---
WARNING: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED FILE, DO NOT EDIT. PLEASE MODIFY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE IN THE 'https://github.com/istio/istio' REPO
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title: operator
description: The Istio operator.
generator: pkg-collateral-docs
number_of_entries: 4
max_toc_level: 2
remove_toc_prefix: 'operator '
---
<p>The Istio operator.</p>
<table class="command-flags">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Flags</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>--kubeconfig &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>Paths to a kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--master &lt;--kubeconfig&gt;</code></td>
<td>(Deprecated: switch to --kubeconfig) The address of the Kubernetes API server. Overrides any value in kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 id="operator-server">operator server</h2>
<p>Starts the Istio operator server</p>
<pre class="language-bash"><code>operator server [flags]
</code></pre>
<table class="command-flags">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Flags</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>--ctrlz_address &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>The IP Address to listen on for the ControlZ introspection facility. Use &#39;*&#39; to indicate all addresses.  (default `localhost`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--ctrlz_port &lt;uint16&gt;</code></td>
<td>The IP port to use for the ControlZ introspection facility  (default `9876`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--kubeconfig &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>Paths to a kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_as_json</code></td>
<td>Whether to format output as JSON or in plain console-friendly format </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_caller &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>Comma-separated list of scopes for which to include caller information, scopes can be any of [all, default, installer, patch, tpath, translator, util, validation]  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_output_level &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>Comma-separated minimum per-scope logging level of messages to output, in the form of &lt;scope&gt;:&lt;level&gt;,&lt;scope&gt;:&lt;level&gt;,... where scope can be one of [all, default, installer, patch, tpath, translator, util, validation] and level can be one of [debug, info, warn, error, fatal, none]  (default `default:info`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_rotate &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>The path for the optional rotating log file  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_rotate_max_age &lt;int&gt;</code></td>
<td>The maximum age in days of a log file beyond which the file is rotated (0 indicates no limit)  (default `30`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_rotate_max_backups &lt;int&gt;</code></td>
<td>The maximum number of log file backups to keep before older files are deleted (0 indicates no limit)  (default `1000`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_rotate_max_size &lt;int&gt;</code></td>
<td>The maximum size in megabytes of a log file beyond which the file is rotated  (default `104857600`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_stacktrace_level &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td>Comma-separated minimum per-scope logging level at which stack traces are captured, in the form of &lt;scope&gt;:&lt;level&gt;,&lt;scope:level&gt;,... where scope can be one of [all, default, installer, patch, tpath, translator, util, validation] and level can be one of [debug, info, warn, error, fatal, none]  (default `default:none`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--log_target &lt;stringArray&gt;</code></td>
<td>The set of paths where to output the log. This can be any path as well as the special values stdout and stderr  (default `[stdout]`)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--master &lt;--kubeconfig&gt;</code></td>
<td>(Deprecated: switch to --kubeconfig) The address of the Kubernetes API server. Overrides any value in kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 id="operator-version">operator version</h2>
<p>Prints out build version information</p>
<pre class="language-bash"><code>operator version [flags]
</code></pre>
<table class="command-flags">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Flags</th>
<th>Shorthand</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>--kubeconfig &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td></td>
<td>Paths to a kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--master &lt;--kubeconfig&gt;</code></td>
<td></td>
<td>(Deprecated: switch to --kubeconfig) The address of the Kubernetes API server. Overrides any value in kubeconfig. Only required if out-of-cluster.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--output &lt;string&gt;</code></td>
<td><code>-o</code></td>
<td>One of &#39;yaml&#39; or &#39;json&#39;.  (default ``)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>--short</code></td>
<td><code>-s</code></td>
<td>Use --short=false to generate full version information </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 id="envvars">Environment variables</h2>
These environment variables affect the behavior of the <code>operator</code> command.
