<p>I tried to launch Istio on Google Kubernetes Engine using the Google Cloud Deployment Manager as described in the Istio <a href="https://istio.io/docs/setup/kubernetes/quick-start-gke-dm/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Quick Start Guide</a>.
My goal is to have a cluster as small as possible for a few very lightweight microservices.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, Istio pods in the cluster failed to boot up correctly when using a 
1 node GKE</p>

<ul>
<li>g1-small or</li>
<li>n1-standard-1</li>
</ul>

<p>cluster.
For example, istio-pilot fails and the status is "0 of 1 updated replicas available - Unschedulable".</p>

<p>I did not find any hints that the resources of my cluster are exceeded so I am wondering:</p>

<p><strong>What is the minimum GKE cluster size to successfully run Istio (and a few lightweight microservices)?</strong></p>

<p>What I found is the issue <a href="https://github.com/istio/istio/issues/216" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Istio#216</a> but it did not contain the answer. Also, of course, the cluster size depends on the microservices but I am basically interested in the minimum cluster to start with.</p>

<p>As per <a href="https://istio.io/docs/guides/bookinfo/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>If you use GKE, please ensure your cluster has at least 4 standard GKE nodes. If you use Minikube, please ensure you have at least 4GB RAM.</p>
</blockquote>
