[opensourcedex]

kiali is a free, open source monitoring & observability project written in Go and released under Apache-2.0. It has 3,637 GitHub stars, 570 forks and 79 open issues, and was last pushed 10 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #110 of 191 tracked projects in Monitoring & Observability, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

= Kiali image:https://img.shields.io/twitter/url/http/shields.io.svg?style=social["Tweet about Kiali", link="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Learn%20what%20your%20Istio-Mesh%20is%20doing.%20Visit%20https://www.kiali.io/%20and%20@kialiProject"] :toc: macro :toc-title:

image:https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache2-blue.svg["Apache 2.0 license", link="LICENSE"]

== Introduction

link:https://kiali.io/[kiali] is a management console for Istio service mesh. Kiali can be quickly installed as an Istio add-on or integrated as a trusted component within a production environment.

=== Table of contents

toc::[]

=== Contributing

First, check the link:https://kiali.io/community/[Community section on kiali.io], which provides a brief introduction on contributing, how to report issues and request features, and how to reach us.

For those interested in making code contributions, please also check the link:./CONTRIBUTING.md[Contribution Guide].

=== Getting Started

The target audience of this README are developers. For those who are not developers but wish to learn more about Kiali, the link:https://kiali.io/docs[Kiali documentation] should be more helpful. For instructions on installing Kiali, please read the link:https://kiali.io/docs/installation/[Installation] page.

=== AI Documentation (Dev Preview)

Kiali includes a Chat AI integration in developer preview. The APIs and configuration are still evolving and may change without notice. See link:./ai/README.md[AI README] for details.

=== How and where Kiali is released?

Read the link:./RELEASING.adoc[RELEASING.adoc] file.

== Developer setup

Ensure the following tools are available:

Once the required developer tools are available, the code can be obtained and built using the following script:

[source,shell]

Checkout the source code

mkdir kiali_sources cd kiali_sources export KIALI_SOURCES=$(pwd)

git clone https://github.com/kiali/kiali.git git clone https://github.com/kiali/kiali-operator.git git clone https://github.com/kiali/helm-charts.git

ln -s $KIALI_SOURCES/kiali-operator kiali/operator

Build the front-end

make build-ui

Build the back-end

cd $KIALI_SOURCES/kiali make build

Go test flags can be passed via the GO_TEST_FLAGS environment variable.

make -e GO_TEST_FLAGS="-race -v -run="TestCanConnectToIstiodReachable"" test

[NOTE] The rest of this README assumes the directory tree created by the previous commands:

-- kiali_sources |- kiali |- kiali-operator - helm-charts

=== Create a Kubernetes cluster and install a Service Mesh

To use Kiali, a management console for Istio-based service meshes, an Istio-compatible service mesh is required. Istio meshes are installed on Kubernetes clusters.

We provide a few unsupported scripts that can help to get started. The scripts below are already in the Kiali Repository. Ensure that the correct path is being used to run the scripts without issues.

  • One way to setup your development environment locally is to run the link:hack/run-integration-tests.sh[run-integration-tests.sh] script. This will start a local cluster, install Istio and Bookinfo, and then start Kiali. It supports every deployment scenario including multi-cluster, external Kiali, etc. It is also run as part of the CI pipeline so there's a high chance it will work for you. The multi-cluster suites currently do not work with podman and you must have docker engine installed on your system.
  • The link:hack/crc-openshift.sh[crc-openshift.sh] script allows creation of an OpenShift cluster on a local machine.
  • For those familiar with minikube, the link:hack/k8s-minikube.sh[k8s-minikube.sh] script can be used. This script includes an option to install Dex, which is helpful for testing with OpenID.
  • Alternatively, the link:hack/start-kind.sh[start-kind.sh] script can be used to create a single-node KinD cluster with MetalLB enabled, allowing Kiali to be tested in a real environment.
  • Finally, the link:hack/istio/install-istio-via-istioctl.sh[install-istio-via-istioctl.sh] and the link:hack/istio/install-bookinfo-demo.sh[install-bookinfo-demo.sh] scripts can assist in installing Istio and the Bookinfo sample application in the cluster, respectively. Trying to run these scripts without any arguments is also an option.

These scripts are written to rely on the minimum dependencies as possible and will try to download any required tools.

Based on the type of cluster in use, define the CLUSTER_TYPE environment variable in the shell. Set it to openshift (default if not specified), minikube or kind so the Makefiles can assist with additional operations. For other cluster types, set CLUSTER_TYPE=local.

[NOTE] For minikube it is recommended to enable the registry and ingress add-ons, which can be configured by the k8s-minikube.sh script.

[NOTE] When using docker with Minikube's registry add-on or any custom non-secure registry, ensure the link:https://docs.docker.com/registry/insecure/[Docker daemon is properly configured to use your registry].

=== Running Kiali from your local kubeconfig (with hot-reload)

This is the simplest way to get started developing on Kiali. You will startup the backend which reads from your local kubeconfig file and connects to the cluster set as your current context by default. Kiali uses link:air[https://github.com/air-verse/air] to enable hot reloads for the backend server.

[source,shell]

make build-ui make run-backend

To pass additional arguments to the backend, set the KIALI_RUN_ARGS environment variable.

For example:

make KIALI_RUN_ARGS="--log-level debug" run-backend

To pass additional contexts from your kubeconfig for multi-cluster Kiali:

make KIALI_RUN_ARGS="--remote-cluster-contexts kind-mesh --cluster-name-overrides kind-mesh=mesh" run-backend

The kube context name must match the Istio cluster name otherwise you must provide a cluster name override as shown above.

In a separate terminal, start the frontend dev server. This will start the frontend dev server that connects to the backend running in the other terminal. It will also open the Kiali UI in your default browser.

[source,shell]

make run-frontend

Now kiali will be rebuilt and reloaded automatically when you make changes to either the backend or the frontend.

=== Building the Container Image and deploying to a cluster

Assuming the following conditions:

  • The back-end and front-end have been successfully built. Note that the front-end assets need to be built before the back-end, as the back-end will embed the front-end assets during its build process.
  • A Kubernetes cluster with an Istio-based Service Mesh has been created
  • The CLUSTER_TYPE=local environment variable is not being used

The commands below will deploy a development build of Kiali to the cluster.

[source,shell]

cd $KIALI_SOURCES/kiali

Build the Kiali-server and Kiali-operator container images and push them to the cluster

make cluster-push

To build and push only the Kiali-server container images:

make cluster-push-kiali

To build and push only the Kiali-operator container images:

make cluster-push-operator

Deploy the operator to the cluster

make operator-create

Create a KialCR to instruct the operator to deploy Kiali

make kiali-create

When using the CLUSTER_TYPE=local environment variable, additional environment variables must be declared to specify the container registry for pushing container images. The make container-push* targets should be used instead of the cluster-push* targets. For example, if the container registry is localhost:5000:

[source,shell]

export QUAY_NAME=localhost:5000/kiali/kiali export CONTAINER_NAME=localhost:5000/kiali/kiali export OPERATOR_QUAY_NAME=localhost:5000/kiali/kiali-operator export OPERATOR_CONTAINER_NAME=localhost:5000/kiali/kiali-operator

cd $KIALI_SOURCES/kiali

Build the Kiali-server and Kiali-operator container images and push them to the cluster

make container-build container-push

To build and push

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is kiali free to use?

kiali is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does kiali do?

Kiali project, observability for the Istio service mesh

What is kiali written in?

kiali is primarily written in Go. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/kiali/kiali, and it has 3,637 GitHub stars.