For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. Markdown versions of all docs pages are available by appending .md to any docs URL.
Overview
Review options for configuring request routing and traffic management for apps in your ambient mesh.
After you add apps to your single cluster or multicluster ambient mesh, you can configure routing to and from the in-mesh apps, and set up specific traffic management rules to apply to request routing.
The options to deploy an ingress gateway vary based on the traffic management API that you want to use. Note that although you can use either the Kubernetes Gateway API or the Istio API, the Kubernetes Gateway API is the recommended method for ambient service meshes. Many Solo Enterprise for Istio guides, such as setting up multicluster peering for a cross-cluster ambient mesh, use the Kubernetes Gateway API only.
Kubernetes Gateway API
To use the Kubernetes Gateway API custom resources to configure traffic management in your service mesh, you can deploy Gateway resources that expose your services. Note that using the Kubernetes Gateway API is the recommended method for ambient service meshes. For more information about using the Gateway API in Istio, see this blog post.
To set up an ingress gateway, you can use Solo Enterprise for kgateway, or use the native Kubernetes Gateway API directly.
Solo Enterprise for kgateway
Use Solo Enterprise for kgateway as the ingress gateway for your ambient mesh. Solo Enterprise for kgateway is fully conformant with the Kubernetes Gateway API and extends its functionality with Solo’s custom Gateway APIs, such as RouteOption, VirtualHostOption, Upstreams, RateLimitConfig, or AuthConfig. These resources help to centrally configure routing, security, and resiliency rules for a specific component, such as a host, route, or gateway listener.
To get started, follow the Ingress to ambient mesh guide in the Solo Enterprise for kgateway docs to integrate Solo Enterprise for kgateway with your ambient mesh. This guide includes steps to expose the Bookinfo product page app on the gateway proxy.
Note
Using Solo Enterprise for kgateway as an ingress gateway to a single-cluster ambient mesh setup does not require a Solo Enterprise for kgateway license. However, using Solo Enterprise for kgateway as an ingress gateway to a multicluster ambient mesh requires an Enterprise level license key for both Solo Enterprise for Istio and Solo Enterprise for kgateway.
Native Kubernetes Gateway API
To use the native Kubernetes Gateway API, you can follow the Gateways guide in the community ambient mesh docs.
Istio networking API
To use the classic Istio networking API to configure traffic management in your service mesh, you can deploy an Istio ingress gateway by using Helm.
Warning
This method is not recommended for ambient. Some features, such as using destination rules to define subsets, do not work across clusters in a multicluster ambient mesh setup.
To get started with the Istio networking API, deploy an Istio ingress gateway by using Helm, and use the Istio networking API resources, such as Istio Gateways and VirtualServices, to route to apps.
Third-party ingress gateways
If you use a gateway solution in your cluster that is non-native to the Kubernetes Gateway API or the Istio networking API, such as an nginx ingress gateway, you can follow the third-party gateway guide in the community ambient mesh docs. Note that this integrations cannot be used for cloud load balancers.
Next
- Control in-mesh traffic by creating a waypoint proxy.
- If you haven’t yet, install the Solo Enterprise for Istio management plane. The management plane includes the Gloo UI, which allows you to review the Istio insights that were captured for your ambient setup. Solo Enterprise for Istio 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. For more information, see Insights.
- When it’s time to upgrade your ambient mesh, you can perform a safe in-place upgrade by using the Gloo Operator or Helm.
Get started with request routing
You can set up gateways and waypoints to enable request routing, and use HTTPRoutes to determine how destinations are selected for traffic request to and from apps in your mesh.
Ingress gateways: To set up basic L4 routing to your apps, you can choose an ingress gateway from the available options in the Expose apps with an ingress gateway guide.
East-west gateways and waypoints: To manage routing and apply policies within your ambient mesh, you can review the recommended in-mesh routing setups in the Control in-mesh traffic with east-west gateways and waypoints guide.
Egress gateways: To allow apps in your mesh to send traffic requests to an external service, follow the steps in Control traffic with an egress gateway. Note that the egress gateway is created as a waypoint proxy for an external service.
Get started with traffic management
After you set up destination selection with request routing, you can further modify how the traffic requests are routed to apps by defining routing rules in your HTTPRoutes. Consult the traffic management guides in the community ambient mesh docs to see examples for traffic splitting, mirroring, redirects and rewrites, and more.
Canary deployments
To progressively roll out new versions of an app while controlling the traffic split, use Argo Rollouts within your ambient mesh. The Canary deployments with Argo Rollouts guide covers two approaches, Gateway API and VirtualService + DestinationRule, including support for global services and multicluster routing.