Kiali provides answers to the question What are the microservices in my Istio service mesh doing?
A Microservice Architecture breaks up the monolith into many smaller pieces that are composed together. Patterns to secure the communication between services like fault tolerance (via timeout, retry, circuit breaking, etc.) have come up as well as distributed tracing to be able to see where calls are going.
A service mesh can now provide these services on a platform level and frees the application writers from those tasks. Routing decisions are done at the mesh level.
Kiali works with Istio to visualise the service mesh topology, features like circuit breakers or request rates.
Kiali also includes Jaeger Tracing to provide distributed tracing out of the box.
If you are not a developer but just want to run something to see Kiali, then go to https://kiali.org for some instructions.
You could also try to use our hack script to quickly install OpenShift, Istio, and Kiali like this:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiali/kiali/master/hack/cluster-openshift.sh
sh cluster-openshift.sh --kiali-enabled true up
If you do not already have an Istio-enabled application to test with, you can install one using the Bookinfo Demo install script provided here as a convenience.
There are other demo applications to choose from as well: see some examples.
Kiali is published as a docker image on Docker hub at kiali/kiali
See the LICENSE file.
Note
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These build instructions assume you have the following installed on your system: (1) Go Programming Language which must be at least version 1.8.3, (2) git, (3) Docker, and (4) make. To run Kiali on OpenShift after you build it, it is assumed you have a running OpenShift environment available to you. If you do not, you can find a set of instructions on how to set up OpenShift below. To run Kiali on Kubernetes after you built it, it is assumed you have a running Kubernetes environment available to you. |
To build Kiali:
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Clone this repository inside a GOPATH. These instructions will use the example GOPATH of "/source/kiali/kiali" but you can use whatever you want. Just change the first line of the below instructions to use your GOPATH.
export GOPATH=/source/kiali/kiali
mkdir -p $GOPATH
cd $GOPATH
mkdir -p src/github.com/kiali
cd src/github.com/kiali
git clone [email protected]:kiali/kiali
export PATH=${PATH}:${GOPATH}/bin
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Install Glide - the Go dependency management tool that Kiali uses to build itself
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make dep-install
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Tell the dependency manager tool to update the Kiali dependencies
NoteYou should only run this command if you add, remove, or modify a dependency. If you are simply git cloning and building from source, you should skip this step.
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make dep-update
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Build Kiali
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make build
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At this point you can run the Kiali tests
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make test
Note
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If you want to quickly get up and running to play with Kiali and do not wish to git clone the repository, or build anything, see https://kiali.org for instructions. If you do not have a cluster environment (e.g. OpenShift) yet, grab the cluster-openshift.sh convenience script and run it to quickly start an OpenShift cluster environment with Istio installed. If you do not have a service mesh to test with, grab the install-bookinfo-demo.sh convenience script to download and install the Istio Bookinfo Demo service mesh. |
Note: There is a secret variable in the configuration called TOKEN_SECRET, be careful with this secret.
The following section assumes that the user has OpenShift Origin installed.
The OpenShift Origin Documentation will outline all the steps required.
Create the Kiali docker image through the "docker-build" make target:
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make docker-build
Note
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Before deploying and running Kiali, you must first install and deploy Istio. Required Istio Version: 1.0. There are a few places that you can reference in order to learn how to do this such as here, here, and here. |
Note
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The following make targets assume that the oc command is available in the user’s PATH and that the user is logged in. If you have istiooc instead, create a symlink in your PATH pointing oc to your istiooc binary.
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The deploy and undeploy commands are automated in the Makefile. The following will undeploy an old installation of Kiali, if available, and deploy a new one:
make openshift-deploy
If you need to set the JAEGER or GRAFANA services, set the URL in the environment variable JAEGER_URL and GRAFANA_URL
If you want to remove Kiali from your OpenShift environment, you can do so by running the following command:
make openshift-undeploy
The following section assumes that the user has Kubernetes installed.
Create the Kiali docker image through the "docker-build" make target:
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make docker-build
Note that if you are using minikube, you can build the docker image and push it directly into the minikube docker daemon using the alternative make target minikube-docker
:
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make minikube-docker
Note
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Before deploying and running Kiali, you must first install and deploy Istio. Required Istio Version: 1.0. There are a few places that you can reference in order to learn how to do this such as here, here, and here. |
Note
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The following make targets assume that the kubectl command is available in the user’s PATH.
