Istio with k8s

Updated: 23 December 2025

Prerequisites

1. Trial IBM Cloud Account
2. Kubrenetes Cluster
3. Kubernetes 1.9.x or later
4. IBM Cloud CLI with Kubernetes

Setting Up The Environment

Access Your Cluster

List your available clusters and then download the config and set an environment variable to point to it with

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ibmcloud cs clusters
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ibmcloud cs cluster-config <CLUSTER NAME>
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$env:KUBECONFIG="C:\Users\NabeelValley\.bluemix\plugins\container-service\clusters\mycluster\kube-
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config-mil01-mycluster.yml"

Then you can check the workers in your cluster and get information with

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ibmcloud cs workers <CLUSTER NAME>
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ibmcloud cs worker-get <WORKER ID>

You can get your nodes, services, deployments, and pods with the following

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kubectl get node
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kubectl get node,svc,deploy,po --all-namespaces

Clone the Lab Repo

You can clone the lab repo from https://github.com/IBM/istio101 and then navigate to the workshop directory

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git clone https://github.com/IBM/istio101
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cd istio101/workshop

Install Istio on IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Download Istio from here and extract to your root directory

Then add the istioctl.exe file to your PATH variable

Thereafter navigate to the istio-demo.yaml file in the istio folder that you extracted and do the following

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kubectl apply -f .\install\kubernetes\istio-demo.yaml

If you run into the following error

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http: proxy error: dial tcp [::1]:8080: connectex: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

Make sure that your $env:KUBECTL variable is set, if not get your cluster config and set it again

Once that is done, check that the istio services are running on the cluster with

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kubectl get svc -n istio-system

Download the App and Create the Database

Get the App

Clone the app from the GitHub repo

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git clone https://github.com/IBM/guestbook.git
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cd guestbook/v2

Create the Database

Next we can create a Redis Database with the following master and slave deployments and services from the Yaml files in the Guestbook project

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kubectl create -f redis-master-deployment.yaml
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kubectl create -f redis-master-service.yaml
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kubectl create -f redis-slave-deployment.yaml
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kubectl create -f redis-slave-service.yaml

Install the Guestbook App with Manual Sidecar Injection

Sidecars are utility containers that support the main container, we can inject the Istio sidecar in two ways

• Manually with the Istio CLI
• Automatically with the Istio Initializer

With Linux you can do this

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kubectl apply -f <(istioctl kube-inject -f ../v1/guestbook-deployment.yaml
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kubectl apply -f <(istioctl kube-inject -f guestbook-deployment.yaml

But, if you’re on Windows and you need to redirect your output, use this instead

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$istiov1 = istio kube-inject -f ..\v1\guestbook-deployment.yaml
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echo $istiov1 > istiov1.yaml
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kubectl apply -f .\istiov1.yaml
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$istiov2 = istio kube-inject -f .\guestbook-deployment.yaml
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echo $istiov2 > istiov2.yaml
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kubectl apply -f .\istiov2.yaml

Then create the Guestbook Service

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kubectl create -f guestbook-service.yaml

Adding the Tone Analyzer

Create a Tone Analyzer Service and get the credentials, then add these to the analyzer-deployment.yaml file

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ibmcloud target --cf
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ibmcloud service create tone_analyzer lite my-tone-analyzer
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ibmcloud service key-create my-tone-analyzer istiokey
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ibmcloud service key-show my-tone-analyzer istiokey

Then do the following

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$istioanalyzer = istio kube-inject -f analyzer-deployment.yaml
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echo $istioanalyzer > istioanalyzer.yaml
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kubectl apply -f .\istioanalyzer.yaml
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kubectl apply -f analyzer-service.yaml

Service Telemetry and Tracing

Challenges with Microservices

One of the difficulties when using microservices is identifying issues and process bottlenecks as well as debugging

Istio comes with tracing built in for this exact purpose

Configure Istio for Telemetry Data

In the v2 directory, do the following

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istioctl create -f guestbook-telemetry.yaml

Generate a Load on the Application

Then we can then generate a small load on our application from the worker’s IP and Port

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kubectl get service guestbook -n default

Or for a lite plan

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ibmcloud cs workers <CLUSTER NAME>
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kubectl get svc guestbook -n default
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while sleep 0.5; do curl http://<guestbook_endpoint/; done

We can get our telemetry data at intervals with the following in Bash

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while sleep 0.5; do curl http://<WORKER'S PUBLIC IP>:<NODE PORT>/; done

View Data

Jaeger

We can find the external port for our tracing service and visit it based on that

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kubectl get svc tracing -n istio-system

Grafana

We can establish port forwarding for Grafana and view the dashboard on localhost:3000

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kubectl -n istio-system port-forward $(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l app=grafana -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') 3000:3000

Prometheus

We can view the Prometheus dashboard at localhost:9090

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kubectl -n istio-system port-forward $(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l app=prometheus -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') 9090:9090

Service Graph

Can view this at http://localhost:8088/dotviz

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kubectl -n istio-system port-forward $(kubectl -n istio-system get pod -l app=servicegraph -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') 8088:8088

Expose the Service Mesh with Ingress

Ingress Controller

Istio components are by default not exposed outside the cluster, an Ingress is a collection of rules that allow connections to reach a cluster

