servicemesh-operator

The servicemesh-operator component simplifies the deployment, upgrade, and configuration management of Alibaba Cloud Service Mesh (ASM) in an ACK cluster. This lets you quickly enable powerful ASM features, such as traffic management, security, and observability.

Scope

ACK clusters must be version 1.21 or later.

Instructions

After you install the servicemesh-operator component in an ACK cluster, the system automatically deploys the following:

A controller named servicemesh-operator is deployed to the cluster. The controller runs on the cluster's control plane and is responsible for listening to and processing custom resources related to the service mesh.
The servicemesh.istio.alibabacloud.com CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) is created.
A ServiceMesh Custom Resource (CR) named `mesh` is automatically created.

The servicemesh-operator controller creates a Standard Edition ASM instance named mesh-for-${cluster-ID}. After the instance is created, the controller adds the ACK cluster to it.

You can query the ServiceMesh CR to monitor the creation progress and current status of the ASM instance in real time.

Console

On the ACK Clusters page, click the name of the target cluster. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Workloads > Custom Resources.

On the Custom Resources page, search for ServiceMesh. In the search results, locate the ServiceMesh resource under istio.alibabacloud.com and click Edit YAML in the Actions column.

The following is a sample YAML file:

apiVersion: istio.alibabacloud.com/v1beta1
kind: ServiceMesh
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"istio.alibabacloud.com/v1beta1","kind":"ServiceMesh","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"mesh"},"spec":{"clusterSpec":"Standard"}}
  creationTimestamp: "2025-08-08T03:38:15Z"
  generation: 1
  name: mesh
  resourceVersion: "18972175"
  uid: 440b90f4-c894-4dc1-8b37-c025690171c9
spec:
  clusterSpec: Standard
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:16Z"
    status: "True"
    type: PreChecked
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:18Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ServiceMeshCreated
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:19Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ServiceMeshReady
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:21Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ClusterAdded
  phase: Succeeded
  serviceMeshId: cb3a33d70d3344ea58170494c1b12a6fa
  serviceMeshName: mesh-for-c9ce5e565cb984d709326a29ccb80d70a

kubectl

Obtain the cluster's KubeConfig file and use kubectl to connect to the cluster.

You can view the YAML file of the ServiceMesh CR.

kubectl get servicemesh mesh -n istio-system -o yaml

Expected output:

apiVersion: istio.alibabacloud.com/v1beta1
kind: ServiceMesh
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"istio.alibabacloud.com/v1beta1","kind":"ServiceMesh","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"mesh"},"spec":{"clusterSpec":"Standard"}}
  creationTimestamp: "2025-08-08T03:38:15Z"
  generation: 1
  name: mesh
  resourceVersion: "18972175"
  uid: 440b90f4-c894-4dc1-8b37-c025690171c9
spec:
  clusterSpec: Standard
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:16Z"
    status: "True"
    type: PreChecked
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:18Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ServiceMeshCreated
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:19Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ServiceMeshReady
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-08-08T03:38:21Z"
    status: "True"
    type: ClusterAdded
  phase: Succeeded
  serviceMeshId: cb3a33d70d3344ea58170494c1b12a6fa
  serviceMeshName: mesh-for-c9ce5e565cb984d709326a29ccb80d70a

Quotas and limits

The current version of servicemesh-operator only supports a one-to-one mapping between an ASM instance and an ACK cluster. To update or delete an ASM instance, go to the ASM console.

ServiceMesh CRD details

The ServiceMesh resource defines the desired and actual states for declaring and managing an ASM service mesh in a Kubernetes cluster.

Spec (.spec)

Field	Type	Description	Default	Required
`id`	string	The ID of the service mesh. If you do not specify an ID, the system generates a random one. Specify this ID to create a new service mesh or add the current cluster to an existing mesh. This field has a higher priority than the `name` field.	N/A	No
`name`	string	The name of the service mesh. If you do not specify a name, the system generates one in the format `mesh-for-${cluster-ID}`. Specify this name to create a new service mesh or add the current cluster to an existing mesh.	N/A	No
`clusterSpec`	string	The edition of the created service mesh instance. It defines the features and performance level of the instance. Valid values: Standard Enterprise Ultimate	Standard	No

Status (.status)

Field	Type	Description
`serviceMeshName`	string	The unique name of the actual service mesh created by the controller. This field is recorded before the initial creation request is sent and is immutable throughout the reconciliation process to prevent the creation of duplicate service mesh instances.
`serviceMeshId`	string	The ID of the successfully created service mesh. This value is retrieved from the cloud after the service mesh instance is created.
`phase`	string	Describes the current lifecycle phase of the service mesh. Possible values include the following: Initializing Ready Succeeded Failed
`conditions`	[]ServiceMeshCondition	A list of conditions and their statuses that the service mesh goes through during the reconciliation process. It provides a detailed record of the key steps from resource creation to readiness.
`retriedAt`	metav1.Time	Records the timestamp of the last retry when the reconciliation process encounters a retryable error.

ServiceMeshCondition

Field	Type	Description
`lastTransitionTime`	metav1.Time	The timestamp of the last time the condition's status changed.
`status`	string	The current status of the condition. Valid values: True False Unknown
`type`	string	The type of condition, which represents a specific step in the reconciliation process. Examples: PreChecked ServiceMeshCreated ServiceMeshReady: The Service Mesh instance is ready. ClusterAdded (A cluster was added to the grid).
`message`	string	An informational message about the condition's status. It is typically used to provide additional context when an error occurs or when the resource is in a specific state.