Really hoping someone can help clarify the incredibly confusing world that is OpenShift (OKD) + Istio.
I would like to utilize Istio v1.5, but am limited to OKD v3.11. This OKD version uses Kubernetes v1.11. Does that mean I am limited to Istio v1.1? Should I be using Maistra? As a new Istio user, I am totally lost in a sea of information and deep googling rabbit holes (Red Hat’s versioning/naming changes don’t help either 
)
Hiya @darkdatter
Maistra is the RH version of Istio tailored for OpenShift installation and includes some changes we need for our product version, the versions we have are
Maistra/Service Mesh will likely skip Istio 1.5 and jump straight to 1.6.
Istio 1.5 was tested with OpenShift, albeit a later version than 3.11, but it should still be possible to get it running. What issues are you facing?
Kev
Thanks for that info! I am currently not running into issues…I was just really confused as to what direction to go towards. To me, it seems Maistra v1 or 1.1 (if available) is the best course of action for my OKD 3.11 environment, would you agree or do you suggest trying Istio v1.5?
I did see that Istio v1.5 was tested for a later 4.x version of OpenShift, but was concerned with trying it since OKD has a much older Kubernetes base at v1.11.
We have tested Istio v1.5 but on a later version of OpenShift, it likely would work on 3.11 since the difference is usually down to the requirement to use init proxy (and the elevated privileges necessary as a result) versus using CNI.
The Maistra 1.1 release will be out in a week or two if that fits your timescale, this will be based on 1.4.x.