Helm Chart Deployment

Helm Charts

While there are multiple benefits of using getmesh CLI tool, there are use-cases that require a complete automation and repeatable approach. To address this need, Tetrate offers a de-facto standard approach with Helm charts. This page illustrates typical steps to deploy Tetrate Istio Distro via Helm.

Add Tetrate Helm Repo

Tetrate hosts publicly available Helm Repo that can be accesses via standard Helm commands:

helm repo add tid https://tetratelabs.github.io/istio-helm/
helm repo update tid

Output:

 $ helm repo add tid https://tetratelabs.github.io/istio-helm/
"tid" has been added to your repositories
 $ helm repo update tid
Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "tid" chart repository
Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈

Set variables

To ensure consistency the variables can be set per below:

  • Name matches the repo naming pattern:

    export name="tid/tetrate-istio"

    FIPS Note if customer has purchased Tetrate FIPS Distro - than the name variable should be set to tid/tetrate-fips

    export name="tid/tetrate-istio"

  • querying the repo, allows to set the latest version as variable:

    export latest_version=$(helm search repo ${name} -o json | jq -r .[].version)

    Make sure the variables are set:

    echo $name $latest_version
tid/tetrate-istio 1.16.1

Charts installation via Helm

Adding repo and setting up the variables is all prerequisites. Executing the helm install command should be run per below example:

helm install tetrate-istio ${name} \
    --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
    --set global.tag=${latest_version}-tetrate-v0 \
    --create-namespace --namespace istio-system

FIPS Note if customer has purchased Tetrate FIPS Distro - than the tag should include -tetratefips- instead of -tetrate-

helm install tetrate-istio ${name} \
  --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
  --set global.tag=${latest_version}-tetratefips-v0 \
  --create-namespace --namespace istio-system

Output:

 $ export name="tid/tetrate-istio"
 $ export latest_version=$(helm search repo ${name} -o json | jq -r .[].version)
 $ helm install tetrate-istio ${name} \
>     --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
>     --set global.tag=${latest_version}-tetrate-v0 \
>     --create-namespace --namespace istio-system
NAME: tetrate-istio
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Jan 26 14:29:54 2023
NAMESPACE: istio-system
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
"TID - Tetrate Distro of Istio 1.16.1-tetrate-v0 successfully installed!"

To learn more about the release, try:
  $ helm status tetrate-istio
  $ helm get all tetrate-istio

More details and feedback [Tetrate Istio Distro](https://istio.tetratelabs.io/)

Gateway Note While a separate Envoy Gateway chart is available, it’s not necessary to deploy them. The configuration templates deployed with the default chart allow to configure proxyv2 container to act as standalone gateway pod.

Installing specific version

Tetrate supports multiple versions of Istio. There are many reasons to deploy one of the previous versions of Istio. To achive specific version, follow the following steps

  • Set deployment name variable

    export name="tid/tetrate-istio"

  • List all available versions from Tetrate repo that is added via a procedure deployed above.

    $ helm search repo ${name} --versions
NAME                    CHART VERSION   APP VERSION     DESCRIPTION                                       
tid/tetrate-istio       1.16.1                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.16.0                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.15.3                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.15.1                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.14.6                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.14.5                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.14.4                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent...
tid/tetrate-istio       1.14.3                          Tetrate Istio Distro Istiod is simple, safe ent..
...<truncated>

  • export the version environment based on CHART VERSION

export version=1.14.1
  • deploy desired version using the following command
helm install tetrate-istio ${name} \
    --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
    --set global.tag=${version}-tetrate-v0 \
    --create-namespace --namespace istio-system \
    --version $version --devel

Verify the Tetrate Istio Distro deployment

Use helm command anytime to get the output similar to install command:

helm status tetrate-istio -n istio-system

Also confirming that all objects are created as expected, use kubectl the output should be something similar to below:

$ kubectl get all -n istio-system
NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/istio-cni-node-4vc9p      1/1     Running   0          21m
pod/istio-cni-node-dhp6v      1/1     Running   0          21m
pod/istiod-56b5bdd674-vssdl   1/1     Running   0          21m

NAME             TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                                 AGE
service/istiod   ClusterIP   10.100.83.177   <none>        15010/TCP,15012/TCP,443/TCP,15014/TCP   21m

NAME                            DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR            AGE
daemonset.apps/istio-cni-node   2         2         2       2            2           kubernetes.io/os=linux   21m

NAME                     READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/istiod   1/1     1            1           21m

NAME                                DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/istiod-56b5bdd674   1         1         1       21m

Upgrade version with latest

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

  • Follow the Set variables above to set the variables.
  • issue the Helm upgrade command
    helm upgrade tetrate-istio ${name} \
    --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
    --set global.tag=${latest_version}-tetrate-v0 \
    --namespace istio-system

Output:

$ export name="tid/tetrate-istio"
$ export latest_version=$(helm search repo ${name} -o json | jq -r .[].version)

$ echo $name $latest_version
tid/tetrate-istio 1.16.1

$ helm upgrade tetrate-istio ${name} \
>     --set global.hub=containers.istio.tetratelabs.com \
>     --set global.tag=${latest_version}-tetrate-v0 \
>     --namespace istio-system
Release "tetrate-istio" has been upgraded. Happy Helming!
NAME: tetrate-istio
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Jan 26 22:39:25 2023
NAMESPACE: istio-system
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 2
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
"TID - Tetrate Distro of Istio 1.16.1-tetrate-v0 successfully installed!"

To learn more about the release, try:
  $ helm status tetrate-istio
  $ helm get all tetrate-istio

More details and feedback [Tetrate Istio Distro](https://istio.tetratelabs.io/)

Uninstalling Tetrate Istio Distro

Before removing Tetrate Istio Distro - all the application and gateway need to be off-boarded.

Export chart name into environmental variable and then use helm command:

$ export chart=$(helm list --namespace istio-system -o json | jq -r .[].name)
$ echo $chart
tetrate-istio

$ helm uninstall ${chart} --namespace istio-system
release "tetrate-istio" uninstalled

Next Steps

The cluster is ready for your applications.

Read on for next steps with Tetrate Istio Distro and GetMesh.

For community support, join Tetrate’s #tid-and-getmesh Slack Channel.