--- title: Installing Istio overview: This task shows you how to setup the Istio service mesh. order: 10 layout: docs type: markdown --- {% include home.html %} This page shows how to install and configure Istio in a Kubernetes cluster. ## Prerequisites * The following instructions assume you have access to a Kubernetes cluster. To install Kubernetes locally, try [minikube](https://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/minikube/). * If you are using [Google Container Engine](https://cloud.google.com/container-engine), please make sure you are using static client certificates before fetching cluster credentials: ```bash gcloud config set container/use_client_certificate True ``` Find out your cluster name and zone, and fetch credentials: ```bash gcloud container clusters get-credentials --zone --project ``` * Install the Kubernetes client [kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/), or upgrade to the latest version supported by your cluster. * If you previously installed Istio on this cluster, please uninstall first by following the [uninstalling]({{home}}/docs/tasks/installing-istio.html#uninstalling) steps at the end of this page. ## Installation steps For the {{ site.data.istio.version }} release, Istio must be installed in the same Kubernetes namespace as the applications. Instructions below will deploy Istio in the default namespace. They can be modified for deployment in a different namespace. 1. Go to the [Istio release](https://github.com/istio/istio/releases) page, to download the installation file corresponding to your OS. 1. Extract the installation file, and change directory to the location where the files were extracted. Following instructions are relative to this installation directory. The installation directory contains: * yaml installation files for Kubernetes * sample apps * the `istioctl` client binary, needed to inject Envoy as a sidecar proxy, and useful for creating routing rules and policies. * the istio.VERSION configuration file. 1. Add the `istioctl` client to your PATH. For example, run the following commands on a Mac system: ```bash sudo ln -s $PWD/istioctl /usr/local/bin/ ``` 1. Run the following command to determine if your cluster has [RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)](https://kubernetes.io/docs/admin/authorization/rbac/) enabled: ```bash kubectl api-versions | grep rbac ``` * If the command displays an error, or does not display anything, it means the cluster does not support RBAC, and you can proceed to step 4. * If the command displays 'beta' version, or both 'alpha' and 'beta', please apply istio-rbac-beta.yaml configuration: ```bash kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/istio-rbac-beta.yaml ``` * If the command displays only 'alpha' version, please apply istio-rbac-alpha.yaml configuration: ```bash kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/istio-rbac-alpha.yaml ``` 1. Install Istio's core components . There are two mutually exclusive options at this stage: * Install Istio without enabling [Istio Auth](https://istio.io/docs/concepts/network-and-auth/auth.html) feature: ```bash kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/istio.yaml ``` This command will install Istio-Manager, Mixer, Ingress-Controller, Egress-Controller core components. * Install Istio and enable [Istio Auth](https://istio.io/docs/concepts/network-and-auth/auth.html) feature: ```bash kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/istio-auth.yaml ``` This command will install Istio-Manager, Mixer, Ingress-Controller, and Egress-Controller, and the Istio CA (Certificate Authority). 1. *Optional:* To view metrics collected by Mixer, install [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io), [Grafana](http://staging.grafana.org) or ServiceGraph addons. *Note 1*: The Prometheus addon is *required* as a prerequisite for Grafana and the ServiceGraph addons. ```bash kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/addons/prometheus.yaml kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/addons/grafana.yaml kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/addons/servicegraph.yaml ``` The Grafana addon provides a dashboard visualization of the metrics by Mixer to a Prometheus instance. The simplest way to access the Istio dashboard is to configure port-forwarding for the grafana service, as follows: ```bash kubectl port-forward $(kubectl get pod -l app=grafana -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') 3000:3000 ``` Then open a web browser to [http://localhost:3000/dashboard/db/istio-dashboard](http://localhost:3000/dashboard/db/istio-dashboard). The dashboard at that location should look something like the following: ![Grafana Istio Dashboard](./img/grafana_dashboard.png) *Note 2*: In some deployment environments, it will be possible to access the dashboard directly (without the `kubectl port-forward` command). This is because the default addon configuration requests an external IP address for the grafana service. When applicable, the external IP address for the grafana service can be retrieved via: ```bash kubectl get services grafana ``` With the EXTERNAL-IP returned from that command, the Istio dashboard can be reached at `http://:3000/dashboard/db/istio-dashboard`. ## Verifying the installation 1. Ensure the following Kubernetes services were deployed: "istio-manager", "istio-mixer", "istio-ingress", "istio-egress", and "istio-ca" (if Istio Auth is enabled). ```bash kubectl get svc ``` ```bash NAME CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE istio-egress 10.7.241.106 80/TCP 39m istio-ingress 10.83.241.84 35.184.70.168 80:30583/TCP 39m istio-manager 10.83.251.26 8080/TCP 39m istio-mixer 10.83.242.1 9091/TCP,42422/TCP 39m ``` Note that if your cluster is running in an environment that does not support an external loadbalancer (e.g., minikube), the `EXTERNAL-IP` will say `` and you will need to access the application using the service NodePort instead. 2. Check the corresponding Kubernetes pods were deployed: "istio-manager-\*", "istio-mixer-\*", "istio-ingress-\*", "istio-egress-\*", and "istio-ca-\*" (if Istio Auth is enabled). ```bash kubectl get pods ``` ```bash NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE istio-egress-597320923-0szj8 1/1 Running 0 49m istio-ingress-594763772-j7jbz 1/1 Running 0 49m istio-manager-373576132-p2t9k 1/1 Running 0 49m istio-mixer-1154414227-56q3z 1/1 Running 0 49m istio-ca-1726969296-9srv2 1/1 Running 0 49m ``` ## Deploy your application You can now deploy your own application, or one of the sample applications provided with the installation, for example [BookInfo]({{home}}/docs/samples/bookinfo.html). Note that the application should use HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2.0 protocol for all its HTTP traffic; HTTP/1.0 is not supported. When deploying the application, you must use [istioctl kube-inject]({{home}}/docs/reference/commands/istioctl.html#istioctl-kube-inject) to automatically inject Envoy containers in your application pods: ```bash kubectl create -f <(istioctl kube-inject -f .yaml) ``` ## Uninstalling 1. Uninstall Istio core components: * If Istio was installed without Istio auth feature: ```bash kubectl delete -f install/kubernetes/istio.yaml ``` * If Istio was installed with auth feature enabled: ```bash kubectl delete -f install/kubernetes/istio-auth.yaml ``` 2. Uninstall RBAC Istio roles: * If beta version was installed: ```bash kubectl delete -f istio-rbac-beta.yaml ``` * If alpha version was installed: ```bash kubectl delete -f istio-rbac-alpha.yaml ``` ## What's next * See the sample [BookInfo]({{home}}/docs/samples/bookinfo.html) application.