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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/2.4.2/<profile>.yaml > profile-values.yaml. You can also check out Gloo Gateway-specific profiles in the Gloo Gateway setup documentation.

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 with these profiles, see the single-cluster getting started guide or the multicluster setup guide.

Profile Use case Deployed components
mgmt-server Set up a Gloo Platform product in the management cluster in a multicluster Kubernetes setup. Default profile for meshctl install. Gloo management server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OpenTelemetry (OTel) gateway
agent Register a workload cluster in a multicluster Kubernetes setup. Default profile for meshctl cluster register. Gloo agent, Gloo OpenTelemetry (OTel) collector agents
gloo-mesh-single Set up all Gloo Mesh components in a single-cluster Kubernetes setup. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel collector agents, managed Istio service mesh
Profile Use case Deployed components
mgmt-server-openshift Set up a Gloo Platform product in the management cluster in a multicluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo management server, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel gateway
agent-openshift Register a workload cluster in a multicluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo agent, Gloo OpenTelemetry (OTel) collector agents
gloo-mesh-single-openshift Set up all Gloo Mesh components in a single-cluster OpenShift setup. Includes required settings for Istio functionality in OpenShift. Gloo management server, Gloo agent, Gloo UI, Prometheus, Redis, Gloo OTel collector agents, managed Istio service mesh

Add-on profiles

The following profiles install Gloo Platform 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

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
clickhouse Configuration for the Clickhouse deployment, which stores logs from Gloo Platform Telemetry Collectors. 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 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.
glooNetwork Gloo Network configuration options.
glooPortalServer Configuration for the Gloo Platform Portal server deployment.
glooSpireServer Configuration for the Gloo Platform 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.
jaeger Configuration for the Gloo Platform Jaeger instance.
legacyMetricsPipeline Configuration for the legacy metrics pipeline, which is unsupported in Gloo Platform version 2.4 and later.
licensing Gloo Platform product licenses.
postgresql Configuration for Gloo Platform 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.
sidecarAccel Experimental: Configuration for eBPF sidecar acceleration. Do not use in production.
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.

For more information about the settings you can configure:

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 Platform 2.5 and later, these Helm charts are unsupported, and are replaced by the gloo-platform chart. For more information, see the migration guide.

Supported platforms

You can install Gloo Mesh on Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters. For more information about the requirements for each platform, see the System requirements.

Kubernetes

Gloo Mesh 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 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 througout the installation guides that are labeled for use with OpenShift. For more information about the required changes, see the Istio on OpenShift documentation.