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VPN connectivity Install an Istio mesh across multiple Kubernetes clusters with direct network access to remote pods. 5
kubernetes
multicluster
federation
vpn
/docs/setup/kubernetes/multicluster-install

Instructions for installing an Istio mesh across multiple clusters when pods in each cluster have direct network access to pods in other clusters.

In this configuration, multiple Kubernetes control planes running a remote configuration connect to a single Istio control plane. Once one or more remote Kubernetes clusters are connected to the Istio control plane, Envoy can then communicate with the single control plane and form a mesh network across multiple clusters.

{{< image width="80%" ratio="36.01%" link="./multicluster-with-vpn.svg" caption="Istio mesh spanning multiple Kubernetes clusters with direct network access to remote pods over VPN" >}}

Prerequisites

  • Two or more Kubernetes clusters with 1.9 or newer.

  • The ability to deploy the Istio control plane on one Kubernetes cluster.

  • The usage of an RFC1918 network, VPN, or alternative more advanced network techniques to meet the following requirements:

    • Individual cluster Pod CIDR ranges and service CIDR ranges must be unique across the multicluster environment and may not overlap.

    • All pod CIDRs in every cluster must be routable to each other.

    • All Kubernetes control plane API servers must be routable to each other.

  • Helm 2.7.2 or newer. The use of Tiller is optional.

This guide describes how to install a multicluster Istio topology using the manifests and Helm charts provided within the Istio repository.

Deploy the local Istio control plane

Install the Istio control plane on one Kubernetes cluster.

Install the Istio remote on every remote cluster

The istio-remote component must be deployed to each remote Kubernetes cluster. There are two approaches to installing the remote. The remote can be installed and managed entirely by Helm and Tiller, or via Helm and kubectl.

Set environment variables for Pod IPs from Istio control plane needed by remote

Please wait for the Istio control plane to finish initializing before proceeding to steps in this section.

These operations must be run on the Istio control plane cluster to capture the Istio control-plane service endpoints--e.g. Pilot, Policy, and Statsd Pod IP endpoints.

If Helm is used with Tiller on each remote, copy the environment variables to each node before using Helm to connect the remote cluster to the Istio control plane.

{{< text bash >}} export PILOT_POD_IP=(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l istio=pilot -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.podIP}') export POLICY_POD_IP=(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l istio-mixer-type=policy -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.podIP}') export STATSD_POD_IP=(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l istio=statsd-prom-bridge -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.podIP}') export TELEMETRY_POD_IP=(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l istio-mixer-type=telemetry -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.podIP}') export ZIPKIN_POD_IP=(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l app=jaeger -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.status.podIP}{end}') {{< /text >}}

Proceed to one of the options for connecting the remote cluster to the local cluster:

Use kubectl with Helm to connect the remote cluster to the local

  1. Use the helm template command on a remote to specify the Istio control plane service endpoints:

    {{< text bash >}} $ helm template install/kubernetes/helm/istio-remote --namespace istio-system
    --name istio-remote
    --set global.remotePilotAddress=${PILOT_POD_IP}
    --set global.remotePolicyAddress=${POLICY_POD_IP}
    --set global.remoteTelemetryAddress=${TELEMETRY_POD_IP}
    --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled=true
    --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.host=${STATSD_POD_IP}
    --set global.remoteZipkinAddress=${ZIPKIN_POD_IP} > $HOME/istio-remote.yaml {{< /text >}}

  2. Create a namespace for remote Istio.

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl create ns istio-system {{< /text >}}

  3. Instantiate the remote cluster's connection to the Istio control plane:

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl apply -f $HOME/istio-remote.yaml {{< /text >}}

  4. Label all the remote cluster's namespaces requiring auto-sidecar injection. The following example labels the default namespace.

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl label namespace default istio-injection=enabled {{< /text >}}

    Repeat for any additional kubernetes namespaces to setup auto-sidecar injection.

