Uninstall legacy installations

This guide uninstalls setups that were installed using the legacy gloo-mesh-enterpise, gloo-mesh-agent, and other included Helm charts, or using meshctl version 2.2 or earlier. To uninstall setups that were installed using the gloo-platform Helm chart, see the gloo-platform uninstall guide instead.

If you no longer need your Gloo Mesh environment, you can deregister workload clusters and uninstall the Gloo Mesh control plane from your management cluster. You can also optionally uninstall Istio and the Bookinfo sample app.

Before you begin

  1. Set the names of your clusters from your infrastructure provider.
    export MGMT_CLUSTER=mgmt
    export REMOTE_CLUSTER1=cluster1
    export REMOTE_CLUSTER2=cluster2
    
  2. Save the kubeconfig contexts for your clusters. Run kubectl config get-contexts, look for your cluster in the CLUSTER column, and get the context name in the NAME column. Note: Do not use context names with underscores. The context name is used as a SAN specification in the generated certificate that connects workload clusters to the management cluster, and underscores in SAN are not FQDN compliant. You can rename a context by running kubectl config rename-context "<oldcontext>" <newcontext>.
    export MGMT_CONTEXT=<management-cluster-context>
    export REMOTE_CONTEXT1=<remote-cluster1-context>
    export REMOTE_CONTEXT2=<remote-cluster2-context>
    
  3. Save the names and contexts for subsequent workload clusters as needed, such as REMOTE_CONTEXT3, and so on.

This guide uninstalls setups that were installed using the legacy gloo-mesh-enterpise, gloo-mesh-agent, and other included Helm charts, or using meshctl version 2.2 or earlier. To uninstall setups that were installed using the gloo-platform Helm chart, see the gloo-platform uninstall guide instead.

Uninstall Istio

Uninstall Istio from each workload cluster. Note that if you used Gloo Mesh to manage your Istio installations, you must complete this section to uninstall Istio before you uninstall any Gloo Mesh management or agent components.

  1. Uninstall the Istio resources. These steps differ depending on whether you used managed or unmanaged Istio installations.

    1. Delete the GatewayLifecycleManager resources for the gateways that you deployed.
      kubectl delete GatewayLifecycleManager istio-ingressgateway -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT
      kubectl delete GatewayLifecycleManager istio-eastwestgateway -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT
      
    2. Delete the IstioLifecycleManager for the istiod control plane.
      kubectl delete IstioLifecycleManager istiod-control-plane -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT
      
    3. Delete the Istio namespaces from the workload clusters.
      kubectl delete ns istio-system --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete ns gloo-mesh-gateways --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      
      kubectl delete ns istio-system --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      kubectl delete ns gloo-mesh-gateways --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      
    1. Find the name of your Istio Helm chart releases in the istio-ingress namespace, such as istio-ingressgateway-1-17-2.

      helm ls -n istio-ingress
      
    2. Delete the Helm release for the ingress gateway.

      helm delete istio-ingressgateway-1-17-2 -n istio-ingress
      
    3. Find the name of your Istio Helm chart releases in the istio-eastwest namespace, such as istio-eastwestgateway-1-17-2.

      helm ls -n istio-eastwest
      
    4. Delete the Helm release for the ingress and east-west gateways.

      helm delete istio-eastwestgateway-1-17-2 -n istio-eastwest
      
    5. Find the name of your Istio Helm chart release in the istio-system namespace, such as istiod-1-17-2.

      helm ls -n istio-system
      
    6. Delete the Helm release for the istiod control plane.

      helm delete istiod-1-17-2 -n istio-system
      
    7. Delete the Istio namespaces.

      kubectl delete ns istio-system --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete ns istio-ingress --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete ns istio-eastwest --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete ns istio-config --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      
      kubectl delete ns istio-system --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      kubectl delete ns istio-ingress --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      kubectl delete ns istio-eastwest --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      kubectl delete ns istio-config --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      

  2. OpenShift installations: Revoke the extra permissions and resources required for OpenShift to run Istio.

    1. Revoke the Istio namespace ID permissions.

      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:istio-system
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:istio-operator
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:default
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:istio-system
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:istio-operator
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 adm policy remove-scc-from-group anyuid system:serviceaccounts:default
      
    2. Delete the NetworkAttachmentDefinition resources.

      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 -n default delete network-attachment-definition istio-cni
      oc --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -n default delete network-attachment-definition istio-cni
      
  3. Repeat these steps for each cluster that was registered with Gloo Mesh and that ran an Istio service mesh.

Deregister workload clusters

To deregister a cluster, you must uninstall the gloo-mesh-agent that runs on the workload cluster and the corresponding KubernetesCluster resource that exists on the management cluster.

