Adding services by using managed add-ons

Managed IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service add-ons are an easy way to enhance your cluster with extra capabilities and open-source capabilities, such as Istio, the Diagnostics and Debug Tool, Block Storage for VPC, or the Cluster Autoscaler. The version of the driver, plug-in, or open-source tool that you add to your cluster is tested by IBM and approved to be used in IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service.

The managed add-ons that you can install in your cluster depend on the type of cluster, the container platform, and the infrastructure provider that you choose.

Support: Managed add-ons are fully integrated into the IBM Cloud support organization. If you have a question or an issue with using the managed add-ons, you can use one of the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service support channels. For more information, see Getting help and support.
Billing: If the tool that you add to your cluster incurs costs, these costs are automatically integrated and listed as part of your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service billing. The billing cycle is determined by IBM Cloud depending on when you enabled the add-on in your cluster.; In general, no additional setup, such as opening ports or IP addresses is required. However, refer to the documentation of each managed add-on to find the prerequisites that your cluster must meet before you install the managed add-on.

Adding managed add-ons

To enable a managed add-on in your cluster from the CLI, use the ibmcloud ks cluster addon enable command. To enable a managed add-on in your cluster in the Kubernetes clusters console, use the Add-ons pane of the cluster details page. When you enable the managed add-on, a supported version of the tool, including all Kubernetes resources are automatically installed in your cluster. Refer to the documentation of each managed add-on to find the prerequisites that your cluster must meet before you install the managed add-on.

For more information about the prerequisites for each add-on, see:

Updating managed add-ons

The versions of each managed add-on are tested by IBM Cloud and approved for use in IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service. To update the components of an add-on to the most recent version supported by IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, use the following steps.

Review the following links for specific update steps for each add-on.

Reviewing add-on states and statuses

You can check the health state and status of a cluster add-on by running the following command.

ibmcloud ks cluster addon ls -c <cluster_name_or_ID>

Example output

Name            Version   Health State   Health Status
debug-tool      2.0.0     normal         Addon Ready
istio           1.4       -              Enabling

The Health State reflects the lifecycle of the add-on components. Each state is described in the following table.

Add-on health states
Add-on health state	Description
`critical`	The add-on is not ready to be used for one of the following reasons: Some or all the add-on components are unhealthy. The add-on failed to deploy. The add-on may be at an unsupported version. Check the Health Status field for more information.
`normal`	The add-on is successfully deployed. Check the status to verify that the add-on is `Ready` or to see if an update is available.
`pending`	Some or all components of the add-on are currently deploying. Wait for the state to become `normal` before working with your add-on.
`updating`	The add-on is updating and is not ready to be used. Check the Health Status field for the version that the add-on is updating to.
`warning`	The add-on might not function properly due to cluster limitations. Check the Health Status field for more information.

The Health Status provides details of what add-on operation is in progress. Each status is described in the following table.

Add-on health statuses
Status code	Add-on health status	Description
H1500	`Addon Ready`	The add-on is successfully deployed and is healthy.
H1501, H1502, H1503	`Addon Not Ready`	Some or all the add-on components are unhealthy. Check whether all add-on component pods are running. For example, for the Istio add-on, check whether the pods in the `istio-system` and `ibm-operators` namespaces are in a `Running` state by running the `kubectl get pods -n NAMESPACE` command.
H1504, H1505, H1506, H1507, H1508	`Failure determining health status.`	The add-on health can't be determined. Open a support case. In the description, include the error code from the health status.
H1509	`Addon Unsupported`	The add-on runs an unsupported version, or the add-on version is unsupported for your cluster version. Update your add-on to the latest version, or see specific update steps for Istio.
H1510	`Cluster resources low, not enough workers in Ready state.`	The add-on is not ready to be used for one of the following reasons: The cluster does not meet the size criteria for the add-on. For example, check the size requirements for Istio. Worker nodes in your cluster are not in a `Normal` state. Review the worker nodes' state and status.
	`Enabling`	The add-on is currently deploying to the cluster. Note that the add-on might take up to 15 minutes to install.
H1512	`Addon daemonset may not be available on all Ready nodes.`	For the static route add-on: The static route operator `DaemonSet` is not available on any worker nodes, which prevents you from applying static route resources. Your worker nodes can't run the static route operator `DaemonSet` for the following reasons: One or more worker nodes reached their resource limits. One or more worker nodes are running the maximum number of pods per worker node.

Still having trouble with the Istio add-on? Check out these troubleshooting topics to debug your Istio deployment.