<table class="envvars">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Variable Name</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Default Value</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>CENTRAL_ISTIOD</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If this is set to true, one Istiod will control remote clusters including CA.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>CLUSTER_ID</code></td>
<td>String</td>
<td><code>Kubernetes</code></td>
<td>Defines the cluster and service registry that this Istiod instance is belongs to</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ENABLE_CA_SERVER</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If this is set to false, will not create CA server in istiod.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>INJECTION_WEBHOOK_CONFIG_NAME</code></td>
<td>String</td>
<td><code>istio-sidecar-injector</code></td>
<td>Name of the mutatingwebhookconfiguration to patch, if istioctl is not used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ISTIOD_CUSTOM_HOST</code></td>
<td>String</td>
<td><code></code></td>
<td>Custom host name of istiod that istiod signs the server cert.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ISTIO_DEFAULT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>0s</code></td>
<td>Default Http and gRPC Request timeout</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ISTIO_GPRC_MAXRECVMSGSIZE</code></td>
<td>Integer</td>
<td><code>4194304</code></td>
<td>Sets the max receive buffer size of gRPC stream in bytes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ISTIO_GPRC_MAXSTREAMS</code></td>
<td>Integer</td>
<td><code>100000</code></td>
<td>Sets the maximum number of concurrent grpc streams.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>JWT_POLICY</code></td>
<td>String</td>
<td><code>third-party-jwt</code></td>
<td>The JWT validation policy.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_CERT_PROVIDER</code></td>
<td>String</td>
<td><code>istiod</code></td>
<td>the provider of Pilot DNS certificate.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_DEBOUNCE_AFTER</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>100ms</code></td>
<td>The delay added to config/registry events for debouncing. This will delay the push by at least this internal. If no change is detected within this period, the push will happen,  otherwise we&#39;ll keep delaying until things settle, up to a max of PILOT_DEBOUNCE_MAX.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_DEBOUNCE_MAX</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>10s</code></td>
<td>The maximum amount of time to wait for events while debouncing. If events keep showing up with no breaks for this time, we&#39;ll trigger a push.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_DEBUG_ADSZ_CONFIG</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_DISTRIBUTION_HISTORY_RETENTION</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>1m0s</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Pilot will keep track of old versions of distributed config for this duration.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLED_SERVICE_APIS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If this is set to true, support for Kubernetes service-apis (github.com/kubernetes-sigs/service-apis) will  be enabled. This feature is currently experimental, and is off by default.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_ANALYSIS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, pilot will run istio analyzers and write analysis errors to the Status field of any Istio Resources</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION_TRACKING</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Pilot will assign meaningful nonces to each Envoy configuration message, and allow users to interrogate which envoy has which config from the debug interface.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_CRD_VALIDATION</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, pilot will validate CRDs while retrieving CRDs from kubernetes cache.Use this flag to enable validation of CRDs in Pilot, especially in deployments that do not have galley installed.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_EDS_DEBOUNCE</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Pilot will include EDS pushes in the push debouncing, configured by PILOT_DEBOUNCE_AFTER and PILOT_DEBOUNCE_MAX. EDS pushes may be delayed, but there will be fewer pushes. By default this is enabled</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_EDS_FOR_HEADLESS_SERVICES</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, for headless service in Kubernetes, pilot will send endpoints over EDS, allowing the sidecar to load balance among pods in the headless service. This feature should be enabled if applications access all services explicitly via a HTTP proxy port in the sidecar.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_HEADLESS_SERVICE_POD_LISTENERS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, for a headless service/stateful set in Kubernetes, pilot will generate an outbound listener for each pod in a headless service. This feature should be disabled if headless services have a large number of pods.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_INCREMENTAL_MCP</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, pilot will set the incremental flag of the options in the mcp controller to true, and then galley may push data incrementally, it depends on whether the resource supports incremental. By default, this is false.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_K8S_SELECT_WORKLOAD_ENTRIES</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Kubernetes services with selectors will select workload entries with matching labels. It is safe to disable it if you are quite sure you don&#39;t need this feature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_MYSQL_FILTER</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>EnableMysqlFilter enables injection of `envoy.filters.network.mysql_proxy` in the filter chain.