FAQ

Question: What is service mesh?

Answer: A service mesh is a way to control how different parts of an application share data with one another. Unlike other systems for managing this communication, a service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer built right into an app. This visible infrastructure layer can document how well (or not) different parts of an app interact, so it becomes easier to optimize communication and avoid downtime as an app grows.

Question: What is Meshery?

Answer: Meshery is the open source, service mesh management plane that enables the adoption, operation, and management of any service mesh and their workloads.

Question: Why was Meshery created?

Answer: As an open source, vendor neutral project, Meshery was created out of the necessity to enable service mesh adopters to overcome the challenge of complex virtual networking; to come to expect more from their infrastructure; to enable the world to understand and operate any service mesh with confidence.

Question: What does Meshery do?

Answer:

  • Operates service meshes with confidence,
    • with operational best practices.
  • Compare apples-to-apples performance across service meshes.
  • Understand behavioral differences between service meshes.
  • Track your application performance from version to version.

Question: What is mesheryctl?

Answer: A command line interface to manage Meshery.

Question: How to install Meshery?

Answer: Meshery runs on a number of platforms. Popular Installers:

Question: What is the difference between make server and mesheryctl system start? Do they both run Meshery on my local machine?

Answer: Yes, both of them do run Meshery on your local machine. make server builds Meshery from source and runs it on your local OS, while mesheryctl system start runs Meshery as a set of containers in Docker or in Kubernetes on your local machine.

Question: What systems is Meshery compatible with?

Answer: Many. See Meshery’s Compatibility Matrix.

Question: Why is Meshery Server only receiving MeshSync updates from one of my Kubernetes Clusters?

Answer: In order to receive MeshSync updates, Meshery Server subscribes for updates Meshery Broker. In other words, Meshery Server connects to the meshery-broker service port in order to subscribe for streaming MeshSync updates. By default, the Meshery Broker service is deployed as type Kubernetes Service type LoadBalancer, which requires that your Kubernetes cluster provides an external IP address to the Meshery Broker service, exposing it external to the Kubernetes cluster. _ _If you’re running Kubernetes in Docker Desktop, an external IP address of localhost is assigned. If you’re running Minikube, and execute minikube tunnel to gain access to Meshery Broker’s service, you will find that both Meshery Broker service endpoints (from two different clusters) are sharing the same localhost:4222 address and port number. This port sharing causes conflict and Meshery Server is only able to connect to one of the Meshery Brokers.

Few ways to solve this problem:

  • Use an external cloud provider which provides you with the LoadBalancer having an external IP address other than localhost
  • Use Kind cluster with MetalLB configuration

Question: Why does the dashboard not show the infrastructure provisioned or discovered by Meshery?

Answer: This issue is typically caused by either lack of connectivity between Meshery Server and Meshery Broker or by database corruption. Use the following troubleshooting steps to resolve this issue:

Lack of Connectivity

  1. Confirm that the Meshery Broker service is exposed from your cluster using kubectl get svc -n meshery and that an hostname or IP address is displayed in the External Address column. Meshery Server should be able to reach this address.
  2. It is possible that MeshSync is not healthy and not sending cluster updates, check for MeshSync status by navigating to Settings in Meshery UI and clicking on the MeshSync connection.
  3. If MeshSync is healthy, check the status of Meshery Broker by clicking on the NATS connection.

If either is the case, Meshery Operator will make sure MeshSync and Meshery Broker deployments are again healthy, wait for some time, otherwise try redeploying Meshery Operator.

Database Corruption If MeshSync, Meshery Broker and Meshery Operator are healthy, then perhaps, there is corruption in the Meshery Database. Use the following troubleshooting steps to resolve this issue:_

1. Try clearing the database by clicking on the `Flush MeshSync` button associated with the corresponding cluster.
1. If still `Service Mesh` is not visible in UI, move on to `Hard Reset` of Database. This option is in the `Reset System` Tab in `Settings` page.

Note: You can also verify health of your system using mesheryctl system check