Upgrading Alauda Build of Kiali

When you install the Kiali Operator, it will be configured to install a Kiali Server that is the same version as the operator itself. For example, if you have Kiali Operator v2.27.1 installed, that operator will install Kiali Server v2.27.1. If you upgrade the Kiali Operator, the operator will in turn upgrade the Kiali Server.

Upgrade Path

The table below contains the complete upgrade path. When upgrading, you need to upgrade the Operator versions in sequence.

No.Alauda Build of Kiali
12.11.z
22.17.z
32.22.z
42.27.z
INFO

In the version numbers above, the .z indicates the latest available patch version for that minor release. When performing an upgrade, you should always use the most recent patch version to ensure you benefit from the latest security updates and bug fixes. The latest patch versions for each release can be found in the Release Notes.

Upgrade Steps

When upgrading, you need to upgrade the Operator version in sequence according to the upgrade path. Upgrading the Operator will automatically upgrade the Kiali instance (Kiali Server) version.

Upgrade Notes for Kiali v2.27

Review the following changes before you upgrade from v2.22.z to v2.27.z. Neither change blocks the upgrade.

The kiali_health_status metric is now opt-in

Kiali v2.22 wrote the kiali_health_status metric whenever the health cache and Kiali metrics were both enabled. The metric was redefined in v2.24 to produce a much lower cardinality of time series and is now disabled by default. If you built alerts or dashboards on this metric, enable it again after the upgrade:

spec:
  server:
    observability:
      metrics:
        health_status:
          enabled: true

The metric name is unchanged, but its attributes are different. Existing time series remain in Prometheus until they expire.

Deprecated spec.istio_labels fields

Kiali v2.27 ignores the following fields and uses the standard constant values instead. Remove them from your Kiali resource:

  • spec.istio_labels.egress_gateway_label
  • spec.istio_labels.ingress_gateway_label
  • spec.istio_labels.injection_label_name
  • spec.istio_labels.injection_label_rev

Post-Upgrade Verification

After upgrading the Operator, you should verify that the new version of Kiali Server is running correctly and that the Kiali UI is accessible.

Procedure

  1. Check the Kiali Server pod status to ensure it is running:

    kubectl get pods -A -l app.kubernetes.io/name=kiali

    Verify that the pod status is Running and ready.

    Example output

    NAMESPACE      NAME                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    istio-system   kiali-d764748f9-xzmwk   1/1     Running   0          2m36s

    Verify the upgraded version by checking the logs:

    kubectl -n <namespace> logs <kiali-pod-name> | grep "Version:"

    Example output

    INF Kiali: Version: <real-version>, Commit: <real-commit>
  2. Access the Kiali UI to verify that the web interface is accessible and functioning correctly.

    Click the "?" icon in the upper right corner of the Kiali UI, and select About from the menu to view the Kiali version.