Gloo Mesh deploys alongside your Istio installation in a single-cluster environment, and gives you instant insights into your Istio service mesh through a custom dashboard. You can follow this guide to quickly get started with Gloo Mesh. To learn more about the benefits and architecture, see About. To customize your installation with Helm instead, see the advanced installation guide.

Before you begin

  1. Install the following command-line (CLI) tools.

    • kubectl, the Kubernetes command line tool. Download the kubectl version that is within one minor version of the Kubernetes clusters you plan to use.
    • meshctl, the Solo command line tool.
        curl -sL https://run.solo.io/meshctl/install | GLOO_MESH_VERSION=v2.8.0-rc1 sh -
export PATH=$HOME/.gloo-mesh/bin:$PATH
    • helm, the Kubernetes package manager.

  2. Create or use an existing Kubernetes cluster, and save the cluster name in an environment variable. Note: The cluster name must be alphanumeric with no special characters except a hyphen (-), lowercase, and begin with a letter (not a number).

      export CLUSTER_NAME=<cluster_name>

  3. Set your Gloo Mesh license key as an environment variable. If you do not have one, contact an account representative. If you prefer to specify license keys in a secret instead, see Licensing. To check your license’s validity, you can run meshctl license check --key $(echo ${GLOO_MESH_LICENSE_KEY} | base64 -w0).

      export GLOO_MESH_LICENSE_KEY=<license_key>

Install Gloo Mesh

Install all Gloo Mesh components in the same cluster as your Istio service mesh.

  1. Install Gloo Mesh in your cluster. This command uses a basic profile to create a gloo-mesh namespace and install the Gloo control and data plane components. For more information, check out the CLI install profiles.

      meshctl install --profiles gloo-mesh-single-cluster \
  --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
  --set licensing.glooMeshCoreLicenseKey=$GLOO_MESH_LICENSE_KEY

  2. Verify that your Gloo Mesh setup is correctly installed. If not, try debugging the relay connection. Note that this check might take a few seconds to verify that:

    • Your Gloo product license is valid and current.
    • The Gloo CRDs are installed at the correct version.
      meshctl check

    Example output:

      🟢 License status

INFO  gloo-mesh enterprise license expiration is 25 Aug 26 10:38 CDT

🟢 CRD version check 

🟢 Gloo deployment status

Namespace | Name                           | Ready | Status 
gloo-mesh | gloo-mesh-ui                   | 1/1   | Healthy
gloo-mesh | gloo-telemetry-collector-agent | 3/3   | Healthy
gloo-mesh | prometheus-server              | 1/1   | Healthy

Deploy Istio

Check whether an Istio control plane already exists.

  kubectl get pods -n istio-system

If an istiod pod exists, such as in this example output, you already installed an Istio control plane. Continue to the next step.

  NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
istiod-b65676555-g2vmr     1/1     Running   0          57s

If no istiod pod exists, you can use the Solo distribution of Istio to install a sidecar or ambient service mesh. For more information, check out Solo distributions of Istio.

Ambient mode

Simplify your service mesh with a sidecarless approach by installing Istio in ambient mode. For more information, see About ambient mesh.

  1. Apply the CRDs for the Kubernetes Gateway API to your cluster, which are required to create components such as waypoint proxies for L7 traffic policies, gateways with the Gateway resource, and more.

      kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.2.1/standard-install.yaml

  2. Install the Gloo Operator to the gloo-mesh namespace. This operator deploys and manages your Istio installation.

      helm install gloo-operator oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/solo-public/gloo-operator-helm/gloo-operator \
  --version 0.2.3 \
  -n gloo-mesh \
  --create-namespace \
  --set manager.env.SOLO_ISTIO_LICENSE_KEY=${GLOO_MESH_LICENSE_KEY}

  3. Verify that the operator pod is running.

      kubectl get pods -n gloo-mesh | grep operator

    Example output:

      gloo-operator-78d58d5c7b-lzbr5     1/1     Running   0          48s
  4. Create a ServiceMeshController custom resource to configure an Istio installation. For a description of each configurable field, see the ServiceMeshController reference. If you need to set more advanced Istio configuration, you can also create a gloo-extensions-config configmap.
      kubectl apply -n gloo-mesh -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: operator.gloo.solo.io/v1
kind: ServiceMeshController
metadata:
  name: managed-istio
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: managed-istio
spec:
  dataplaneMode: Ambient
  installNamespace: istio-system
  version: 1.25.2
EOF