Alternatively use Helm and Tiller to connect the remote cluster to the local

  1. If a service account has not already been installed for Helm, please install one:

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl apply -f install/kubernetes/helm/helm-service-account.yaml {{< /text >}}

  2. Initialize Helm:

    {{< text bash >}} $ helm init --service-account tiller {{< /text >}}

  3. Install the Helm chart:

    {{< text bash >}} helm install install/kubernetes/helm/istio-remote --name istio-remote --namespace istio-system --set global.remotePilotAddress={PILOT_POD_IP} --set global.remotePolicyAddress={POLICY_POD_IP} --set global.remoteTelemetryAddress={TELEMETRY_POD_IP} --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled=true --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.host={STATSD_POD_IP} --set global.remoteZipkinAddress={ZIPKIN_POD_IP} {{< /text >}}

Helm configuration parameters

In order for the remote cluster's sidecars interaction with the Istio control plane, the pilot, policy, telemetry, statsd and tracing service endpoints need to be configured in the istio-remote Helm chart. The chart enables automatic sidecar injection in the remote cluster by default but it can be disabled via a chart variable. The following table describes the istio-remote Helm chart's configuration values.

Helm Variable Accepted Values Default Purpose of Value
global.remotePilotAddress A valid IP address or hostname None Specifies the Istio control plane's pilot Pod IP address or remote cluster DNS resolvable hostname
global.remotePolicyAddress A valid IP address or hostname None Specifies the Istio control plane's policy Pod IP address or remote cluster DNS resolvable hostname
global.remoteTelemetryAddress A valid IP address or hostname None Specifies the Istio control plane's telemetry Pod IP address or remote cluster DNS resolvable hostname
global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled true, false false Specifies whether the Istio control plane has Statsd enabled
global.proxy.envoyStatsd.host A valid IP address or hostname None Specifies the Istio control plane's statsd-prom-bridge Pod IP address or remote cluster DNS resolvable hostname. Ignored if global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled=false.
global.remoteZipkinAddress A valid IP address or hostname None Specifies the Istio control plane's tracing application Pod IP address or remote cluster DNS resolvable hostname--e.g. zipkin or jaeger.
sidecarInjectorWebhook.enabled true, false true Specifies whether to enable automatic sidecar injection on the remote cluster
global.remotePilotCreateSvcEndpoint true, false false If set, a selector-less service and endpoint for istio-pilot are created with the remotePilotAddress IP, which ensures the istio-pilot.<namespace> is DNS resolvable in the remote cluster.

Generate kubeconfigs for remote clusters

The Istio control plane requires access to all clusters in the mesh to discover services, endpoints, and pod attributes. The following describes how to generate a kubeconfig file for a remote cluster to be used by the Istio control plane.

The istio-remote Helm chart creates a Kubernetes service account named istio-multi in the remote cluster with the minimal RBAC access required. The following procedure generates a kubeconfig file for the remote cluster using the credentials of the istio-multi service account created by the istio-remote Helm chart.

The following procedure should be performed on each remote cluster to be added to the service mesh. The procedure requires cluster-admin user access to the remote cluster.

  1. Prepare environment variables for building the kubeconfig file for ServiceAccount istio-multi:

    {{< text bash >}} export WORK_DIR=(pwd) CLUSTER_NAME=(kubectl config view --minify=true -o "jsonpath={.clusters[].name}") export KUBECFG_FILE={WORK_DIR}/${CLUSTER_NAME} SERVER=(kubectl config view --minify=true -o "jsonpath={.clusters[].cluster.server}") $ NAMESPACE=istio-system $ SERVICE_ACCOUNT=istio-multi SECRET_NAME=(kubectl get sa {SERVICE_ACCOUNT} -n {NAMESPACE} -o jsonpath='{.secrets[].name}') CA_DATA=(kubectl get secret {SECRET_NAME} -n {NAMESPACE} -o "jsonpath={.data['ca.crt']}") TOKEN=(kubectl get secret {SECRET_NAME} -n {NAMESPACE} -o "jsonpath={.data['token']}" | base64 --decode) {{< /text >}}

    NOTE: An alternative to base64 --decode is openssl enc -d -base64 -A on many systems.

