Integrate microservices using Istio

Istio helps you manage cloud-based deployments by providing an open-source service mesh to connect, secure, control, and observe microservices.

This tutorial demonstrates how to expose an application running on the Konvoy cluster using the LoadBalancer (layer-4) service type.

NOTE: Usage and installation of Istio on Konvoy is currently a self-service feature.

Before you begin

Before starting this tutorial, you should verify the following:

• You must have access to a Linux, macOS, or Windows computer with a supported operating system version.

• You must have a properly deployed and running cluster. For information about deploying Kubernetes with default settings, see the Quick start.

• You must have cert-manager enabled and deployed through your cluster.yaml addon configuration.

Deploy Istio using Konvoy

Istio can be deployed through konvoy by adding it to the list of configured addons for your cluster.

1. Look for a line like the following in your cluster.yaml:

     addons:
     - configRepository: https://github.com/mesosphere/kubernetes-base-addons
       addonsList:
       - name: istio # is currently in Experimental status. More information: https://docs.d2iq.com/dkp/konvoy/latest/version-policy/#experimental-status
         enabled: false
   

2. Create an entry if it does not exist.

3. Set enabled: true for the Istio addon.

4. Run the following command to deploy Istio to your cluster:

   konvoy deploy addons
   

Download the Istio command line utility

1. Store a local environment variable containing the current Istio version running in your cluster:

   export KONVOY_ISTIO_VERSION="$(kubectl get clusteraddons istio -o go-template='{{ .spec.chartReference.version }}')"
   

2. Pull a copy of the corresponding Istio command line to your system:

   curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | ISTIO_VERSION=${KONVOY_ISTIO_VERSION} sh -
   

3. Change to the Istio directory and set your PATH environment variable by running the following commands:

   cd istio*
   export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH
   

4. You should now be able to run the following commands and see output like this:

   $ istioctl version
   client version: <your istio version here>
   control plane version: <your istio version here>
   data plane version: <your istio version here> (1 proxies)
   

Deploy a sample application on Istio

The Istio BookInfo sample application is composed of four separate microservices that demonstrate various Istio features.

1. Deploy the sample bookinfo application on the Kubernetes cluster by running the following commands:

   kubectl apply -f <(istioctl kube-inject -f samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml)
   kubectl apply -f samples/bookinfo/networking/bookinfo-gateway.yaml
   

2. Get the URL of the load balancer created on AWS for this service by running the following command:

   kubectl get svc istio-ingressgateway -n istio-system
   

   The command displays output similar to the following:

   NAME                   TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP                                                               PORT(S)                                                                                                                                      AGE
   istio-ingressgateway   LoadBalancer   10.0.29.241   a682d13086ccf11e982140acb7ee21b7-2083182676.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com   15020:30380/TCP,80:31380/TCP,443:31390/TCP,31400:31400/TCP,15029:30756/TCP,15030:31420/TCP,15031:31948/TCP,15032:32061/TCP,15443:31232/TCP   110s
   

3. Open a web browser and navigate to the external IP address for the load balancer to access the application.

   For example, the external IP address in the sample output is a682d13086ccf11e982140acb7ee21b7-2083182676.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com, enabling you to access the application using the following URL: http://a682d13086ccf11e982140acb7ee21b7-2083182676.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/productpage

4. Follow the steps in the Istio BookInfo Application documentation to understand the different Istio features.