Chainguard Container for linkerd

Ultralight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes. Main repo for Linkerd 2.x.

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/linkerd:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

usage

Linkerd can be installed either using linkerd CLI or using helm charts. The following steps will guide you through the installation process using the linkerd CLI.

In cases where you need network-level visibility into packets entering and leaving your application, Linkerd provides a debug sidecar with some helpful tooling. Similar to how proxy sidecar injection works, you add a debug sidecar to a pod by setting the config.linkerd.io/enable-debug-sidecar: "true" annotation at pod creation time.

For installing the core components of linkerd,

Prepare the Core Component Values

cat <<EOF > linkerd-core-values.yaml
controllerImage: cgr.dev/chainguard/linkerd-controller
linkerdVersion: latest
policyController:
  image:
    name: cgr.dev/chainguard/linkerd-policy-controller
    version: latest
proxy:
  image:
    name: cgr.dev/chainguard/linkerd-proxy
    version: latest
proxyInit:
  image:
    name: cgr.dev/chainguard/linkerd-proxy-init
    version: latest
debugContainer:
  image:
    name: cgr.dev/chainguard/linkerd-debug
    version: latest
proxyLogLevel: "linkerd=debug,info"
EOF

Install the Core Components

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/latest/download/standard-install.yaml
linkerd install --crds | kubectl apply -f -
linkerd install -f linkerd-core-values.yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Prepare the Viz Component Values

cat <<EOF > linkerd-viz-values.yaml
tap:
  image:
    registry: cgr.dev/chainguard
    name: linkerd-tap
    tag: latest
dashboard:
  image:
    registry: cgr.dev/chainguard
    name: linkerd-web
    tag: latest
metricsAPI:
  image:
    registry: cgr.dev/chainguard
    name: linkerd-metrics-api
    tag: latest
tapInjector:
  image:
    registry: cgr.dev/chainguard
    name: linkerd-tap
    tag: latest
EOF

Install the Viz Components

linkerd viz install -f linkerd-viz-values.yaml | kubectl apply -f -

After installation linkerd check can be run to validate the installation.

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard Containers are minimal container images that are secure by default.

In many cases, the Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest contain only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager. Chainguard Containers are built with Wolfi, our Linux undistro designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a -dev variant.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they feature additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to leverage the -dev variants, copying application artifacts into a final minimal container that offers a reduced attack surface that won’t allow package installations or logins.

Learn More

To better understand how to work with Chainguard Containers, please visit Chainguard Academy and Chainguard Courses.

In addition to Containers, Chainguard offers VMs and Libraries. Contact Chainguard to access additional products.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.