<p>We do not want to use Helm in our kubernetes cluster, but would like to have Istio. For me it looks like Isto can be installed on kubernetes only with Helm.</p>

<p>I guess i can copy all helm charts and substitute the helm-variables to become a kubernetes ready yaml-files. But this is a lot of manual work i do not want to do (for all new versions also).</p>

<p>Any ideas, if there is already a solution for this?</p>

<p>If you don't have Tiller in your cluster and you don't want to install it - you can use installation method without Tiller (using only client Helm binary) - <a href="https://istio.io/docs/setup/kubernetes/install/helm/#option-1-install-with-helm-via-helm-template" rel="noreferrer">https://istio.io/docs/setup/kubernetes/install/helm/#option-1-install-with-helm-via-helm-template</a></p>

<p>For example, to get full Istio YAML manifest you can do</p>

<pre><code>helm template install/kubernetes/helm/istio-init --name istio-init --namespace istio-system &gt; istio.yaml
</code></pre>

<p>If you want to upgrade - download newer release of Istio chart and do the same and apply rendered manifest to your cluster.</p>
