A step-by-step guide to integrating an external Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 VM into OpenShift Service Mesh 3.3 using a multi-network topology. The tutorial uses the Bookinfo sample app, replacing its local mock ratings data with a MariaDB/MySQL database running on an off-cluster VM. Key steps include configuring the Istio control plane for multi-network, deploying an east-west gateway for SNI-based traffic routing, generating identity artifacts and service account tokens compatible with OCP 4.16+, installing the Istio sidecar RPM on the VM, and exposing the VM workload via WorkloadGroup and ServiceEntry resources. Benefits covered include mTLS enforcement, observability golden signals, and traffic management features like circuit breaking for VM-based workloads.
Table of contents
Why connect an external VM?Architecture and considerationsEnvironmentStep 1: Configure the control plane for multi-networkStep 2: Generate identity artifactsStep 3: Configure the VMStep 4: Putting it into practice with BookinfoLimitations and considerationsConclusionSort: