Configure Istio for external routing

Redis Enterprise for Kubernetes has the ability to use an Istio Ingress gateway as an alternative to NGINX or HaProxy Ingress controllers.

Istio can also understand Ingress resources, but using that mechanism takes away the advantages and options that the native Istio resources provide. Istio offers its own configuration methods using custom resources.

To configure Istio to work with the Redis Kubernetes operator, we will use two custom resources: a Gateway and a VirtualService. Then you’ll be able to establish external access to your database.

Install and configure Istio for Redis Enterprise

1. Download and install Istio (see instructions from Istio’s Getting Started guide).

   Once the installation is complete, all the deployments, pods, and services will be deployed in a namespace called istio-system. This namespace contains a LoadBalancer type service called service/istio-ingressgateway that exposes the external IP address.

2. Find the EXTERNAL-IP for the istio-ingressgateway service.

   kubectl get svc istio-ingressgateway -n istio-system
   
   NAME                   TYPE           CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)                                                                      AGE
   istio-ingressgateway   LoadBalancer   10.34.67.89   10.145.78.91   15021:12345/TCP,80:67891/TCP,443:23456/TCP,31400:78901/TCP,15443:10112/TCP   3h8m
   

3. Create a DNS entry that resolves your chosen database hostname (or a wildcard * followed by your domain) to the Istio EXTERNAL-IP. Use this hostname to access your database from outside the cluster.

   In this example, any hostname that ends with .istio.k8s.my.example.com will resolve to the Istio LoadBalancer’s external IP of 10.145.78.91. Substitute your own values accordingly.

4. Verify the record was created successfully.

   dig api.istio.k8s.my.example.com
   

   Look in the ANSWER SECTION for the record you just created.

   ;; ANSWER SECTION:
   api.istio.k8s.my.example.com 0 IN    A       10.145.78.91
   

Create custom resources

Gateway custom resource

1. On a different namespace from istio-system, create a Gateway custom resource file (redis-gateway.yaml in this example).

   • Replace .istio.k8s.my.example.com with the domain that matches your DNS record.
   • Replace <selector-label> with the label set on your Istio ingress gateway pod (most common is istio: ingress).
   • TLS passthrough mode is required to allow secure access to the database.

   apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
   kind: Gateway
   metadata:
     name: redis-gateway
   spec:
     selector:
       istio: <selector-label>
     servers:
     - hosts:
       - '*.istio.k8s.my.example.com'
       port:
         name: https
         number: 443
         protocol: HTTPS
       tls:
         mode: PASSTHROUGH
   

2. Apply the Gateway custom resource file to create the Ingress gateway.

   kubectl apply -f redis-gateway.yaml
   

3. Verify the gateway was created successfully.

   kubectl get gateway
   
   NAME            AGE
   redis-gateway   3h33m
   

VirtualService custom resource

1. On a different namespace than istio-system, create the VirtualService custom resource file (redis-vs.yaml in this example).

   apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
   kind: VirtualService
   metadata:
     name: redis-vs
   spec:
     gateways:
     - redis-gateway
     hosts:
     - "*.istio.k8s.my.example.com"
     tls:
     - match:
       - port: 443
         sniHosts:
         - api.istio.k8s.my.example.com
       route:
       - destination:
           host: rec1
           port:
             number: 9443
     - match:
       - port: 443
         sniHosts:
         - db1.istio.k8s.my.example.com
       route:
       - destination:
           host: db1
   

   This creates both a route to contact the API server on the REC (rec1) and a route to contact one of the databases (db1).

   • Replace .istio.k8s.my.example.com with the domain that matches your DNS record.
   • The gateway’s metadata name must be similar to the gateway’s spec name (redis-gateway in this example).

2. Apply VirtualService custom resource file to create the virtual service.

   kubectl apply -f redis-vs.yaml
   

3. Verify the virtual service was created successfully.

   kubectl get vs
   
   NAME       GATEWAYS            HOSTS                              AGE
   redis-vs   ["redis-gateway"]   ["*.istio.k8s.my.example.com"]   3h33m
   

4. Deploy the operator, Redis Enterprise Cluster (REC), and Redis Enterprise Database (REDB) on the same namespace as the gateway and virtual service.

Test your external access to the database

To test your external access to the database, you need a client that supports TLS and SNI.

See Test your access with Openssl or Test your access with Python for more info.