Getting Started with Docker, Kubernetes, and Istio on Windows

Objective

To provide a comprehensive guide for beginners on how to Set up a local development environment using Docker, Kubernetes, and Istio. This article will cover the necessary steps to install and familiarize oneself with these technologies.

1. Installing Docker on Windows

Docker is a containerization platform used to build, ship, and run applications.

Go to the Docker website (https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop) and click on the "Download for Windows" button.
Once the download is complete, double-click the downloaded file to start the installation process.

Follow the on-screen instructions to install Docker Desktop on your Windows machine.

During the installation process, you may be prompted to enable Hyper-V and Containers features on your system. Follow the prompts to enable these features.

Once the installation is complete, Docker Desktop should launch automatically.

2. Enabling Kubernetes in Docker Desktop

Open Docker Desktop and click on the settings icon (gear icon) in the top-right corner of the window.

Click on the "Kubernetes" tab in the settings window.

Check "Enable Kubernetes" and "Show system containers" to enable the Kubernetes feature in Docker Desktop.

After Kubernetes is enabled, you can use the "kubectl" command-line tool to manage your Kubernetes clusters.

3. Installing Istio on Windows

Go to the Istio release page (https://github.com/istio/istio/releases) to download the installation file for window

<!-- The installation directory contains:

/samples - Sample applications, will be used in this tutorial
/bin - The istioctl client binary

Add istioctl to Path Environment Variable
For example, if the package is istio-1.17.2, then add \istio-1.17.2\bin Directory to Path Environment Variable

Run the following command to check if Istioctl is in the system PATH or not.

istioctl version

Output

client version: 1.17.2
control plane version: 1.17.2
data plane version: 1.17.2 (8 proxies)

Run the following command to install Istio.

$ istioctl install --set profile=demo

The "demo" profile is intended for evaluating a broad set of Istio features. For development purposes, it is a good option to start with.

4. Enable Kiali (Optional)

Kiali is a web-based dashboard that provides an overview of the microservices within an Istio service mesh. It allows you to view the topology of your microservices, see the traffic flow between them, and monitor the health of the services.

Istio provides a basic sample installation to quickly get Kiali up and running:

$ kubectl apply -f /samples/addons/kiali.yaml

This will deploy Kiali into your cluster. This is intended for demonstration only, and is not tuned for performance or security.

Once the installation is complete, run the following command to open Kiali web UI:

istioctl dashboard kiali

Open a web browser and navigate to the Kiali dashboard by entering the following URL: http://localhost:20001/kiali.

Reference: https://istio.io/latest/docs/ops/integrations/kiali/#installation

5. Creating a sample application

The default Istio installation uses automatic sidecar injection. Label the namespace that will host the application with istio-injection=enabled:

kubectl label namespace default istio-injection=enabled

Deploy the sample "bookinfo" project using the kubectl command:

kubectl apply -f /samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml

Confirm all services and pods are correctly defined and running:

kubectl get pods

Output

NAME                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
details-v1-5ffd6b64f7-czr7w      2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h
productpage-v1-979d4d9fc-lc59r   2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h
ratings-v1-5f9699cfdf-ppf74      2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h
reviews-v1-569db879f5-cj2xr      2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h
reviews-v2-65c4dc6fdc-kjmnm      2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h
reviews-v3-c9c4fb987-2hg5x       2/2     Running   2 (6h40m ago)   10h

If you previously installed Kiali, you can also click on the "Workloads" tab in the Kiali dashboard to see a list of all the workloads, including Pods, and their status.

To confirm that the Bookinfo application is running, send a request to it by a curl command from some pod, for example from ratings:

kubectl exec "$(kubectl get pod -l app=ratings -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')" -c ratings -- curl -sS productpage:9080/productpage | findstr /r "<title>.*</title>"

Output

    <title>Simple Bookstore App</title>

6. Using a Gateway to Expose Your App

Now that the Bookinfo services are up and running, you need to make the application accessible from outside of your Kubernetes cluster, e.g., from a browser.

Run the following command to apply a gateway used for this purpose.

kubectl apply -f /samples/bookinfo/networking/bookinfo-gateway.yaml

Run the following command to get the external IP address of the Istio ingress gateway:

kubectl get svc istio-ingressgateway -n istio-system

Note the "EXTERNAL-IP" value for the "istio-ingressgateway" service. This is the IP address that you will use to access the Bookinfo application externally.

For example, if the external IP address is 192.168.99.100, you would enter the following URL: http://192.168.99.100/productpage

Visit the Istio documentation website (https://istio.io/latest/docs/) to learn more about Istio's powerful features and best practices. Happy hacking!