  1. Uninstall the gloo-mesh-agent that runs on the workload cluster.

    1. Deregister cluster1.
      meshctl cluster deregister \
        --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT \
        --remote-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 \
        $REMOTE_CLUSTER1
      

      Example output:

      Deregistering cluster: cluster1
      Finished uninstalling release gloo-mesh-agent
      Successfully deregistered cluster: cluster1
      
    2. Deregister cluster2.
      meshctl cluster deregister \
        --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT \
        --remote-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 \
        $REMOTE_CLUSTER2
      
    1. Uninstall the gloo-mesh-agent Helm chart that runs on cluster1 and cluster2. Note: If the release name gloo-agent is not found, your Helm release might be named gloo-mesh-agent instead.

      helm uninstall gloo-agent -n gloo-mesh --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      helm uninstall gloo-agent -n gloo-mesh --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
      
    2. Delete the corresponding KubernetesCluster resources from the management cluster.

      kubectl delete kubernetescluster $REMOTE_CLUSTER1 $REMOTE_CLUSTER2 -n gloo-mesh --context $MGMT_CONTEXT
      
    3. Delete the Gloo Mesh relay secrets from each workload cluster. These secrets are not removed during the Helm installation. However, you cannot reuse the same secret if you decide to register the agent later.

      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-client-tls-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-identity-token-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-root-tls-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      
      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-client-tls-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-identity-token-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      kubectl delete secret -n gloo-mesh relay-root-tls-secret --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
      

  2. Delete the Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) that were installed on cluster1 and cluster2 during registration.

    for crd in $(kubectl get crd --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 -l app=gloo-mesh-apis | awk '{print $1}'); do kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 delete crd $crd; done
    for crd in $(kubectl get crd --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -l app=gloo-mesh-apis | awk '{print $1}'); do kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 delete crd $crd; done
    
  3. Delete the gloo-mesh namespace from cluster1 and cluster2.

    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 delete namespace gloo-mesh
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 delete namespace gloo-mesh
    
  4. If you installed the rate limiting and external authentication components in the gloo-mesh-addons namespace of your workload clusters, uninstall the gloo-mesh-agent Helm chart and delete the gloo-mesh-addons namespace. Note: If the release name gloo-agent-addons is not found, your Helm release might be named gloo-mesh-agent-addons instead.

    helm uninstall gloo-agent-addons -n gloo-mesh-addons --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    helm uninstall gloo-agent-addons -n gloo-mesh-addons --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
    
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1 delete namespace gloo-mesh-addons
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 delete namespace gloo-mesh-addons
    
  5. Repeat these steps for any other cluster that is registered with Gloo Mesh. For example, if you ran the control plane in a cluster that was also registered, repeat these steps for the MGMT_CLUSTER and specify the MGMT_CONTEXT. If you registered multiple workload clusters, repeat these steps for each workload cluster.

Uninstall the control plane

Uninstall the Gloo Mesh control plane components from the management cluster.

  1. Uninstall the Gloo Mesh control plane components.

    meshctl uninstall --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT
    

    Example output:

    Uninstalling Helm chart
    Finished uninstalling release gloo-mesh
    
    helm uninstall gloo-mgmt -n gloo-mesh --kube-context $MGMT_CONTEXT
    

    Note: If the release name gloo-mgmt is not found, your Helm release might be named gloo-mesh-enterprise instead.

  2. Delete the Gloo Mesh CRDs.

    for crd in $(kubectl get crd --context $MGMT_CONTEXT -l app=gloo-mesh-apis | awk '{print $1}'); do kubectl --context $MGMT_CONTEXT delete crd $crd; done
    
  3. Delete the gloo-mesh namespace.

    kubectl --context $MGMT_CONTEXT delete namespace gloo-mesh
    

Optional: Uninstall sample apps

If you installed the Bookinfo and httpbin sample apps, run the following commands to uninstall their resources.

  1. Export the Istio version that your cluster runs as an environment variable, such as 1.17.2 in the following example.

    export ISTIO_VERSION=1.17.2
    
  2. Remove the Bookinfo application components and service accounts.

    kubectl -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'app,version notin (v3)' --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    kubectl -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'account' --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'service in (reviews)'
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'app in (reviews),version in (v3)'
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'app in (ratings)'
    kubectl --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2 -n bookinfo delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/$ISTIO_VERSION/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'account in (reviews, ratings)'
    

  3. Delete the bookinfo namespace.

    kubectl delete ns bookinfo --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    kubectl delete ns bookinfo --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
    
  4. Remove the httpbin application components.

    kubectl -n httpbin delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/httpbin-in-mesh.yaml --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    kubectl -n httpbin delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/httpbin-not-in-mesh.yaml --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    kubectl -n httpbin delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/httpbin-in-mesh.yaml --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
    kubectl -n httpbin delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/httpbin-not-in-mesh.yaml --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2
    
  5. Delete the httpbin namespace.

    kubectl delete ns httpbin --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
    kubectl delete ns httpbin --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT2