• Getting Started
    • Set up your platform
    • Download the release
    • Install Istio
    • Next steps
    • Uninstall
    • See also

    Getting Started

    To get started with Istio, just follow these three steps:

    • Set up your platform
    • Download the release
    • Install Istio

    Set up your platform

    Before you can install Istio, you need a cluster running a compatible version of Kubernetes.Istio 1.4 has been tested with Kubernetes releases 1.13, 1.14, 1.15.

    Create a cluster by selecting the appropriate platform-specific setup instructions.

    Some platforms provide a managed control plane which you can use instead ofinstalling Istio manually. If this is the case with your selected platform, and you choose to use it,you will be finished installing Istio after creating the cluster, so you can skip the following instructions.Refer to your platform service provider for further details and instructions.

    Download the release

    Download the Istio release which includes installation files, samples, and theistioctl command line utility.

    • Go to the Istio release page todownload the installation file corresponding to your OS. Alternatively, on a macOS orLinux system, you can run the following command to download andextract the latest release automatically:
    1. $ curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | sh -
    • Move to the Istio package directory. For example, if the package isistio-1.4.2:
    1. $ cd istio-1.4.2

    The installation directory contains:

    • Installation YAML files for Kubernetes in install/kubernetes
    • Sample applications in samples/
    • The istioctl client binary in the bin/ directory. istioctl isused when manually injecting Envoy as a sidecar proxy.
      • Add the istioctl client to your path, on a macOS orLinux system:
    1. $ export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH
    • You can optionally enable the auto-completion option when working with a bash or ZSH console.

    Install Istio

    These instructions assume you are new to Istio, providing streamlined instruction toinstall Istio’s built-in demo configuration profile.This installation lets you quickly get started evaluating Istio.If you are already familiar with Istio or interested in installing other configuration profilesor a more advanced deployment model,follow the installing with istioctl instructions instead.

    The demo configuration profile is not suitable for performance evaluation. Itis designed to showcase Istio functionality with high levels of tracing andaccess logging.

    • Install the demo profile
    1. $ istioctl manifest apply --set profile=demo
    • Verify the installation by ensuring the following Kubernetes services are deployed and verify they allhave an appropriate CLUSTER-IP except the jaeger-agent service:
    1. $ kubectl get svc -n istio-system
    2. NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE
    3. grafana ClusterIP 172.21.211.123 <none> 3000/TCP 2m
    4. istio-citadel ClusterIP 172.21.177.222 <none> 8060/TCP,15014/TCP 2m
    5. istio-egressgateway ClusterIP 172.21.113.24 <none> 80/TCP,443/TCP,15443/TCP 2m
    6. istio-galley ClusterIP 172.21.132.247 <none> 443/TCP,15014/TCP,9901/TCP 2m
    7. istio-ingressgateway LoadBalancer 172.21.144.254 52.116.22.242 15020:31831/TCP,80:31380/TCP,443:31390/TCP,31400:31400/TCP,15029:30318/TCP,15030:32645/TCP,15031:31933/TCP,15032:31188/TCP,15443:30838/TCP 2m
    8. istio-pilot ClusterIP 172.21.105.205 <none> 15010/TCP,15011/TCP,8080/TCP,15014/TCP 2m
    9. istio-policy ClusterIP 172.21.14.236 <none> 9091/TCP,15004/TCP,15014/TCP 2m
    10. istio-sidecar-injector ClusterIP 172.21.155.47 <none> 443/TCP,15014/TCP 2m
    11. istio-telemetry ClusterIP 172.21.196.79 <none> 9091/TCP,15004/TCP,15014/TCP,42422/TCP 2m
    12. jaeger-agent ClusterIP None <none> 5775/UDP,6831/UDP,6832/UDP 2m
    13. jaeger-collector ClusterIP 172.21.135.51 <none> 14267/TCP,14268/TCP 2m
    14. jaeger-query ClusterIP 172.21.26.187 <none> 16686/TCP 2m
    15. kiali ClusterIP 172.21.155.201 <none> 20001/TCP 2m
    16. prometheus ClusterIP 172.21.63.159 <none> 9090/TCP 2m
    17. tracing ClusterIP 172.21.2.245 <none> 80/TCP 2m
    18. zipkin ClusterIP 172.21.182.245 <none> 9411/TCP 2m

    If your cluster is running in an environment that does notsupport an external load balancer (e.g., minikube), theEXTERNAL-IP of istio-ingressgateway will say<pending>. To access the gateway, use the service’sNodePort, or use port-forwarding instead.