  2. Create a kubeconfig file in the working directory for the ServiceAccount istio-multi:

    {{< text bash >}} cat <<EOF >{KUBECFG_FILE} apiVersion: v1 clusters: - cluster: certificate-authority-data: ${CA_DATA} server: ${SERVER} name: ${CLUSTER_NAME} contexts: - context: cluster: ${CLUSTER_NAME} user: ${CLUSTER_NAME} name: ${CLUSTER_NAME} current-context: ${CLUSTER_NAME} kind: Config preferences: {} users: - name: ${CLUSTER_NAME} user: token: ${TOKEN} EOF {{< /text >}}

  3. (Optional) Create file with environment variables for creating the remote cluster secret:

    {{< text bash >}} $ cat < remote_cluster_env_vars export CLUSTER_NAME=${CLUSTER_NAME} export KUBECFG_FILE=${KUBECFG_FILE} export NAMESPACE=${NAMESPACE} EOF {{< /text >}}

At this point, the remote clusters' kubeconfig files have been created in the current directory. The filename for a cluster is the same as the original kubeconfig cluster name.

Instantiate the credentials for each remote cluster

Execute this work on the cluster running the Istio control plane using the WORK_DIR, CLUSTER_NAME, and NAMESPACE environment values set during the Generate kubeconfig for remote clusters steps.

  • (Optional) Source the environment variables file created for the remote cluster secret:

    {{< text bash >}} $ source remote_cluster_env_vars {{< /text >}}

Istio can be installed in a different namespace other than istio-system.

The local cluster running the Istio control plane does not need it's secrets stored and labeled. The local node is always aware of its Kubernetes credentials, but the local node is not aware of the remote nodes' credentials.

Create a secret and label it properly for each remote cluster:

{{< text bash >}} kubectl create secret generic{CLUSTER_NAME} --from-file {KUBECFG_FILE} -n {NAMESPACE} kubectl label secret{CLUSTER_NAME} istio/multiCluster=true -n ${NAMESPACE} {{< /text >}}

{{< warning_icon >}} Kubernetes secret data keys have to conform to DNS-1123 subdomain format, so the filename can't have underscores for example. To resolve any issue you can simply change the filename to conform to the format.

Uninstalling

The uninstall method must match the installation method (Helm and kubectl or Helm and Tiller based).

Use kubectl to uninstall istio-remote

{{< text bash >}} $ kubectl delete -f $HOME/istio-remote.yaml {{< /text >}}

Alternatively use Helm and Tiller to uninstall istio-remote

{{< text bash >}} $ helm delete --purge istio-remote {{< /text >}}

Remote cluster manual sidecar injection example

The following example shows how to use the helm template command to generate the manifest for the remote cluster with automatic sidecar injection disabled. Additionally, the example indicates how to use the remote clusters' configmaps with the istioctl kube-inject command to generate any application manifests for the remote cluster.

The following procedure is to be performed against the remote cluster.

The endpoint IP environment variables need to be set as in the above section

  1. Use the helm template command on a remote to specify the Istio control plane service endpoints:

    {{< text bash >}} helm template install/kubernetes/helm/istio-remote --namespace istio-system --name istio-remote --set global.remotePilotAddress={PILOT_POD_IP} --set global.remotePolicyAddress={POLICY_POD_IP} --set global.remoteTelemetryAddress={TELEMETRY_POD_IP} --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled=true --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.host={STATSD_POD_IP} --set global.remoteZipkinAddress={ZIPKIN_POD_IP} --set sidecarInjectorWebhook.enabled=false > $HOME/istio-remote_noautoinj.yaml {{< /text >}}

  2. Create a namespace for remote Istio.

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl create ns istio-system {{< /text >}}

  3. Instantiate the remote cluster's connection to the Istio control plane:

    {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl apply -f $HOME/istio-remote_noautoinj.yaml {{< /text >}}

  4. Generate kubeconfig for remote clusters

  5. Instantiate the credentials for each remote cluster

Manually inject sidecars into application manifests

The following is an example istioctl command to inject sidecars into application manifests. The commands should be run in a shell with kubeconfig context setup for the remote cluster.

