Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Istio on a Kubernetes Cluster

First, verify that the Kubernetes cluster is running correctly by listing nodes:

kubectl get nodes
NAME   STATUS   ROLES                AGE   VERSION
master Ready   control-plane,master 59d  v1.20.0
node1  Ready   <none>               59d  v1.20.0
node2  Ready   <none>               59d  v1.20.0

Next, create the istio-system namespace:

kubectl create namespace istio-system
namespace/istio-system created

Copy the istioctl binary to /usr/bin/ and run the installer:

cp -r istioctl /usr/bin/
istioctl install
This will install the Istio default profile with ["Istio core" "Istiod" "Ingress gateways"] components into the cluster. Proceed? (y/N)

List available Istio configuration profiles and dump the default profile:

istioctl profile list
default
demo
empty
minimal
openshift
preview
remote

istioctl profile dump default

Check the pods in the istio-system namespace to confirm successful deployment:

kubectl get pods -n istio-system
NAME                                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
istio-ingressgateway-866c58dfd7-pk9rg   1/1     Running   0          152m
istiod-68fb7dff99-8nfbv                1/1     Running   0          153m

Generate the full Istio manifest, which includes the Service definition for istiod and its ports:

istioctl manifest generate
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: istiod
  namespace: istio-system
  labels:
    istio.io/rev: default
    install.operator.istio.io/owning-resource: unknown
    operator.istio.io/component: "Pilot"
    app: istiod
    istio: pilot
    release: istio
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 15010
    name: grpc-xds # plaintext
    protocol: TCP
  - port: 15012
    name: https-dns # mTLS with k8s-signed cert
    protocol: TCP
  - port: 443
    name: https-webhook # validation and injection
    targetPort: 15017
    protocol: TCP
  - port: 15014
    name: http-monitoring # prometheus stats
    protocol: TCP
  selector:
    app: istiod
    istio: pilot
---

Images in the original article illustrate the command outputs and the generated manifest.