Install Gloo Network

Install the Gloo Network, including the Cilium CNI and the Gloo Platform management components, with Helm in a Kubernetes cluster. Review the Gloo Network architecture for more information.

Before you begin

1. Install the following CLI tools:

   • kubectl, the Kubernetes command line tool. Download the kubectl version that is within one minor version of the Kubernetes cluster you plan to use with Gloo Network.
   • helm, the Kubernetes package manager.
   • cilium, the Cilium command line tool.
   • meshctl, the Gloo command line tool for bootstrapping Gloo Platform, registering clusters, describing configured resources, and more.

     curl -sL https://run.solo.io/meshctl/install | GLOO_MESH_VERSION=v2.4.1 sh -
     export PATH=$HOME/.gloo-mesh/bin:$PATH
     

2. Create or use a cluster that meets the Cilium requirements. For example, to try out the Cilium CNI in a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster, your cluster must be created with specific node taints. Note: The cluster name must be alphanumeric with no special characters except a hyphen (-), lowercase, and begin with a letter (not a number).

   1. Open the Cilium documentation and find the cloud provider that you want to use to create your cluster.

   2. Follow the steps of your cloud provider to create a cluster that meets the Cilium requirements.

      The instructions in the Cilium documentation might create a cluster with insufficient CPU and memory resources for Gloo Platform and Gloo Network. Make sure that you use a machine type with at least 2vCPU and 8GB of memory.

      Example to create a cluster in GKE:

      export NAME="$(whoami)-$RANDOM"                                                        
      gcloud container clusters create "${NAME}" \
      --node-taints node.cilium.io/agent-not-ready=true:NoExecute \
      --zone us-west2-a \
      --machine-type e2-standard-2
      gcloud container clusters get-credentials "${NAME}" --zone us-west2-a
      

3. Create environment variables for the following details:

   • For GLOO_NETWORK_LICENSE_KEY, use your Gloo Network license key that you got from your Solo account representative. If you do not have a key yet, you can get a trial license by contacting an account representative.
   • For SOLO_CILIUM_REPO, use a Solo.io Cilium image repo key that you can get by logging in to the Support Center and reviewing the Cilium images built by Solo.io support article.
   • For CILIUM_VERSION, save the Cilium version that you want to install, such as 1.13.6.
   • For CLUSTER_NAME, save the name of your cluster.
   • For GLOO_VERSION, set the Gloo Platform version that you want to install, such as 2.4.1.

   export GLOO_NETWORK_LICENSE_KEY=<license_key>
   export SOLO_CILIUM_REPO=<cilium_repo_key>
   export CILIUM_VERSION=1.13.6
   export CLUSTER_NAME=<cluster_name>
   export GLOO_VERSION=2.4.1
   

Install the Gloo Network Cilium CNI

1. Add and update the Cilium Helm repo.

   helm repo add cilium https://helm.cilium.io/
   helm repo update
   

2. Install the Gloo Network Cilium CNI in your cluster.

   Depending on the cloud provider you use, you must update this command to add additional Helm values as suggested in the Cilium documentation.

   Generic example (add cloud provider-specific values in --set flags below):

   helm install cilium cilium/cilium \
   --namespace kube-system \
   --version $CILIUM_VERSION \
   --set hubble.enabled=true \
   --set hubble.metrics.enabled="{dns:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,drop:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,tcp:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,flow:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,port-distribution:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod}" \
   --set image.repository=${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/cilium \
   --set operator.image.repository=${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/operator \
   --set operator.prometheus.enabled=true \
   --set prometheus.enabled=true \
   ## ADD CLOUD PROVIDER-SPECIFIC HELM VALUES HERE
   

   Example for GKE:

   NATIVE_CIDR="$(gcloud container clusters describe "${NAME}" --zone "${ZONE}" --format 'value(clusterIpv4Cidr)')"
   echo $NATIVE_CIDR
      
   helm install cilium cilium/cilium \
   --namespace kube-system \
   --version $CILIUM_VERSION \
   --set hubble.enabled=true \
   --set hubble.metrics.enabled="{dns:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,drop:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,tcp:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,flow:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod,port-distribution:destinationContext=pod;sourceContext=pod}" \
   --set image.repository=${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/cilium \
   --set operator.image.repository=${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/operator \
   --set operator.prometheus.enabled=true \
   --set prometheus.enabled=true \
   --set nodeinit.enabled=true \
   --set nodeinit.reconfigureKubelet=true \
   --set nodeinit.removeCbrBridge=true \
   --set cni.binPath=/home/kubernetes/bin \
   --set gke.enabled=true \
   --set ipam.mode=kubernetes \
   --set ipv4NativeRoutingCIDR=$NATIVE_CIDR
   

   Example output:

   NAME: cilium
   LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Sep 16 10:31:52 2022
   NAMESPACE: kube-system
   STATUS: deployed
   REVISION: 1
   TEST SUITE: None
   NOTES:
   You have successfully installed Cilium with Hubble.
   