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_PROTOCOL_SNIFFING_FOR_INBOUND</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, protocol sniffing will be used for inbound listeners whose port protocol is not specified or unsupported</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_PROTOCOL_SNIFFING_FOR_OUTBOUND</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, protocol sniffing will be used for outbound listeners whose port protocol is not specified or unsupported</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_REDIS_FILTER</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>EnableRedisFilter enables injection of `envoy.filters.network.redis_proxy` in the filter chain.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_SERVICEENTRY_SELECT_PODS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, service entries with selectors will select pods from the cluster. It is safe to disable it if you are quite sure you don&#39;t need this feature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_STATUS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, pilot will update the CRD Status field of all istio resources with reconciliation status.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_TCP_METADATA_EXCHANGE</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>true</code></td>
<td>If enabled, metadata exchange will be enabled for TCP using ALPN and Network Metadata Exchange filters in Envoy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_THRIFT_FILTER</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>EnableThriftFilter enables injection of `envoy.filters.network.thrift_proxy` in the filter chain.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_ENABLE_VIRTUAL_SERVICE_DELEGATE</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Pilot will merge virtual services with delegates. By default, this is false, and virtualService with delegate will be ignored</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_FILTER_GATEWAY_CLUSTER_CONFIG</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_HTTP10</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>Enables the use of HTTP 1.0 in the outbound HTTP listeners, to support legacy applications.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_INBOUND_PROTOCOL_DETECTION_TIMEOUT</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>1s</code></td>
<td>Protocol detection timeout for inbound listener</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_INITIAL_FETCH_TIMEOUT</code></td>
<td>Time Duration</td>
<td><code>0s</code></td>
<td>Specifies the initial_fetch_timeout for config. If this time is reached without a response to the config requested by Envoy, the Envoy will move on with the init phase. This prevents envoy from getting stuck waiting on config during startup.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_PUSH_THROTTLE</code></td>
<td>Integer</td>
<td><code>100</code></td>
<td>Limits the number of concurrent pushes allowed. On larger machines this can be increased for faster pushes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_SCOPE_GATEWAY_TO_NAMESPACE</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, a gateway workload can only select gateway resources in the same namespace. Gateways with same selectors in different namespaces will not be applicable.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_SIDECAR_USE_REMOTE_ADDRESS</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>UseRemoteAddress sets useRemoteAddress to true for side car outbound listeners.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_SKIP_VALIDATE_TRUST_DOMAIN</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>Skip validating the peer is from the same trust domain when mTLS is enabled in authentication policy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_STATUS_BURST</code></td>
<td>Integer</td>
<td><code>500</code></td>
<td>If status is enabled, controls the Burst rate with which status will be updated.  See https://godoc.org/k8s.io/client-go/rest#Config Burst</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_STATUS_QPS</code></td>
<td>Floating-Point</td>
<td><code>100</code></td>
<td>If status is enabled, controls the QPS with which status will be updated.  See https://godoc.org/k8s.io/client-go/rest#Config QPS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_TRACE_SAMPLING</code></td>
<td>Floating-Point</td>
<td><code>100</code></td>
<td>Sets the mesh-wide trace sampling percentage. Should be 0.0 - 100.0. Precision to 0.01. Default is 100, not recommended for production use.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>PILOT_USE_ENDPOINT_SLICE</code></td>
<td>Boolean</td>
<td><code>false</code></td>
<td>If enabled, Pilot will use EndpointSlices as the source of endpoints for Kubernetes services. By default, this is false, and Endpoints will be used. This requires the Kubernetes EndpointSlice controller to be enabled. Currently this is mutual exclusive - either Endpoints or EndpointSlices will be used</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>TERMINATION_DRAIN_DURATION_SECONDS</code></td>
<td>Integer</td>
<td><code>5</code></td>
<td>The amount of time allowed for connections to complete on pilot-agent shutdown. On receiving SIGTERM or SIGINT, pilot-agent tells the active Envoy to start draining, preventing any new connections and allowing existing connections to complete. It then sleeps for the TerminationDrainDuration and then kills any remaining active Envoy processes.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 id="metrics">Exported metrics</h2>
<table class="metrics">
<thead>
<tr><th>Metric Name</th><th>Type</th><th>Description</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td><code>istio_build</code></td><td><code>LastValue</code></td><td>Istio component build info</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>