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Coverage Matrix

| | | ---------------------------------------- | --------------------- | | Chkk Curated Release Notes | v1.50.0 to latest | | Private Registry | Supported | | Custom Built Images | Supported | | Safety, Health, and Readiness Checks | v1.58.0 to latest | | Supported Packages | Helm, Kustomize, Kube | | EOL Information | Available | | Version Incompatibility Information | Available | | Upgrade Templates | In-Place, Blue-Green | | Preverification | Available |

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Kiali Overview

Kiali is an open-source observability console for Istio, providing comprehensive visualizations of service mesh topologies, traffic flows, and performance metrics. It integrates seamlessly with Prometheus for metrics and Jaeger for distributed tracing, enabling quick identification of issues and misconfigurations. Kiali validates Istio configurations in real-time and includes intuitive wizards to implement common traffic patterns like fault injection or traffic shifting. By centralizing mesh insights and operational controls in a single UI, Kiali significantly reduces debugging complexity, streamlines policy updates, and enhances visibility into microservice interactions.

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Chkk Coverage

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Curated Release Notes

Chkk monitors Kiali release notes, highlighting relevant new features, breaking changes, or deprecated settings impacting your environment. Platform teams receive concise briefings focused on essential operational impacts, such as changes to namespace visibility configurations or external URL setups introduced in Kiali 2.0. Chkk clearly outlines required adjustments, preventing unexpected issues like broken dashboards or configuration incompatibilities during upgrades. By contextualizing Kiali’s updates, Chkk ensures platform engineers remain informed without manual tracking efforts.

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Preflight & Postflight Checks

Chkk runs comprehensive preflight checks to verify cluster compatibility with targeted Kiali versions, including Kubernetes and Istio version alignment and the availability of Prometheus metrics and tracing backends. Checks include scanning for deprecated configurations like old namespace selectors, authentication strategies, or removed CRD fields. Post-upgrade, Chkk postflight checks validate Kiali’s health by ensuring pod stability, functional metrics retrieval, and proper UI/API operations. This approach quickly identifies configuration and integration issues, ensuring a smooth upgrade experience.

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Version Recommendations

Chkk proactively identifies when your Kiali version approaches end-of-life or risks incompatibility with current Istio and Kubernetes versions. By referencing Kiali’s documented compatibility matrix, Chkk flags potential risks and recommends stable upgrade paths, avoiding operational disruptions from unsupported configurations. Recommendations balance immediate security needs, feature updates, and environment stability. Chkk also accommodates vendor-specific or custom Kiali deployments, ensuring tailored advice aligning precisely with your operational context.

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Upgrade Templates

Chkk offers detailed Kiali Upgrade Templates supporting both in-place and blue-green methods. In-place templates clearly outline configuration updates, pod validations, and rollback steps to minimize operational risks during direct upgrades. Blue-green templates guide parallel deployment validation, enabling thorough testing of the new Kiali version alongside the existing one, with clear instructions for transitioning user access safely. Both templates integrate seamlessly into GitOps or CI/CD workflows, providing structured and predictable upgrade paths.

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Preverification

Chkk’s Preverification capability simulates Kiali upgrades in isolated test environments replicating your production setup. By executing the upgrade process and thoroughly validating integration points, Chkk exposes potential issues like RBAC misconfigurations, integration failures with Prometheus or Jaeger, or UI performance degradations. Early identification allows platform teams to proactively address issues before they affect production. Preverification results in safer deployments and reduced risk during real-world upgrades.

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Supported Packages

Chkk supports multiple Kiali deployment methods, including Helm charts, Kiali Operator, and Kubernetes manifests. It ingests existing deployment configurations (Helm values, Operator CRs, YAML) to provide precise upgrade instructions, preserving customizations like namespace scoping, authentication methods, and custom images. Chkk’s GitOps-friendly approach generates targeted diffs or patches compatible with your repositories, reducing manual errors. This ensures consistency across upgrades, regardless of deployment method or environment customizations.

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Common Operational Considerations

  • Namespace Visibility and Scope: Misconfigured namespace selectors can prevent Kiali from visualizing expected services or cause performance degradation when monitoring too broadly. Configure namespace selectors precisely to maintain UI responsiveness and accurate visibility.
  • Authentication and Authorization: Incorrect OpenID Connect configurations or insufficient RBAC permissions frequently cause login issues or incomplete data views in Kiali. Regularly verify user roles and permissions, particularly after environment changes or Kiali upgrades.
  • Metrics and Tracing Integration: Absent or misconfigured Prometheus or tracing backends result in empty dashboards or missing data in Kiali. Ensure metrics and tracing components are correctly configured, healthy, and aligned with Kiali’s query expectations.
  • Performance in Large Meshes: Large service meshes can significantly impact Kiali UI responsiveness and usability due to heavy data rendering. Employ Kiali’s filtering and summarization views, adjust auto-refresh intervals, and allocate sufficient pod resources to maintain performance.
  • Multi-Cluster Configuration: Kiali requires explicit multi-cluster configuration to visualize meshes spanning multiple clusters accurately. Always update Kiali’s configuration promptly when adding new clusters, ensuring connectivity, correct cluster credentials, and consistent service naming.
  • Istio Debug API Dependency: Kiali depends on Istio’s debug interface (istiod port 8080) for proxy status and configuration data. Disabling Istio’s debug endpoint without adjusting Kiali’s settings results in missing data; ensure alignment of these configurations.

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Additional Resources