/helm-charts/gloo-platform-<version_tag>.tgz
    
  3. Optional: For FIPS-compliant images, open the values.yaml file in the downloaded package, search for the image section, and append -fips to the tag, such as in the following example.
    ...
    glooMeshMgmtServer:
      image:
        pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        registry: gcr.io/gloo-mesh
        repository: gloo-mesh-mgmt-server
        tag: 2.5.4-fips
    
  4. Optional: If you need to pull the images locally, such as for an air-gapped installation, you can use the information you retrieved from the images section in the values.yaml file to pull the image. For example, you might use the following docker pull command for a FIPS image. Repeat this step for each image that you want to build locally and push to a private repository.
    docker pull gcr.io/gloo-mesh/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server:2.5.4-fips
    
  5. Use these packages when you install Gloo Platform.

Get the Solo distribution of Istio that you want to use

To download Solo distributions of Istio, you must be a registered user and log in to the Solo Support Center.

  1. Open the Istio images built by Solo.io support article. When prompted, log in to the Support Center with your Solo account credentials.

  2. Find the repo key for the Istio version that you want to use in the support article, such as the repo key for # istio-1.20.

  3. Save the repo key that your account representative gave you as an environment variable.

    export REPO=<repo-key>
    
  4. Decide on the specific tag of Istio image, such as the solo-fips, solo-distroless, or solo-fips-distroless, that you want for your environment. For more information, see Solo distributions of Istio.

  5. Save the Istio version, including any specific tags, as an environment variable. The following example is for the latest patch version of the Solo FIPS distribution of Istio.

    export ISTIO_IMAGE=1.20.2-solo-fips
    
  6. Pull the Istio images that you want to use with the repo key.

    docker pull $REPO/pilot:$ISTIO_IMAGE
    docker pull $REPO/proxyv2:$ISTIO_IMAGE
    docker pull $REPO/operator:$ISTIO_IMAGE
    
  7. Install Istio with these images. Istio provides several installation methods, such as using istioctl, the Istio Operator, or Helm. When you install Istio, make sure to replace any images with the Gloo Platform images that you want to use. For more information, see the Istio documentation. For examples that set the hub and tag values in the Istio Operator to the Solo distribution of Istio, see one of the following installation guides.

  8. After installing Istio, you can verify that the version is compatible with your Kubernetes environment by running istioctl x precheck.

    istioctl x precheck
    
    ✔ No issues found when checking the cluster. Istio is safe to install or upgrade!
      To get started, check out https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/getting-started/
    

Release lifecycle

Solo supports n-3 for Gloo Platform and n-4 for Solo distributions of Istio.

Typically, Gloo Platform releases a new minor version, n, each quarter. When the new minor version is released, the previous n-4 for Gloo Platform or n-5 for Solo distributions of Istio become unsupported. Make sure that you run a supported version for production environments, and keep that version upgraded to the latest patch version so that you have the latest security fixes. For more information, see Upgrading Gloo Platform.

Version Supported? Type Description
n Yes Latest The latest stable version is the default version when you view the documentation. New features are typically not developed for the latest version, but the version is actively maintained for security patches, bugs, and documentation.
n-2
n-3
Istio-only: n-4
Yes Stable Supported versions up to n-3 (and n-4 for Solo distributions of Istio) continue to receive support for security patches, bugs, and documentation. You can review the documentation for these versions by switching the documentation to the main branch from the dropdown in the menu bar.
n+1 No Beta Active feature development happens on the main branch as part of the development of a beta version. When the n+1 beta version is prepared as a release candidate, new feature development is suspended until this version becomes the new n. You can preview the documentation for some of these features by switching the documentation to the main branch from the dropdown in the menu bar. New features and development work on main is subject to change, not necessarily fully tested, and not supported.
n-4
Istio-only: n-5
No Unsupported Versions that are n-4 (and n-5 for Solo distributions of Istio) or older are no longer supported or maintained. Upgrade your release to a stable version to continue to receive support.

Gloo feature maturity

Solo periodically provides new features in minor releases of Gloo versions. To receive feedback and improve functionality for real use cases, these features are often released according to a feature maturity model. As the features are improved and stabilized, they are gradually moved through the stages of alpha, beta, and general availability (GA) support. Review the following table for the comparison points between each stage of feature maturity. To see the maturity of a feature, check the feature's documentation.

Comparison point Alpha Beta GA
API Can and will likely change Unlikely to change No change
Implementation Can and will likely change Can change, but user experience is maintained No changes that affect user experience
Upgrade paths Not guaranteed Not guaranteed Provided and tested
Requests for enhancement (RFEs) and bug fixes RFEs and bug fixes prioritized RFEs and bug fixes prioritized Fully supported
Documentation Not guaranteed and supplied with warnings Supplied with warnings Fully supplied
Automated testing Internal testing, but little testing with real use cases Internal testing and some testing with real use cases Fully tested and validated with real use cases
Suggested usage Exploration and feedback Testing setups, demos, and POCs Production setups

Open source packages in Gloo Platform

For specific versions of open sources packages that are bundled with Gloo Platform, see the entries in the Open Source Attribution topic. For more information on where these open source packages are retrieved from, see the go.mod documentation.

Help me choose which version to run

  1. Consider your container platform environment, particularly which cloud provider and version of Kubernetes that you want to run. Compare the version against the table of supported versions for Gloo Platform.
  2. Review the features that are available in a particular version of the software.
  3. Decide if you need to run a specific image, such as the FIPS version of the Solo distribution of Istio for FedRAMP compliance.
  4. Follow the Setup guides, modifying the steps to install the particular versions that you want to use.