Navigate to the istio101\workshop\plans directory

Using a Lite Account

Configure the Guestbook App with Ingress

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istioctl create -f guestbook-gateway.yaml

Then check the node port and IP of the Ingress

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kubectl get svc istio-ingressgateway -n istio-system
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ibmcloud cs workers <CLUSTER NAME>

In my case, I have the endpoint 159.122.179.103:31380 which is bound to port 80

Using a Paid Account

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istioctl create -f guestbook-gateway.yaml
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kubectl get service istio-ingress -n istio-system

Set up a Controller to work with IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

This will only work with a paid cluster

Get your Ingress subdomain

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ibmcloud cs cluster-get <CLUSTER NAME>

Then add this subdomain to the frontdoor.yaml file, and create and list the details for your Ingress

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kubectl apply -f guestbook-frontdoor.yaml
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kubectl get ingress guestbook-ingress  -o yaml

Traffic Management

Traffic Management Rules

The core component for traffic management in istio is Pilot. This manages and configures all the Envoy proxy instances in a service mesh

Pilot translates high level rules into low level configurations by means of the following three resources

• Virtual Services - Defines a set of routing rules to apply when a host is addressed
• Destination Rules - Defines policies that apply to traffic intended for a service after routing has occurred, specifications for load balancing, connection pool size, outlier detection, etc
• Service Entries - Enables services to access a service not necessarily managed by Istio

A/B Testing

Previously we had created two versions of the Guestbook app, v1 and v2. If we do not have any rules, istio will distribute requests evenly between the instances

To prevent Istio from using the default routing method we can do the following to route all traffic to v1

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istioctl replace -f virtualservice-all-v1.yaml

Incrementally roll our changes

We can incrementally roll our changes by changing the weighting of our different versions

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istioctl replace -f virtualservice-80-20.yaml

Circuit Breakers and Destination Rules

Istio lets us configure settings for destination rules as well as implementing circuit breakers for Envoys

Securing Services

Mutual Auth with Transport Layer Security

Istio can enable secure communication between app services without the need for application code changes. We can delegate service control to Istio instead of implementing it on each service

Citadel is the Istio component that provides sidecar proxies with an identity certificate . Envoys then use these certificates to encrypt and authenticate communication along channels between these services

When a microservice connects to another microservice communication between them is redirected through the Envoys

Setting up a Certificate Authority

First check that Citadel is running

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kubectl get deployment -l istio=citadel -n istio-system

Do the following with bash

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ibmcloud cs cluster-config <CLUSTER NAME>

Then set the environment variable, and paste the following

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cat <<EOF | C:/Users/NabeelValley/istio-1.0.3/bin/istioctl.exe create -f -
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apiVersion: authentication.istio.io/v1alpha1
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kind: Policy
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metadata:
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  name: mtls-to-analyzer
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  namespace: default
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spec:
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  targets:
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  - name: analyzer
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  peers:
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  - mtls:
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EOF

You can then confirm the policy is set with

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kubectl get policies.authentication.istio.io

Next we can enable mTLS from a guestbook with a Destination Rule

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cat <<EOF | istioctl create -f -
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apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
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kind: DestinationRule
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metadata:
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  name: route-with-mtls-for-analyzer
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  namespace: default
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spec:
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  host: "analyzer.default.svc.cluster.local"
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  trafficPolicy:
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    tls:
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      mode: ISTIO_MUTUAL
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EOF

Verify Authenticated Connection

We can ssh into a pod by getting the pod name and opening the terminal

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kubectl get pods -l app=guestbook
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kubectl exec -it guestbook-v2-xxxxxxxx -c istio-proxy /bin/bash

Then we should be able to view the certificate pem files as follows

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ls etc/certs/

Enforcing Isolation

Service Isolation with Adapters

Back-end systems typically integrate with services in a way that creates a hard coupling

Istio uses Mixer to provide a generic intermediate layer between app code and infrastructure back-ends

Mixer makes use of adapters to interface between code and back-ends

• Denier
• Prometheus
• Memquota
• Stackdriver

Using the Denier Adapter

Block access to the Guestbook service with

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istioctl create -f mixer-rule-denial.yaml

The rule we have created is as follows

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apiVersion: 'config.istio.io/v1alpha2'
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kind: denier
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metadata:
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  name: denyall
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  namespace: istio-system
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spec:
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  status:
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    code: 7
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    message: Not allowed
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---
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# The (empty) data handed to denyall at run time
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apiVersion: 'config.istio.io/v1alpha2'
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kind: checknothing
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metadata:
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  name: denyrequest
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  namespace: istio-system
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spec:
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---
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# The rule that uses denier to deny requests to the guestbook service
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apiVersion: 'config.istio.io/v1alpha2'
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kind: rule
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metadata:
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  name: deny-hello-world
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  namespace: istio-system
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spec:
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  match: destination.service=="guestbook.default.svc.cluster.local"
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  actions:
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    - handler: denyall.denier
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      instances:
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        - denyrequest.checknothing

We can verify that the access is denied by navigating to our Ingress IP, next we can remove the rule with

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istioctl delete -f mixer-rule-denial.yaml