Installing the Operators

Service Mesh Operators overview
Installing the Operators
Configuring the Service Mesh Operator to run on infrastructure nodes
Verifying the Service Mesh Operator is running on infrastructure node
Next steps

To install Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, first install the Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator and any optional Operators on OpenShift Dedicated. Then create a ServiceMeshControlPlane resource to deploy the control plane.

This basic installation is configured based on the default OpenShift settings and is not designed for production use. Use this default installation to verify your installation, and then configure your service mesh for your specific environment.

Prerequisites

Read the Preparing to install Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh process.
An account with the cluster-admin role. If you use Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated, you must have an account with the dedicated-admin role.

The following steps show how to install a basic instance of Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh on OpenShift Dedicated.

Starting with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.5, Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger) and OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for these features during the current release lifecycle, but this feature will no longer receive enhancements and will be removed. As an alternative to Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger), you can use Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo) instead.

Service Mesh Operators overview

Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh requires the use of the Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator which allows you to connect, secure, control, and observe the microservices that comprise your applications. You can also install other Operators to enhance your service mesh experience.

Do not install Community versions of the Operators. Community Operators are not supported.

The following Operator is required:

Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator: Allows you to connect, secure, control, and observe the microservices that comprise your applications. It also defines and monitors the ServiceMeshControlPlane resources that manage the deployment, updating, and deletion of the Service Mesh components. It is based on the open source Istio project.

The following Operators are optional:

Kiali Operator provided by Red Hat: Provides observability for your service mesh. You can view configurations, monitor traffic, and analyze traces in a single console. It is based on the open source Kiali project.
Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo): Provides distributed tracing to monitor and troubleshoot transactions in complex distributed systems. It is based on the open source Grafana Tempo project.

The following optional Operators are deprecated:

Starting with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.5, Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger) and OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for these features during the current release lifecycle, but these features will no longer receive enhancements and will be removed. As an alternative to Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger), you can use Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo) instead.

Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger): Provides distributed tracing to monitor and troubleshoot transactions in complex distributed systems. It is based on the open source Jaeger project.
OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator: Provides database storage for tracing and logging with the distributed tracing platform (Jaeger). It is based on the open source Elasticsearch project.

To install Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, you must install the Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator. Repeat the procedure for each additional Operator you want to install.

Additional Operators include:

Kiali Operator provided by Red Hat
Tempo Operator

Deprecated additional Operators include:

Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger)
OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator

If you have already installed the OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator as part of OpenShift Logging, you do not need to install the OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator again. The Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger) Operator creates the Elasticsearch instance using the installed OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator.

Procedure

Log in to the OpenShift Dedicated web console as a user with the dedicated-admin role.
In the OpenShift Dedicated web console, click Operators → OperatorHub.
Type the name of the Operator into the filter box and select the Red Hat version of the Operator. Community versions of the Operators are not supported.
Click Install.
On the Install Operator page for each Operator, accept the default settings.

Click Install. Wait until the Operator installs before repeating the steps for the next Operator you want to install.

The Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator installs in the openshift-operators namespace and is available for all namespaces in the cluster.
The Kiali Operator provided by Red Hat installs in the openshift-operators namespace and is available for all namespaces in the cluster.
The Tempo Operator installs in the openshift-tempo-operator namespace and is available for all namespaces in the cluster.

The Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger) installs in the openshift-distributed-tracing namespace and is available for all namespaces in the cluster.

Starting with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.5, Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger) is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for this feature during the current release lifecycle, but this feature will no longer receive enhancements and will be removed. As an alternative to Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Jaeger), you can use Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform (Tempo) instead.

The OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator installs in the openshift-operators-redhat namespace and is available for all namespaces in the cluster.

Starting with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.5, OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Red Hat will provide bug fixes and support for this feature during the current release lifecycle, but this feature will no longer receive enhancements and will be removed.

Verification

After all you have installed all four Operators, click Operators → Installed Operators to verify that your Operators are installed.

Configuring the Service Mesh Operator to run on infrastructure nodes

This task should only be performed if the Service Mesh Operator runs on an infrastructure node.

If the operator will run on a worker node, skip this task.

Prerequisites

The Service Mesh Operator must be installed.
One of the nodes comprising the deployment must be an infrastructure node. For more information, see "Creating infrastructure machine sets."

Procedure

List the operators installed in the namespace:

$ oc -n openshift-operators get subscriptions

Edit the Service Mesh Operator Subscription resource to specify where the operator should run:
```
$ oc -n openshift-operators edit subscription <name> (1)
```
1 <name> represents the name of the Subscription resource. The default name of the Subscription resource is servicemeshoperator.

Add the nodeSelector and tolerations to spec.config in the Subscription resource:

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  labels:
    operators.coreos.com/servicemeshoperator.openshift-operators: ""
  name: servicemeshoperator
  namespace: openshift-operators
# ...
spec:
  config:
    nodeSelector: (1)
      node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    tolerations: (2)
    - effect: NoSchedule
      key: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
      value: reserved
    - effect: NoExecute
      key: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
      value: reserved

1	Ensures that the operator pod is only scheduled on an infrastructure node.
2	Ensures that the pod is accepted by the infrastructure node.

Verifying the Service Mesh Operator is running on infrastructure node

Procedure

Verify that the node associated with the Operator pod is an infrastructure node:
```
$ oc -n openshift-operators get po -l name=istio-operator -owide
```

Next steps

The Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh Operator does not create the Service Mesh custom resource definitions (CRDs) until you deploy a Service Mesh control plane. You can use the ServiceMeshControlPlane resource to install and configure the Service Mesh components. For more information, see Creating the ServiceMeshControlPlane.