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Note
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In order to deploy on Kubernetes and to be able to access the deployed service, you must ensure you have Ingress support. If you are using minikube, you need to run minikube addons enable ingress and add kiali as a hostname in your /etc/hosts via something like this command: echo "$(minikube ip) kiali" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
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The deploy and undeploy commands are automated in the Makefile. The following will undeploy an old installation of Kiali, if available, and deploy a new one:
make k8s-deploy
If you need to set the JAEGER or GRAFANA services, set the URL in the environment variable JAEGER_URL and GRAFANA_URL
If you want to remove Kiali from your Kubernetes environment, you can do so by running the following command:
make k8s-undeploy
Sometimes you may want to run Kiali outside of any container environment, perhaps for debugging purposes. To do this, run:
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make install
make run
The "install" target installs the Kiali executable in your GOPATH /bin directory so you can run it outside of the Makefile:
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/kiali/kiali
make install
${GOPATH}/bin/kiali -config <your-config-file>
Many configuration settings can optionally be set via environment variables. If one of the environment variables below are set, they serve as the default value for its associated YAML configuration setting. The following are currently supported:
Environment Variable Name | Description and YAML Setting |
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Certificate file used to identify the file server. If set, you must go over https to retrieve content from the file server. identity:
cert_file: VALUE |
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Private key file used to identify the server. If set, you must go over https to retrieve content from the file server. identity:
private_key_file: VALUE |
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The namespace where Istio is installed. (Default: istio-system) istio_namespace: VALUE |
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The label name of app required by Istio. (Default: app) istio_labels:
app_label_name: VALUE |
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The label name of version required by Istio. (Default: version) istio_labels:
version_label_name: VALUE |
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Where the http server is bound to. server:
address: VALUE |
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Where the http server is listening. server:
port: VALUE |
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If this (and password) is set, these credentials are required in order to get content from the server. server:
credentials:
username: VALUE |
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If this (and username) is set, these credentials are required in order to get content from the server. server:
credentials:
password: VALUE |
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When true, allows the web console to send requests to other domains other than where the console came from. Typically used for development environments only. server:
cors_allow_all: (true|false) |
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The file server will serve all static content found under this root directory. server:
static_content_root_directory: VALUE |
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The annotation used by Istio in a Deployment template. If in_cluster is false then you need to set environments: in_cluster: (true|false) |
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The URL used to access and query the Prometheus Server. It must be accessible from Kiali pod. (default is external_services:
prometheus_service_url: VALUE |
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The annotation used by Istio in Pods. (default is external_services:
istio:
istio_sidecar_annotation: VALUE |
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The annotation used by Istio how Identity Domain. (default is external_services:
istio:
istio_identity_domain: VALUE |
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The Service of Istio to check version. (default is external_services:
istio:
istio_url_service_version: VALUE |
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When true, a link to Grafana will be displayed for more metrics. external_services:
grafana:
display_link: (true|false) |
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The URL to the Grafana service. When not set, Kiali throw an error when the user try request to Grafana (/api/grafana). external_services:
grafana:
url: VALUE |
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The Kubernetes namespace that holds the Grafana service. This configuration is ignored if external_services:
grafana:
service_namespace: VALUE |
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The OpenShift route name or the Kubernetes service name for Grafana. This configuration is ignored if external_services:
grafana:
service: VALUE |
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Search pattern for Grafana Service dashboard. (default is external_services:
grafana:
service_dashboard_pattern: VALUE |
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Search pattern for Grafana Workload dashboard. (default is external_services:
grafana:
workload_dashboard_pattern: VALUE |
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The name of the Grafana variable that controls namespaces in dashboards. (default is external_services:
grafana:
var_namespace: VALUE |
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The name of the Grafana variable that controls services in dashboards. (default is external_services:
grafana:
var_service: VALUE |
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The name of the Grafana variable that controls workloads in dashboards. (default is external_services:
grafana:
var_workload: VALUE |
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The URL to the Jaeger service. When not set, Kiali throw an error when the user try request to Jaeger (/api/jaeger). external_services:
jaeger:
url: VALUE |
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The signing key used to generate tokens for user authentication. (default is login_token:
signing_key: VALUE |
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The token expiration in seconds. (default is 10 hours ⇒ 36000) login_token:
expiration_seconds: VALUE |
To configure the Jaeger Service you need to expose the service and set the URL parameter in the config.yaml
external_services:
jaeger:
url: https://jaeger-query-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
If you are using the Make task openshift-deploy or k8s-deploy you need to change in the kiali-configmap.yaml the value of the jaeger > url
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: kiali
labels:
app: kiali
version: ${VERSION_LABEL}
data:
config.yaml: |
server:
port: 20001
static_content_root_directory: /opt/kiali/console
external_services:
jaeger:
url: http://jaeger-query-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
grafana:
url: http://grafana-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
To configure the Grafana Service you need to expose the service and set the URL parameter in the config.yaml
external_services:
grafana:
url: http://grafana-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
If you are using the Make task openshift-deploy or k8s-deploy you need to change in the kiali-configmap.yaml the value of the grafana > url
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: kiali
labels:
app: kiali
version: ${VERSION_LABEL}
data:
config.yaml: |
server:
port: 20001
static_content_root_directory: /opt/kiali/console
external_services:
jaeger:
url: http://jaeger-query-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
grafana:
url: http://grafana-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io
When developing the Kiali UI you will find it useful to run it outside of the core to make it easier to update the UI code and see the changes without having to recompile. The prefered approach for this is to use a proxy on the UI to mount the core. The process is described here.