  5. Verify that the components of the Istio control and data plane are successfully installed. Because the ztunnel and the CNI are deployed as daemon sets, the number of ztunnel pods and CNI pods each equal the number of nodes in your cluster. Note that it might take a few seconds for the pods to become available.

      kubectl get pods -n istio-system

    Example output:

      NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
istio-cni-node-6s5nk          1/1     Running   0          2m53s
istio-cni-node-blpz4          1/1     Running   0          2m53s
istiod-gloo-bb86b959f-msrg7   1/1     Running   0          2m45s
istiod-gloo-bb86b959f-w29cm   1/1     Running   0          3m
ztunnel-mx8nw                 1/1     Running   0          2m52s
ztunnel-w8r6c                 1/1     Running   0          2m52s

Sidecar mode

Use the Gloo Operator to deploy your service mesh with the standard sidecar approach. Note that this installs a minimal service mesh setup to get you started. For a more advanced Istio sidecar installation, check out the sidecar mesh installation guides.

  1. Install the Gloo Operator to the gloo-mesh namespace. This operator deploys and manages your Istio installation.

      helm install gloo-operator oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/solo-public/gloo-operator-helm/gloo-operator \
  --version 0.2.3 \
  -n gloo-mesh \
  --create-namespace \
  --set manager.env.SOLO_ISTIO_LICENSE_KEY=${GLOO_MESH_LICENSE_KEY}

  2. Verify that the operator pod is running.

      kubectl get pods -n gloo-mesh | grep operator

    Example output:

      gloo-operator-78d58d5c7b-lzbr5     1/1     Running   0          48s
  3. Create a ServiceMeshController custom resource to configure an Istio installation. For a description of each configurable field, see the ServiceMeshController reference. If you need to set more advanced Istio configuration, you can also create a gloo-extensions-config configmap.
      kubectl apply -n gloo-mesh -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: operator.gloo.solo.io/v1
kind: ServiceMeshController
metadata:
  name: managed-istio
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: managed-istio
spec:
  dataplaneMode: Sidecar
  installNamespace: istio-system
  version: 1.25.2
EOF

  4. Verify that the istiod control plane and Istio CNI pods are running. Because the CNI are deployed as daemon sets, the number of CNI pods each equal the number of nodes in your cluster. Note that it might take a few seconds for the pods to become available.

      kubectl get pods -n istio-system

    Example output:

      NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
istio-cni-node-6s5nk          1/1     Running   0          2m53s
istio-cni-node-blpz4          1/1     Running   0          2m53s
istiod-gloo-bb86b959f-msrg7   1/1     Running   0          2m45s
istiod-gloo-bb86b959f-w29cm   1/1     Running   0          3m

Deploy a sample app

To analyze your service mesh with Gloo Mesh, be sure to include your services in the mesh.

If you already deployed apps that you want to include in the mesh, you can run the following command to add all pods in the service namespace to the ambient mesh.

  kubectl label ns <namespace> istio.io/dataplane-mode=ambient

If you don’t have any apps yet, you can deploy Bookinfo, the Istio sample app.

  1. Create the bookinfo namespace and label it so that the services become part of the ambient service mesh.
      kubectl create ns bookinfo
kubectl label ns bookinfo istio.io/dataplane-mode=ambient
  2. Deploy the Bookinfo app.
      # deploy bookinfo application components for all versions
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/1.25.2/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'app'
# deploy an updated product page with extra container utilities such as 'curl' and 'netcat'
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/productpage-with-curl.yaml
# deploy all bookinfo service accounts
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/1.25.2/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'account'
  3. Verify that the Bookinfo app deployed successfully.
      kubectl get pods,svc -n bookinfo

If you already deployed apps that you want to include in the mesh, you can run the following command to label the service namespace for Istio sidecar injection with the gloo revision label.

  kubectl label ns <namespace> istio.io/rev=gloo --overwrite

If you don’t have any apps yet, you can deploy Bookinfo, the Istio sample app.

