Additional Steps for Installing Istio on an RKE2 Cluster

Through the Cluster Explorer, when installing or upgrading Istio through Apps & Marketplace,

1. Click Components.
2. Check the box next to Enabled CNI.

3. Add a custom overlay file specifying cniBinDir and cniConfDir. For more information on these options, refer to the Istio documentation. An example is below:

   apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
   kind: IstioOperator
   spec:
     components:
       cni:
         enabled: true
     values:
       cni:
         image: rancher/istio-install-cni:1.7.3
         excludeNamespaces:
           - istio-system
           - kube-system
         logLevel: info
         cniBinDir: /opt/cni/bin
         cniConfDir: /etc/cni/net.d

4. After installing Istio, you’ll notice the cni-node pods in the istio-system namespace in a CrashLoopBackoff error. Manually edit the istio-cni-node daemonset to include the following on the install-cni container:

   securityContext:
       privileged: true

Result: Now you should be able to utilize Istio as desired, including sidecar injection and monitoring via Kiali.