Kiali: Istio Service Mesh Console
Kiali helps operations and platform engineering teams manage their Istio service mesh. It is designed for users who need to visualize service communication and identify configuration issues.
At a glance
- Category
- Software Development
- Best for
- Software Companies, Enterprise Companies, Platform Engineering Teams, SREs managing Istio
- Pricing
- Pricing was not clearly available from the provided evidence. Buyers should confirm current pricing on the vendor website, though enterprise support is noted as available through Red Hat.
- Key use cases
- Service Communication Mapping, Mesh Troubleshooting, Traffic Routing Configuration, Security Policy Implementation
- Integrations
- Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Grafana Tempo, Backstage
- Official website
- kiali.io
Kiali serves as a visual layer for the Istio service mesh, allowing users to monitor and configure their mesh infrastructure. It provides a way to see how services communicate in real time, which may help teams identify where traffic failures or latency issues are occurring.
The tool is designed for technical teams managing microservices. It supports observability tasks such as monitoring the health of pods and request traffic, as well as inspecting logs and metrics for specific workloads.
Beyond monitoring, Kiali includes wizards that support the generation of routing rules and security policies. It also includes AI-assisted interactions through a chatbot and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
Buyers should confirm they are using an Istio-based mesh, as Kiali is built as an add-on for Istio and OpenShift Service Mesh. Users should also ensure they have Prometheus and Jaeger or Tempo configured for full functionality.
Key Features
Provides multiple graph types (workload, app, versioned app, and service) to visualize real time request traffic and service communication.
Uses a color-coded system to indicate the health of mesh infrastructure and application services based on pod status and traffic health.
Supports the creation and update of routing rules, fault injection, traffic shifting, and circuit breakers through guided interfaces.
Integrates with Jaeger and Grafana Tempo to provide trace visualizations and correlated views of logs and metrics.
Includes validation tools designed to detect misconfigurations within the service mesh.
Allows users to view and edit Istio custom resource YAML within the console.
Includes AI features via a Kiali Chatbot and Model Context Protocol integrations.
Use Cases
Using topology graphs to visualize how services interact and identify traffic patterns.
Identifying degraded or failing services using health indicators and correlating logs with distributed traces.
Using wizards to set up request routing, timeouts, and traffic shifting between different service versions.
Generating AuthorizationPolicy resources to secure communication between workloads based on observed traffic.
Best For
Integrations
Pricing
Pricing was not clearly available from the provided evidence. Buyers should confirm current pricing on the vendor website, though enterprise support is noted as available through Red Hat.
FAQ
Kiali is used to configure, visualize, validate, and troubleshoot an Istio service mesh, providing a visual interface for traffic and health monitoring.
Yes, Kiali includes AI features through a dedicated chatbot and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
Kiali is designed as an add-on for Istio or OpenShift Service Mesh and typically requires Prometheus for metrics and Jaeger or Tempo for tracing.
Source category: Software Development
Source subcategory: Observability Platform
