<p>I have installed istio 1.6.7 in an AKS cluster using <code>istioctl</code>.
I have enabled the istio operator using <code>init</code> command.
When I try to enable Grafana and Kiali using a separate yaml on top of the installed istio system with <code>kubectl</code>, the istio ingress gateway pod is recreated and my custom configurations are deleted.</p>
<p>The documentation specifies that we can install add-ons with <code>kubectl</code>.</p>
<p>Add-on yaml is as follows:</p>
<pre><code>apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  values:
   grafana:
      enabled: true
</code></pre>

vishnu rajasekharan
<p>I am assuming you are referring to the <a href="https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/install/standalone-operator/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Standalone Operator Installation</a> guide. When updating the configuration, you have to change the original manifest and not create a new one. Your specified manifest doesn't contain any profile or metadata information. It should look like the following:</p>
<pre><code>apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
metadata:
  namespace: istio-system
  name: example-istiocontrolplane
spec:
  profile: default
  addonComponents:
    grafana:
      enabled: true
</code></pre>