{{< text bash >}} $ ORIGINAL_SVC_MANIFEST=mysvc-v1.yaml istioctl kube-inject --injectConfigMapName istio-sidecar-injector --meshConfigMapName istio -f{ORIGINAL_SVC_MANIFEST} | kubectl apply -f - {{< /text >}}

Accessing services from different clusters

Kubernetes resolves DNS on a cluster basis. Because DNS resolution is tied to the cluster, you must define the service object in every cluster where a client runs, regardless of the location of the service's endpoints. To ensure this is the case, duplicate the service object to every cluster using kubectl. Duplication ensures Kubernetes can resolve the service name in any cluster. Since the service objects are defined in a namespace, you must define the namespace if it doesn't exist, and include it in the service definitions in all clusters.

Deployment considerations

The above procedure provides a simple and step by step guide to deploy a multicluster environment. A production environment might require additional steps or more complex deployment options. The procedure gathers the endpoint IPs of Istio services and uses them to invoke Helm. This create Istio services on the remote clusters. As part of creating those services and endpoints in the remote cluster Kubernetes will add DNS entries into kube-dns. This allows kube-dns in the remote clusters to resolve the Istio service names for all envoy sidecars in those remote clusters. Since Kubernetes pods don't have stable IPs, restart of any Istio service pod in the control plane cluster will cause its endpoint to be changed. Therefore, any connection made from remote clusters to that endpoint will be broken. This is documented in Istio issue #4822

There are a number of ways to either avoid or resolve this scenario. This section provides a high level overview of these options.

  • Update the DNS entries
  • Use a load balancer service type
  • Expose the Istio services via a gateway

Update the DNS entries

Upon any failure or pod restart kube-dns on the remote clusters can be updated with the correct endpoint mappings for the Istio services. There are a number of ways this can be done. The most obvious is to rerun the Helm install in the remote cluster after the Istio services on the control plane cluster have restarted.

Use load balance service type

In Kubernetes, you can declare a service with a service type to be LoadBalancer. A simple solution to the pod restart issue is to use load balancers for the Istio services. You can then use the load balancer IPs as the Istio services's endpoint IPs to configure the remote clusters. You may need balancer IPs for these Istio services: istio-pilot, istio-telemetry, istio-policy, istio-statsd-prom-bridge, zipkin

Currently, Istio installation doesn't provide an option to specify service types for the Istio services. But you can modify the Istio Helm charts or the Istio manifests yourself.

Expose the Istio services via a gateway

This uses the Istio Ingress gateway functionality. The remote clusters have the istio-pilot, istio-telemetry, istio-policy, istio-statsd-prom-bridge, zipkin services pointing to the load balanced IP of the Istio ingress. All the services can point to the same IP. The ingress gateway is then provided with destination rules to reach the proper Istio service in the main cluster.

Within this option there are 2 sub-options. One is to re-use the default Istio ingress gateway installed with the provided manifests or Helm charts. The other option is to create another Istio ingress gateway specifically for multicluster.

Security

Istio supports deployment of mutual TLS between the control plane components as well as between sidecar injected application pods.

