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Environment validation📜

Istio is installed as part of Big Bang’s helm chart values. After setting up the environment as described in the Big Bang Quickstart, let’s validate the functionality of the Istio installation.

Verify that Istio is installed📜

  1. List Kubernetes namespaces and note the new namespace istio-system.

    kubectl get ns

  2. Verify that the istiod controller pod is running in that namespace.

    kubectl get pod -n istio-system

Add istioctl to your PATH📜

The recommended tool for interacting with Istio over the command line is istioctl. Let’s download an Istio distribution to install the CLI tool:

  1. Run the following command from your home directory.

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

  2. Navigate into the directory created by the above command.

    cd istio-{{istio.version}}

The istioctl CLI is located in the bin/ subdirectory.

  1. Create a bin subdirectory in your home directory:

    mkdir ~/bin

  2. Copy the CLI to that subdirectory:

    cp ./bin/istioctl ~/bin

  3. Add your home bin subdirectory to your PATH.

    cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc

export PATH="~/bin:\$PATH"

EOF

    Then:

    source ~/.bashrc

Verify that istioctl is installed with:

istioctl version
  1. Run istioctl version. The output should include a control plane version, indicating Istio is indeed present in the cluster.

Artifacts📜

The lab instructions reference Kubernetes yaml artifacts that you will need to apply to your cluster at specific points in time.

You can copy and paste the yaml snippets directly from the lab instructions as you encounter them.

Another option is to clone the repository for this documentation. You will find all yaml artifacts in the subdirectory named artifacts.

git clone https://repo1.dso.mil/big-bang/customer-training/istio-training && \
  mv istio-training/artifacts . && \
  rm -rf istio-training

Important tip

This workshop makes extensive use of the kubectl CLI.

Consider configuring an alias to make typing slightly easier.

```shell
cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc

source <(kubectl completion bash)
alias k=kubectl
complete -F __start_kubectl k

EOF

source ~/.bashrc
```

Next📜

With Istio installed and a proper environment, we are ready to dive deep into Istio’s architecture.