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Install a Tetrate Istio distribution using helm

Helm is the best way to deploy a Tetrate Istio distribution in a standard, automatable manner. Helm manages upgrades and installation cleanly.

For quick experiments, you could install using istioctl.

New Versioning Format

TID has adopted a new versioning format. See Versioning for more details. We recommend familiarizing yourself with this new format and gradually transitioning to it.

Post the TID 1.24.0 release, the old versioning scheme and its associated repository will be phased out, consolidating all users on the updated format in the new repository.

Before you begin​

You need a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. Istio has a number of platform and networking/application requirements.

You also need the helm tool (version 3.6 or later) to install using this method.

Run following command ro get obtain a list of TAGs, corresponding to Tetrate's supported Istio versions and builds.

curl -s https://containers.istio.tetratelabs.com/v2/proxyv2/tags/list | jq

Choose and define the TAG (for example, 1.18.2-tetrate-v0) and VERSION (for example, 1.18.2) that matches the version and build you wish to install:

export TAG=1.18.2-tetrate-v0
export VERSION=1.18.2

Installation Steps​

  1. Add the Tetrate Helm Repo​

    Add Tetrate's Helm repo, and verify you can see the Tetrate Istio distribution releases:

    helm repo add tetratelabs https://tis.tetrate.io/charts
    helm repo update tetratelabs

    helm search repo tetratelabs

  3. Determine the Install Version​

    Tetrate provide support for a number of Istio releases.

    You can get the latest release by using following command:

    helm search repo tetratelabs/base

    Or you can list all available releases:

    helm search repo tetratelabs/base --versions

    Set $VERSION using Helm version that you want to install, for example 1.20.0+tetrate0.

    Set $TAG using App version from above helm search command.

    export VERSION=1.20.0+tetrate0
    export TAG=1.20.0-tetrate0

  4. Install the Istio Control Plane​

    Create the istio-system namespace, and install Tetrate's Istio base and istiod charts. These contains the CRDs (custom resource definitions) required for the Istio install, and the istiod service:

    kubectl create namespace istio-system
    helm install istio-base tetratelabs/base -n istio-system \
        --set global.tag=${TAG} \
        --set global.hub="containers.istio.tetratelabs.com" \
        --version ${VERSION}

    helm install istiod tetratelabs/istiod -n istio-system \
        --set global.tag=${TAG} \
        --set global.hub="containers.istio.tetratelabs.com" \
        --version ${VERSION}

    After a few seconds, verify that the istio-base and istiod releases are installed and that the istiod pod is running:

    helm ls -n istio-system
    kubectl get pods -n istio-system

  5. Install Istio Gateway​

    Finally, install Istio Gateway into the istio-ingress namespace. Verify that the istio-ingressgateway pod is running and the istio-ingress release is installed:

    kubectl create namespace istio-ingress

    helm install istio-ingress tetratelabs/gateway -n istio-ingress \
        --set global.tag=${TAG} \
        --set global.hub="containers.istio.tetratelabs.com" \
        --version ${VERSION}

    sleep 5

    helm ls -n istio-ingress
    kubectl get pods -n istio-ingress

Upgrade the Installation​

When you need to upgrade the version, the steps are similar to the install command.

Query the installed version:

helm ls -n istio-system ; helm ls -n istio-ingress

List available versions:

helm repo update tetratelabs
helm search repo tetratelabs/base --versions

To upgrade to the latest release:

helm upgrade istio-base tetratelabs/base -n istio-system --reuse-values
helm upgrade istiod tetratelabs/istiod -n istio-system --reuse-values
helm upgrade istio-ingress tetratelabs/istio-ingress -n istio-ingress --reuse-values

To upgrade to an intermediate release:

Set $VERSION to the target release version.

helm upgrade istio-base tetratelabs/base -n istio-system --version ${VERSION} --reuse-values
helm upgrade istiod tetratelabs/istiod -n istio-system --version ${VERSION} --reuse-values
helm upgrade istio-ingress tetratelabs/istio-ingress -n istio-ingress --version ${VERSION} --reuse-values

Uninstall a Tetrate Istio distribution​

Before removing a Tetrate Istio distribution deployment, all the applications and gateways should be off-boarded.

Use helm uninstall for each chart:

helm uninstall istio-ingress -n istio-ingress
kubectl delete namespace istio-ingress

helm uninstall istiod --namespace istio-system
helm uninstall istio-base --namespace istio-system
kubectl delete namespace istio-system

Next Steps​

Once you have installed and validated your Tetrate Istio distribution install, you can proceed to the Istio good practices guide.