istio

Istio Service Mesh with OpenTelemetry

An Istio service mesh demo with full observability using OpenTelemetry and a local observability stack (Jaeger, Prometheus, OpenSearch) and/or Dash0.

What it does

• Creates a multi-node Kind cluster with Istio service mesh (1.28.3)
• Deploys local observability stack: Jaeger, Prometheus, and OpenSearch
• Configures OTLP distributed tracing and access logs from Envoy sidecars
• Deploys OpenTelemetry Collectors with dual export to Dash0 and local stack
• Includes two-service demo with service-to-service communication through mesh
• Uses Istio Gateway and VirtualService for traffic management

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Kind
• kubectl
• Helm 3
• Optional: Dash0 account with API token (telemetry also exports to local stack)

Quick Start

1. Configure environment variables:

   # From the root directory (dash0-examples)
   cp .env.template .env
   # Edit .env with your Dash0 credentials

2. Deploy everything:

   ./00_run.sh

3. Access the gateway:

   kubectl port-forward -n istio-system svc/istio-ingressgateway 8080:80

4. Test the application:

   # Test frontend
   curl -H 'Host: service-a.dash0-examples.com' http://localhost:8080/
   
   # Test service mesh communication (service-a → service-b)
   curl -H 'Host: service-a.dash0-examples.com' http://localhost:8080/api/backend

Accessing Telemetry

The demo sends telemetry to both Dash0 (primary cloud backend) and a local observability stack for offline inspection.

Dash0 (Primary)

Log in to your Dash0 dashboard to view:

• Traces: Filter by service.name = "istio-ingressgateway" or "service-a"
• Metrics: Search for istio_* and envoy_* metrics
• Logs: Access logs with correlated trace IDs

Local Observability Stack

Jaeger (Traces):

kubectl port-forward -n default svc/jaeger-query 16686:16686

Visit: http://localhost:16686

Prometheus (Metrics):

kubectl port-forward -n default svc/prometheus 9090:9090

Visit: http://localhost:9090

OpenSearch Dashboards (Logs):

kubectl port-forward -n default svc/opensearch-dashboards 5601:5601

Visit: http://localhost:5601

• Username: admin
• Password: SecureP@ssw0rd123

To view logs in OpenSearch Dashboards:

1. Navigate to "Discover" in the left menu
2. Create an index pattern: otel-logs*
3. Select @timestamp as the time field
4. Explore the logs with trace correlation

Cleanup

./01_cleanup.sh

References

• Istio Documentation
• Istio OpenTelemetry Integration
• OpenTelemetry
• Dash0