    Also ensure corresponding Kubernetes pods are deployed and have a STATUS of Running:

    1. $ kubectl get pods -n istio-system
    2. NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
    3. grafana-f8467cc6-rbjlg 1/1 Running 0 1m
    4. istio-citadel-78df5b548f-g5cpw 1/1 Running 0 1m
    5. istio-egressgateway-78569df5c4-zwtb5 1/1 Running 0 1m
    6. istio-galley-74d5f764fc-q7nrk 1/1 Running 0 1m
    7. istio-ingressgateway-7ddcfd665c-dmtqz 1/1 Running 0 1m
    8. istio-pilot-f479bbf5c-qwr28 1/1 Running 0 1m
    9. istio-policy-6fccc5c868-xhblv 1/1 Running 2 1m
    10. istio-sidecar-injector-78499d85b8-x44m6 1/1 Running 0 1m
    11. istio-telemetry-78b96c6cb6-ldm9q 1/1 Running 2 1m
    12. istio-tracing-69b5f778b7-s2zvw 1/1 Running 0 1m
    13. kiali-99f7467dc-6rvwp 1/1 Running 0 1m
    14. prometheus-67cdb66cbb-9w2hm 1/1 Running 0 1m

    Next steps

    With Istio installed, you can now deploy your own application or one of the sample applicationsprovided with the installation.

    The application must use either the HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2.0 protocols for all its HTTPtraffic; HTTP/1.0 is not supported.

    When you deploy your application using kubectl apply,the Istio sidecar injectorwill automatically inject Envoy containers into yourapplication pods if they are started in namespaces labeled with istio-injection=enabled:

    1. $ kubectl label namespace <namespace> istio-injection=enabled
    2. $ kubectl create -n <namespace> -f <your-app-spec>.yaml

    In namespaces without the istio-injection label, you can useistioctl kube-injectto manually inject Envoy containers in your application pods before deployingthem:

    1. $ istioctl kube-inject -f <your-app-spec>.yaml | kubectl apply -f -

    If you are not sure where to begin,deploy the Bookinfo samplewhich will allow you to evaluate Istio’s features for traffic routing, fault injection, ratelimiting, etc. Then explore the various Istio tasks that interest you.

    The following tasks are a good place for beginners to start:

    • Request routing
    • Fault injection
    • Traffic shifting
    • Querying metrics
    • Visualizing metrics
    • Collecting logs
    • Rate limiting
    • Ingress gateways
    • Accessing external services
    • Visualizing your mesh

    The next step is to customize Istio and deploy your own applications.Before you install and customize Istio to fit your platform and intended use,check out the following resources:

    • Deployment models
    • Deployment best practices
    • Pod requirements
    • General installation instructions

    As you continue to use Istio, we look forward to hearing from you and welcomingyou to our community.

    Uninstall

    The uninstall deletes the RBAC permissions, the istio-system namespace, andall resources hierarchically under it. It is safe to ignore errors fornon-existent resources because they may have been deleted hierarchically.

    1. $ istioctl manifest generate --set profile=demo | kubectl delete -f -

    See also

    Helm Changes

    Details the Helm chart installation options differences between Istio 1.2 and Istio 1.3.

    Helm Changes

    Details the Helm chart installation options differences between Istio 1.1 and Istio 1.2.

    Helm Changes

    Details the Helm chart installation options differences between Istio 1.0 and Istio 1.1.

    DNS Certificate Management

    Provision and manage DNS certificates in Istio.

    Introducing the Istio Operator

    Introduction to Istio's new operator-based installation and control plane management feature.

    Secure Webhook Management

    A more secure way to manage Istio webhooks.