   Your release version is 1.13.6.
   
   For any further help, visit https://docs.cilium.io/en/v1.12/gettinghelp
   

3. Verify that the Gloo Network Cilium CNI is successfully installed. Because the Cilium agent is deployed as a daemon set, the number of Cilium and Cilium node init pods equals the number of nodes in your cluster.

   kubectl get pods -n kube-system | grep cilium
   

   Example output:

   cilium-gbqgq                                                  1/1     Running             0          48s
   cilium-j9n5x                                                  1/1     Running             0          48s
   cilium-node-init-c7rxb                                        1/1     Running             0          48s
   cilium-node-init-pnblb                                        1/1     Running             0          48s
   cilium-node-init-wdtjm                                        1/1     Running             0          48s
   cilium-operator-69dd4567b5-2gjgg                              1/1     Running             0          47s
   cilium-operator-69dd4567b5-ww6wp                              1/1     Running             0          47s
   cilium-smp9c                                                  1/1     Running             0          48s
   

4. Check the status of the Cilium installation.

   cilium status --wait
   

   Example output:

      /¯¯\
   /¯¯\__/¯¯\    Cilium:         OK
   \__/¯¯\__/    Operator:       OK
   /¯¯\__/¯¯\    Hubble:         disabled
   \__/¯¯\__/    ClusterMesh:    disabled
      \__/
   
   Deployment        cilium-operator    Desired: 2, Ready: 2/2, Available: 2/2
   DaemonSet         cilium             Desired: 3, Ready: 3/3, Available: 3/3
   Containers:       cilium             Running: 3
                     cilium-operator    Running: 2
   Cluster Pods:     10/10 managed by Cilium
   Image versions    cilium             ${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/cilium:v1.12.1@sha256:...: 3
                     cilium-operator    ${SOLO_CILIUM_REPO}/operator-generic:v1.12.1@sha256:...: 2
   

Install Gloo Network

Install the Gloo Network components in your cluster. The following steps install the necessary Gloo components, such as the Gloo management server, agent, and Prometheus server, and then configure the agent for Gloo Network.

resource.exclusions: |
  - apiGroups:
    - cilium.io
    kinds:
    - CiliumIdentity
    clusters:
    - "*"

1. Install the Gloo Platform management components in your cluster.

   meshctl install --profiles gloo-mesh-single,gloo-network \
     --set common.cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME \
     --set istioInstallations.enabled=false \
     --set glooMgmtServer.createGlobalWorkspace=true \
     --version $GLOO_VERSION \
     --set licensing.glooNetworkLicenseKey=$GLOO_NETWORK_LICENSE_KEY
   

2. Verify that Gloo Network is successfully installed. This check might take a few seconds to verify that:

   • Your Gloo Network product license is valid and current.
   • The Gloo Platform CRDs are installed at the correct version.
   • The Gloo Network pods are running and healthy.
   • The Gloo agent is running and connected to the management server.

   meshctl check
   

   Example output:

   🟢 License status
   
    INFO  gloo-network enterprise license expiration is 25 Aug 23 10:38 CDT
    INFO  No GraphQL license module found for any product
   
   🟢 CRD version check
   
   🟢 Gloo Platform deployment status
   
   Namespace | Name                           | Ready | Status 
   gloo-mesh | gloo-mesh-agent                | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | gloo-mesh-mgmt-server          | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | gloo-mesh-redis                | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | gloo-mesh-ui                   | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | gloo-telemetry-gateway         | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | prometheus-server              | 1/1   | Healthy
   gloo-mesh | gloo-telemetry-collector-agent | 3/3   | Healthy
   
   🟢 Mgmt server connectivity to workload agents
   
   Cluster  | Registered | Connected Pod                                   
   cluster1 | true       | gloo-mesh/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server-65bd557b95-v8qq6
   

3. Open the Gloo UI.

   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 the Gloo UI at http://localhost:8090.

4. In the Cluster panel on the Overview page, verify that the Gloo Network Cilium version was discovered and is displayed in the card for your cluster.

   

What's next?

Now that you installed Gloo Network, you can choose between the following options:

• Use Gloo network policies to control what services in your cluster can communicate with each other.
• Enable additional Cilium metrics and network flow logs to monitor network traffic in your cluster.
• Import the Cilium Grafana dashboard to monitor the health of your Cilium CNI.