Install with Istioctl

6 minute read page test

Follow this guide to install and configure an Istio mesh for in-depth evaluation or production use. If you are new to Istio, and just want to try it out, follow the quick start instructions instead.

This installation guide uses the istioctl command line tool to provide rich customization of the Istio control plane and of the sidecars for the Istio data plane. It has user input validation to help prevent installation errors and customization options to override any aspect of the configuration.

Using these instructions, you can select any one of Istio’s built-in configuration profiles and then further customize the configuration for your specific needs.

The istioctl command supports the full IstioOperator API via command-line options for individual settings or for passing a yaml file containing an IstioOperator custom resource (CR).

Prerequisites

Before you begin, check the following prerequisites:

Download the Istio release.
Perform any necessary platform-specific setup.
Check the Requirements for Pods and Services.

Install Istio using the default profile

The simplest option is to install the default Istio configuration profile using the following command:

$ istioctl install

This command installs the default profile on the cluster defined by your Kubernetes configuration. The default profile is a good starting point for establishing a production environment, unlike the larger demo profile that is intended for evaluating a broad set of Istio features.

Various settings can be configured to modify the installations. For example, to enable access logs:

$ istioctl install --set meshConfig.accessLogFile=/dev/stdout

Many of the examples on this page and elsewhere in the documentation are written using --set to modify installation parameters, rather than passing a configuration file with -f. This is done to make the examples more compact. The two methods are equivalent, but -f is strongly recommended for production. The above command would be written as follows using -f:

$ cat <<EOF > ./my-config.yaml
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  meshConfig:
    accessLogFile: /dev/stdout
EOF
$ istioctl install -f my-config.yaml

Install from external charts

By default, istioctl uses compiled-in charts to generate the install manifest. These charts are released together with istioctl for auditing and customization purposes and can be found in the release tar in the manifests directory. istioctl can also use external charts rather than the compiled-in ones. To select external charts, set the manifests flag to a local file system path:

$ istioctl install --manifests=manifests/

If using the istioctl 1.24.1 binary, this command will result in the same installation as istioctl install alone, because it points to the same charts as the compiled-in ones. Other than for experimenting with or testing new features, we recommend using the compiled-in charts rather than external ones to ensure compatibility of the istioctl binary with the charts.

Install a different profile

Other Istio configuration profiles can be installed in a cluster by passing the profile name on the command line. For example, the following command can be used to install the demo profile:

$ istioctl install --set profile=demo

Generate a manifest before installation

You can generate the manifest before installing Istio using the manifest generate sub-command. For example, use the following command to generate a manifest for the default profile:

$ istioctl manifest generate > $HOME/generated-manifest.yaml

The generated manifest can be used to inspect what exactly is installed as well as to track changes to the manifest over time. While the IstioOperator CR represents the full user configuration and is sufficient for tracking it, the output from manifest generate also captures possible changes in the underlying charts and therefore can be used to track the actual installed resources.

The output from manifest generate can also be used to install Istio using kubectl apply or equivalent. However, these alternative installation methods may not apply the resources with the same sequencing of dependencies as istioctl install and are not tested in an Istio release.

If attempting to install and manage Istio using istioctl manifest generate, please note the following caveats:

The Istio namespace (istio-system by default) must be created manually.
Istio validation will not be enabled by default. Unlike istioctl install, the manifest generate command will not create the istiod-default-validator validating webhook configuration unless values.defaultRevision is set:
```
$ istioctl manifest generate --set values.defaultRevision=default
```

While istioctl install will automatically detect environment specific settings from your Kubernetes context, manifest generate cannot as it runs offline, which may lead to unexpected results. In particular, you must ensure that you follow these steps if your Kubernetes environment does not support third party service account tokens.
kubectl apply of the generated manifest may show transient errors due to resources not being available in the cluster in the correct order.
istioctl install automatically prunes any resources that should be removed when the configuration changes (e.g. if you remove a gateway). This does not happen when you use istio manifest generate with kubectl and these resources must be removed manually.

Show differences in manifests

You can show the differences in the generated manifests in a YAML style diff between the default profile and a customized install using these commands:

$ istioctl manifest generate > 1.yaml
$ istioctl manifest generate -f samples/operator/pilot-k8s.yaml > 2.yaml
$ istioctl manifest diff 1.yaml 2.yaml
Differences in manifests are:


Object Deployment:istio-system:istiod has diffs:

spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        '[#0]':
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 500m -> 1000m
              memory: 2048Mi -> 4096Mi


Object HorizontalPodAutoscaler:istio-system:istiod has diffs:

spec:
  maxReplicas: 5 -> 10
  minReplicas: 1 -> 2

Verify a successful installation

You can check if the Istio installation succeeded using the verify-install command which compares the installation on your cluster to a manifest you specify.

If you didn’t generate your manifest prior to deployment, run the following command to generate it now:

$ istioctl manifest generate <your original installation options> > $HOME/generated-manifest.yaml

Then run the following verify-install command to see if the installation was successful:

$ istioctl verify-install -f $HOME/generated-manifest.yaml

See Customizing the installation configuration for additional information on customizing the install.

Uninstall Istio

To completely uninstall Istio from a cluster, run the following command:

$ istioctl uninstall --purge

Alternatively, to remove only a specific Istio control plane, run the following command:

$ istioctl uninstall <your original installation options>

$ istioctl manifest generate <your original installation options> | kubectl delete --ignore-not-found=true -f -

The control plane namespace (e.g., istio-system) is not removed by default. If no longer needed, use the following command to remove it:

$ kubectl delete namespace istio-system