To connect with the backend and avoid the javascript prompt requesting authentication you need to send the requests with a specific header.
X-Auth-Type-Kiali-UI: 1
The response will contain the header
WWW-Authenticate: xBasic realm="Kiali"
Otherwise the header will be
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Kiali"
If you are developing the UI on your local machine but you want to see it deployed and running inside of the core server, you can do so by setting the environment variable CONSOLE_VERSION to the value "local" when building the docker image via the docker-build
target. By default, your UI’s build/ directory is assumed to be in a directory called kiali-ui
that is a peer directory of the GOPATH root directory for the core server. If it is not, you can set the environment variable CONSOLE_LOCAL_DIR to the value of the path of the root directory for the UI such that $CONSOLE_LOCAL_DIR/build
contains the generated build files for the UI.
For example, if your GOPATH directory for the Kiali project is /source/kiali/kiali
and you have git cloned the Kiali UI repository in /source/kiali/kiali-ui
then you do not need to set CONSOLE_LOCAL_DIR. You can embed your locally built console into the core docker image via:
CONSOLE_VERSION=local make docker-build
If you git cloned the Kiali UI repository in directory /my/git/repo
and have built the UI there (such that the build files are located at /my/git/repo/build
) then you can embed that locally built console into the core docker image via:
CONSOLE_VERSION=local CONSOLE_LOCAL_DIR=/my/git/repo make docker-build
In the provided OpenShift templates, SSL is turned on by default. If you want to turn it off, you should: * Remove the "tls: termination: reencrypt" option in Kiali route * Remove the "identity" block, with certificate paths, in Kiali Config Map. * Optionnally you can also remove the annotation "service.alpha.openshift.io/serving-cert-secret-name", and the related volume that is declared and mounted in Kiali Deployment (but if you don’t, they will just be ignored).
Note
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Before deploying and running Kiali, you must first install and deploy Istio. Required Istio Version: 1.0. There are a few places that you can reference in order to learn how to do this such as here, here, and here. |
Note
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The following make targets assume that the oc command is available in the user’s PATH and that the user is logged in. If you have istiooc instead, create a symlink in your PATH pointing oc to your istiooc binary.
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$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiali/kiali/master/deploy/kubernetes/kiali-configmap.yaml | \
VERSION_LABEL=master envsubst > kiali-configmap.yaml
If you need to set the JAEGER and GRAFANA services set the URL configuration.
$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiali/kiali/master/deploy/kubernetes/kiali-configmap.yaml | \
VERSION_LABEL=master JAEGER_URL=http://jaeger-query-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io GRAFANA_URL=http://grafana-istio-system.127.0.0.1.nip.io envsubst > kiali-configmap.yaml
$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiali/kiali/master/deploy/kubernetes/kiali-secrets.yaml | \
VERSION_LABEL=master envsubst > kiali-secrets.yaml
oc create -f kiali-configmap.yaml -n istio-system
oc create -f kiali-secrets.yaml -n istio-system
oc create -f kiali.yaml -n istio-system
All contributions are welcome - Kiali uses the Apache 2 license and does not require any contributor agreement to submit patches. Please open issues for any bugs or problems you encounter or to suggest new features. Ask questions on the Kiali IRC channel (#kiali on freenode) or the Google Groups: kiali-users or kiali-dev. Get involved by submitting pull requests on GitHub.
See the Backend Style Guide and the Frontend Style Guide.