Installation options
Learn about your options for installing Gloo Mesh in your environment.
meshctl profiles
In Gloo Mesh version 2.3 and later, you can use profiles that are packaged in the meshctl CLI for quick Gloo Mesh installations. Profiles provide basic Helm settings for a minimum installation, and are suitable for testing setups.
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/2.3.4/<profile>.yaml > profile-values.yaml.
| Profile | Use case | Deployed components |
|---|---|---|
agent |
Register a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Default profile for meshctl cluster register. |
Gloo agent, Gloo OpenTelemetry (OTel) collector agents |
extauth |
Use external authentication in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Often used additively with other profiles. | Gloo external auth server |
gloo-gateway-demo |
Set up a Gloo Gateway demo environment in a single-cluster setup. | Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel telemetry gateway and collector agents, managed gateway proxy |
gloo-gateway-single |
Set up all Gloo Gateway components in a single-cluster setup. | Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel telemetry gateway and collector agents, managed gateway proxy |
gloo-mesh-single |
Set up all Gloo Mesh components in a single-cluster setup. | Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel telemetry gateway and collector agents, managed Istio service mesh |
mgmt-server |
Set up a Gloo Platform product in the management cluster in a multicluster setup. Default profile for meshctl install. |
Gloo management server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel telemetry gateway |
portal |
Deploy Gloo Portal in a Gloo Gateway single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Uses the local Redis instance as the backing storage. Often used additively with other profiles. | Gloo Portal server, Gloo external auth server, Gloo rate limiting server |
ratelimit |
Use rate limiting in a single-cluster setup or in a workload cluster in a multicluster setup. Often used additively with other profiles. | Gloo rate limiting server |
To set up Gloo Mesh with meshctl profiles, see the single-cluster or multicluster getting started guides.
gloo-platform Helm chart
In Gloo Platform version 2.3 and later, all Gloo Platform components are available in a single Helm chart, gloo-platform. Additionally, the custom resource definitions (CRDs) that are required by Gloo Platform controllers are maintained by the gloo-platform-crds 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 |
|---|---|
common |
Common values shared across components. When applicable, these can be overridden in specific components. |
experimental |
Experimental features for Gloo Platform. Disabled by default. Do not use in production. |
extAuthService |
Configuration for the Gloo external authentication service. |
glooAgent |
Configuration for the Gloo agent. |
glooMgmtServer |
Configuration for the Gloo management server. |
glooPortalServer |
Configuration for the Gloo Platform Portal server deployment. |
redis |
Configuration for the default Redis instance. |
glooUi |
Configuration for the Gloo UI. |
glooNetwork |
Gloo Network configuration options. |
istioInstallations |
Configuration for deploying managed Istio control plane and gateway installations by using the Istio lifecycle manager. |
legacyMetricsPipeline |
Deprecated: Configuration for the legacy metrics pipeline, which uses Gloo agents to propagate metrics to the management server. This pipeline is deprecated and is planned to be unsupported in Gloo Gateway version 2.4. Use the telemetryCollector and telemetryGateway options instead. |
licensing |
Gloo Platform product licenses. |
telemetryCollector |
Configuration for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Collector. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values. |
telemetryCollectorCustomization |
Optional customization for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Collector. |
telemetryGateway |
Configuration for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Gateway. See the OpenTelemetry Helm chart for the complete set of values. |
telemetryGatewayCustomization |
Optional customization for the Gloo Platform Telemetry Gateway. |
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. |
sidecarAccel |
Experimental: Configuration for eBPF sidecar acceleration. Do not use in production. |
For more information about the settings you can configure:
- See Best practices for production.
- See all possible fields for the Helm chart by running
helm show values gloo-platform/gloo-platform --version v2.3.4 > all-values.yaml. You can also see these fields in the Helm values documentation.
To set up Gloo Mesh with Helm, see the setup guide.
Looking for Helm charts such as gloo-mesh-enterprise and gloo-mesh-agent? In Gloo Mesh 2.3 and later, these Helm charts are considered legacy, and are replaced by the gloo-platform chart. For more information, see the migration guide.