Install a Tetrate Istio distribution using istioctl

You can install a Tetrate Istio distribution using istioctl. This is appropriate for quick testing, as an alternative to a helm install.

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.

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

You also need the correct version of the istioctl tool, matching the version of Istio you plan to install.

Installation Steps

1. Determine the Tetrate Istio distribution version

   You need to determine:

   • $TAG: The tag name (in the format of 1.18.2-tetrate-v0)

   You can get a list of all the tags available by running the following command:

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

   You can also browse the tags available by searching the Tetrate repositories and replacing the search term 1.18 with the version you want.

2. Download istioctl

   Set the correct TAG and ARCH in the command below. Valid values of ARCH include:

   • ARCH=linux-armv7
   • ARCH=linux-amd64
   • ARCH=osx
   • ARCH=osx-arm64

   Download the istioctl binary:

   export TAG=1.18.2-tetrate-v0
   export ARCH=linux-arm64
   
   mkdir -p ~/.istioctl/bin
   curl -O https://dl.getistio.io/public/raw/files/istioctl-${TAG}-${ARCH}.tar.gz
   tar -xvzf istioctl-${TAG}-${ARCH}.tar.gz
   cp istioctl ~/.istioctl/bin

   Verify the binary functions:

   ~/.istioctl/bin/istioctl version

3. Define the Install Version

   If you've not already done so, follow the instructions above to set the required variables correctly:

   export TAG="<chosen tag>"

4. Install Istio

   ~/.istioctl/bin/istioctl install --set profile=default \
      --set tag=${TAG} \
      --set hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com

   Expect output similar to:

   istioctl install output

   
   This will install the Istio 1.18.2 default profile with ["Istio core" "Istiod" "Ingress gateways"] components into the cluster. Proceed? (y/N) y
   ✔ Istio core installed
   ✔ Istiod installed
   ✔ Ingress gateways installed
   ✔ Installation complete
   Making this installation the default for injection and validation.

Uninstalling Istio

Uninstall the Istio installation as follows:

~/.istioctl/bin/istioctl uninstall --purge
kubectl delete ns istio-system

Next Steps

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