Service mesh is entering the mainstream as a preferred solution for securing, connecting, and managing today’s distributed, dynamic applications. Tetrate Istio Distro (TID) is the easiest way to get started with Istio, the most widely used service mesh, and is available now from the Azure Container Marketplace for Kubernetes Applications with enterprise support via Tetrate Istio Subscription (TIS). Tetrate Istio Distro is a vetted, upstream distribution of Istio that is simple to install, manage, and upgrade with FIPS-verified builds available for FedRAMP environments.

The Azure Container Marketplace allows application teams and operators to acquire and deploy Tetrate Istio Distro to their AKS clusters as a single task.

• If you are just starting with Istio, Tetrate Istio Distro on the Azure Container Marketplace offers a streamlined way to deploy Istio to new and existing AKS clusters.
• If you already use Istio, Tetrate Istio Distro makes Istio lifecycle management safe and easy.
• Tetrate Istio Subscription offers enterprise support plus access to the expertise of Istio and Envoy creators and core contributors.
• Azure Container Marketplace is a simple, flexible way to procure Istio support from Tetrate.

Tetrate has worked closely with the Azure team to make the process of deploying Istio on AKS seamless. We’d like to share the highlights of that work and how you can get started using Istio today.

How to Deploy Tetrate Istio Distro from the Azure Container Marketplace

In this section we’ll cover the steps to deploy a brand new AKS cluster with pre-installed Tetrate Istio Distro. Azure Container Marketplace also allows the deployment of Tetrate Istio Distro on existing AKS clusters with a similar workflow, but even fewer steps.

Step 1: Start by selecting the Tetrate Istio Distro offer on the Azure Marketplace (Figure 1):

Step 2: Then choose a plan (as of this writing, there is only one plan, but that may change):

Step 3: Enter the basic info on the first page (Figure 3), including resource group and instance details. Kubernetes version selection is only relevant for new clusters and will not affect existing ones. As new Kubernetes versions become available, they will be reflected here.

Step 4: Select the version of Istio you want to deploy (Figure 4). Tetrate Istio Distro offers extended support for previous Istio versions. The list of available Istio versions will be also filtered based on the Kubernetes version selected in the previous step.

Step 5: Select whether you want to install the standard or FIPS-verified flavor of the distribution (Figure 5). Note: FIPS builds require a paid Tetrate Istio Subscription.

Step 6: Confirm your settings and proceed with cluster creation (Figure 6).

Once your cluster is created, you can begin provisioning your application and Istio will automatically onboard and connect your services (Figure 7).

Read Microsoft’s announcement for more information on the release of Kubernetes apps offer.

To learn more about Istio and Envoy, Tetrate Academy offers free online courses and workshops as well as a comprehensive Certified Istio Administrator program to validate your mastery of Istio or to use as a roadmap for expanding your expertise.

If you need a unified and consistent way to secure and manage services across a fleet of applications, check out Tetrate Service Bridge (TSB), our comprehensive edge-to-workload application connectivity platform built on Istio and Envoy.