Control plane security

The steps to enable control plane security are as follows:

  1. Istio control plane cluster deployed with

    1. control plane security enabled
    2. citadel certificate self signing disabled
    3. a secret named cacerts in the Istio control plane namespace with the CA certificates

  2. Istio remote clusters deployed with

    1. control plane security enabled
    2. citadel certificate self signing disabled
    3. a secret named cacerts in the Istio control plane namespace with the CA certificates
      1. The CA certificate for the remote clusters needs to be signed by the same CA or root CA as the main cluster.
    4. Istio pilot service hostname resolvable via DNS
      1. Required because Istio configures the sidecar to verify the certificate subject names using the istio-pilot.<namespace> subject name format.
    5. Control plane IPs or resolvable host names set

Mutual TLS between application pods

The steps to enable mutual TLS for all application pods are as follows:

  1. Istio control plane cluster deployed with

    1. Global mutual TLS enabled
    2. citadel certificate self signing disabled
    3. a secret named cacerts in the Istio control plane namespace with the CA certificates

  2. Istio remote clusters deployed with

    1. Global mutual TLS enabled
    2. citadel certificate self signing disabled
    3. a secret named cacerts in the Istio control plane namespace with the CA certificates
      1. The CA certificate for the remote clusters needs to be signed by the same CA or root CA as the main cluster.

The CA certificate steps are identical for both control plane security and application pod security steps.

Example deployment

The following is an example procedure to install Istio with both control plane mutual TLS and application pod mutual TLS enabled. The example sets up a remote cluster with a selector-less service and endpoint for istio-pilot to allow the remote sidecars to resolve the istio-pilot.istio-system hostname via its local Kubernetes DNS.

  1. Primary Cluster. Deployment of the Istio control plane cluster

    1. Create the cacerts secret from the Istio samples certificate in the istio-system namespace:

      {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl create ns istio-system $ kubectl create secret generic cacerts -n istio-system --from-file=samples/certs/ca-cert.pem --from-file=samples/certs/ca-key.pem --from-file=samples/certs/root-cert.pem --from-file=samples/certs/cert-chain.pem {{< /text >}}

    2. Deploy the Istio control plane with control plane and application pod security enabled

      {{< text bash >}} $ helm template --namespace=istio-system
      --values install/kubernetes/helm/istio/values.yaml
      --set global.mtls.enabled=true
      --set security.selfSigned=false
      --set global.controlPlaneSecurityEnabled=true
      install/kubernetes/helm/istio > ${HOME}/istio-auth.yaml kubectl apply -f{HOME}/istio-auth.yaml {{< /text >}}

  2. Remote Cluster. Deployment of remote cluster's istio components

    1. Create the cacerts secret from the Istio samples certificate in the istio-system namespace:

      {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl create ns istio-system $ kubectl create secret generic cacerts -n istio-system --from-file=samples/certs/ca-cert.pem --from-file=samples/certs/ca-key.pem --from-file=samples/certs/root-cert.pem --from-file=samples/certs/cert-chain.pem {{< /text >}}

    2. Set endpoint IP environment variables as in the setting environment variables section

    3. Deploy the remote cluster's components with control plane and application pod security enabled. Also, enable creation of the istio-pilot selector-less service and endpoint to get a DNS entry in the remote cluster.

      {{< text bash >}} $ helm template install/kubernetes/helm/istio-remote
      --name istio-remote
      --namespace=istio-system
      --set global.mtls.enabled=true
      --set security.selfSigned=false
      --set global.controlPlaneSecurityEnabled=true
      --set global.remotePilotCreateSvcEndpoint=true
      --set global.remotePilotAddress=${PILOT_POD_IP}
      --set global.remotePolicyAddress=${POLICY_POD_IP}
      --set global.remoteTelemetryAddress=${TELEMETRY_POD_IP}
      --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.enabled=true
      --set global.proxy.envoyStatsd.host={STATSD_POD_IP} > {HOME}/istio-remote-auth.yaml kubectl apply -f{HOME}/istio-remote-auth.yaml {{< /text >}}

    4. Generate kubeconfig for remote cluster

  3. Primary Cluster. Instantiate the credentials for each remote cluster

At this point all of the Istio components in both clusters are configured for mutual TLS between application sidecars and the control plane components as well as between the other application sidecars.