Supported versions

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

The following versions of Gloo Mesh Enterprise 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 Mesh Enterprise might also work, but are not tested as part of the Gloo Mesh Enterprise release.

Gloo Mesh EnterpriseRelease dateSupported Solo distributions of Istio and related Kubernetes versions tested by Solo
2.615 Aug 2024
  • Istio 1.23 on Kubernetes 1.27 - 1.30
  • Istio 1.22 on Kubernetes 1.27 - 1.30
  • Istio 1.21 on Kubernetes 1.26 - 1.29 (see note below)
  • Istio 1.20 on Kubernetes 1.25 - 1.29
  • Istio 1.19 on Kubernetes 1.25 - 1.28
Note: A bug was identified when upgrading from Istio version 1.20 or lower to Istio version 1.21 and later while being on Gloo Mesh Enterprise version 2.6. This bug can lead to disabled JWT authentication and authorization policies that fail close, which means that the gateway rejects requests as unauthenticated on any route that is protected by a JWT policy. Note that this bug is fixed in version 2.6.5 and later. Make sure to upgrade to Gloo Mesh Enterprise version 2.6.5 first before you upgrade to Istio version 1.21 and later.
2.509 Jan 2024
  • Istio 1.20 on Kubernetes 1.25 - 1.29
  • 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

Note: Istio 1.21 is not supported in Gloo Mesh Enterprise version 2.5. You must upgrade the Gloo management server and agents to version 2.6 prior to upgrading to Istio 1.21.
2.428 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
2.317 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

Solo distributions of Istio

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

Release lifecycle

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

Typically, Gloo Mesh Enterprise releases a new minor version, n, each quarter. When the new minor version is released, the previous n-4 for Gloo Mesh Enterprise 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 the upgrade guide.

VersionSupported?TypeDescription
nYesLatestThe 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		YesStableSupported versions up to n-3 (and n-4 for Solo distributions of Istio) continue to receive support for security patches, bugs, and documentation.
n+1NoBetaActive 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. New features and development work on main is subject to change, not necessarily fully tested, and not supported.
n-4

Istio only: n-5		NoUnsupportedVersions 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 pointAlphaBetaGA
APICan and will likely changeUnlikely to changeNo change
ImplementationCan and will likely changeCan change, but user experience is maintainedNo changes that affect user experience
Upgrade pathsNot guaranteedNot guaranteedProvided and tested
Requests for enhancement (RFEs) and bug fixesRFEs and bug fixes prioritizedRFEs and bug fixes prioritizedFully supported
DocumentationNot guaranteed and supplied with warningsSupplied with warningsFully supplied
Automated testingInternal testing, but little testing with real use casesInternal testing and some testing with real use casesFully tested and validated with real use cases
Suggested usageExploration and feedbackTesting setups, demos, and POCsProduction setups

Feature gates

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

Open source packages in Gloo Mesh Enterprise

For specific versions of open sources packages that are bundled with Gloo Mesh Enterprise, see the entries in the open source attribution. For more information on where these open source packages are retrieved from, see the go.mod documentation.

Download a specific image

You can download a particular image for Gloo Mesh Enterprise, such as for the following use cases.

  • To download and transfer these images if your environment does not have public network access or cannot pull public images, for an air-gapped installation.
  • To use a custom build that aligns with compliance standards such as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).

  1. Get the version tag that you want to use in the changelog, such as 2.6.5.

  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.

      ...
glooMgmtServer:
  image:
    pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    registry: gcr.io/gloo-mesh
    repository: gloo-mesh-mgmt-server
    tag: 2.6.5-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:2.6.5-fips

  5. Use these packages when you install Gloo Mesh Enterprise.