  1. Create the bookinfo namespace and label it with the gloo revision for Istio sidecar injection so that the services become part of the service mesh.
      kubectl create ns bookinfo
kubectl label ns bookinfo istio.io/rev=gloo --overwrite
  2. Deploy the Bookinfo app.
      # deploy bookinfo application components for all versions
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/1.25.2/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'app'
# deploy an updated product page with extra container utilities such as 'curl' and 'netcat'
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/productpage-with-curl.yaml
# deploy all bookinfo service accounts
kubectl -n bookinfo apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/1.25.2/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml -l 'account'
  3. Verify that the Bookinfo app deployed successfully.
      kubectl get pods,svc -n bookinfo

Optional: Expose apps with an ingress gateway

You can optionally deploy an ingress gateway to send requests to sample apps from outside the service mesh. To review your options, such as deploying Gloo Gateway as an ingress gateway, see the ingress gateway guide for an ambient or sidecar mesh.

Explore the UI

Use the Gloo UI to evaluate the health and efficiency of your service mesh. You can review the analysis and insights for your service mesh, such as recommendations to harden your Istio environment and steps to implement them in your environment.

Launch the dashboard

  1. Open the Gloo UI. The Gloo UI is served from the gloo-mesh-ui service on port 8090. You can connect by using the meshctl or kubectl CLIs.

    • meshctl: For more information, see the CLI documentation.
        meshctl dashboard
    • kubectl:
      1. Port-forward the gloo-mesh-ui service on 8090.
          kubectl port-forward -n gloo-mesh svc/gloo-mesh-ui 8090:8090
      2. Open your browser and connect to http://localhost:8090.

  2. Review your Dashboard for an at-a-glance overview of your Gloo Mesh environment. Environment insights, health, status, inventories, security, and more are summarized in the following cards:

    • Analysis and Insights: Gloo Mesh recommendations for how to improve your Istio setup.
    • Gloo and Istio health: A status check of the Gloo Mesh and Istio installations in your cluster.
    • Certificates Expiry: Validity timelines for your root and intermediate Istio certificates.
    • Cluster Services: Inventory of services in your Gloo Mesh setup, and whether those services are in a service mesh or not.
    • Istio FIPS: FIPS compliance checks for the istiod control plane and Istio data plane workloads.
    • Zero Trust: Number of service mesh workloads that receive only mutual TLS (mTLS)-encrypted traffic, and number of external services that are accessed from the mesh.


    Figure: Gloo UI dashboard
    Figure: Gloo UI dashboard
    Figure: Gloo UI dashboard
    Figure: Gloo UI dashboard

Check insights

Review the insights for your environment. Gloo Mesh comes with an insights engine that automatically analyzes your Istio setups for health issues. These issues are displayed in the UI along with recommendations to harden your Istio setups. The insights give you a checklist to address issues that might otherwise be hard to detect across your environment.

  1. From the Dashboard, click on any of the insights cards to open the Insights page, or go to the Home > Insights page directly.

  2. On the Insights page, you can view recommendations to harden your Istio setup, and steps to implement them in your environment. Gloo Mesh analyzes your setup, and returns individual insights that contain information about errors and warnings in your environment, best practices you can use to improve your configuration and security, and more.

    Figure: Insights page
    Figure: Insights page
    Figure: Insights page
    Figure: Insights page

  3. Select the insight that you want to resolve. The details modal shows more data about the insight, such as the time when it was last observed in your environment, and if applicable, the extended settings or configuration that the insight applies to.

    Figure: Example insight
    Figure: Example insight

  4. Click the Target YAML tab to see the resource file that the insight references, and click the View Resolution Steps tab to see guidance such as steps for fixing warnings and errors in your resource configuration or recommendations for improving your security and setup.

Next steps

Now that you have Gloo Mesh and Istio up and running, check out some of the following resources to learn more about Gloo Mesh and expand your service mesh capabilities.

Istio:

For ambient installations, see Upgrade Gloo-managed ambient meshes or Upgrade ambient service meshes with Helm.

Gloo Mesh:

  • Customize your Gloo Mesh installation with a Helm-based setup.
    • Explore insights to review and improve your setup’s health and security posture.
    • When it’s time to upgrade Gloo Mesh, see the upgrade guide.

    Help and support:

    Cleanup

    If you no longer need this quick-start Gloo Mesh environment, you can follow the steps in the uninstall guide.