Standalone Operator Install [Experimental]

3 minute read

This guide installs Istio using the standalone Istio operator. The only dependencies required are a supported Kubernetes cluster and the kubectl command.

To install Istio for production use, we recommend installing with istioctl instead.

Prerequisites

Perform any necessary platform-specific setup.
Check the Requirements for Pods and Services.
Deploy the Istio operator:
```
$ kubectl apply -f https://istio.io/operator.yaml
```
This command runs the operator by creating the following resources in the istio-operator namespace:
- The operator custom resource definition
- The operator controller deployment
- A service to access operator metrics
- Necessary Istio operator RBAC rules

Install

To install the Istio demo configuration profile using the operator, run the following command:

$ kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha2
kind: IstioControlPlane
metadata:
  namespace: istio-operator
  name: example-istiocontrolplane
spec:
  profile: demo
EOF

The controller will detect the IstioControlPlane resource and then install the Istio components corresponding to the specified (demo) configuration.

You can confirm the Istio control plane services have been deployed with the following commands:

$ kubectl get svc -n istio-system
NAME                     TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)                                                                                                                      AGE
grafana                  ClusterIP      10.106.149.76    <none>          3000/TCP                                                                                                                     2m
istio-citadel            ClusterIP      10.111.189.16    <none>          8060/TCP,15014/TCP                                                                                                           2m
istio-egressgateway      ClusterIP      10.97.119.223    <none>          80/TCP,443/TCP,15443/TCP                                                                                                     2m
istio-galley             ClusterIP      10.106.200.132   <none>          443/TCP,15014/TCP,9901/TCP,15019/TCP                                                                                         2m
istio-ingressgateway     LoadBalancer   10.107.91.133    192.168.7.130   15020:30729/TCP,80:32583/TCP,443:30117/TCP,15029:30696/TCP,15030:31442/TCP,15031:30091/TCP,15032:31346/TCP,15443:30067/TCP   2m
istio-pilot              ClusterIP      10.109.79.164    <none>          15010/TCP,15011/TCP,8080/TCP,15014/TCP                                                                                       2m
istio-policy             ClusterIP      10.105.198.243   <none>          9091/TCP,15004/TCP,15014/TCP                                                                                                 2m
istio-sidecar-injector   ClusterIP      10.107.11.188    <none>          443/TCP                                                                                                                      2m
istio-telemetry          ClusterIP      10.104.68.42     <none>          9091/TCP,15004/TCP,15014/TCP,42422/TCP                                                                                       2m
jaeger-agent             ClusterIP      None             <none>          5775/UDP,6831/UDP,6832/UDP                                                                                                   2m
jaeger-collector         ClusterIP      10.109.110.61    <none>          14267/TCP,14268/TCP,14250/TCP                                                                                                2m
jaeger-query             ClusterIP      10.97.1.46       <none>          16686/TCP                                                                                                                    2m
kiali                    ClusterIP      10.99.4.200      <none>          20001/TCP                                                                                                                    2m
prometheus               ClusterIP      10.99.185.175    <none>          9090/TCP                                                                                                                     2m
tracing                  ClusterIP      10.104.66.2      <none>          9411/TCP                                                                                                                     2m
zipkin                   ClusterIP      10.99.242.51     <none>          9411/TCP                                                                                                                     2m

$ kubectl get pods -n istio-system
NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
grafana-5f798469fd-72hk6                  1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-citadel-7dfd85d968-q2h5t            1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-egressgateway-7f9b4f8b6b-nr889      1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-galley-7474b7b86-jgc6h              1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-ingressgateway-5d97687586-9v4sw     1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-pilot-76dcbf686c-2z98w              1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-policy-7f7f7758c5-h5x8z             1/1     Running   3          1m
istio-sidecar-injector-7795bb5888-l5w6g   1/1     Running   0          1m
istio-telemetry-7f5bfccf69-ld65r          1/1     Running   2          1m
istio-tracing-cd67ddf8-w97mg              1/1     Running   0          1m
kiali-7964898d8c-9gfs4                    1/1     Running   0          1m
prometheus-586d4445c7-ctxlg               1/1     Running   0          1m

Update

Now, with the controller running, you can change the Istio configuration by editing or replacing the IstioControlPlane resource. The controller will detect the change and respond by updating the Istio installation correspondingly.

For example, you can switch the installation to the default profile with the following command:

$ kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha2
kind: IstioControlPlane
metadata:
  namespace: istio-operator
  name: example-istiocontrolplane
spec:
  profile: default
EOF

You can also enable or disable specific features or components. For example, to disable the telemetry feature:

$ kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha2
kind: IstioControlPlane
metadata:
  namespace: istio-operator
  name: example-istiocontrolplane
spec:
  profile: default
  telemetry:
    enabled: false
EOF

Refer to the IstioControlPlane API for the complete set of configuration settings.

Uninstall

Delete the Istio operator and Istio deployment:

$ kubectl -n istio-operator get IstioControlPlane example-istiocontrolplane -o=json | jq '.metadata.finalizers = null' | kubectl delete -f -
$ kubectl delete ns istio-operator --grace-period=0 --force
$ kubectl delete ns istio-system --grace-period=0 --force