// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// * service_mesh/v2x/ossm-traffic-manage.adoc

:_mod-docs-content-type: CONCEPT
[id="ossm-automatic-gateway-injection_{context}"]
= Enabling gateway injection

Gateway configurations apply to standalone Envoy proxies running at the edge of the mesh, rather than sidecar Envoy proxies running alongside your service workloads. Because gateways are Envoy proxies, you can configure {SMProductShortName} to inject gateways automatically, similar to how you can inject sidecars.

Using automatic injection for gateways, you can deploy and manage gateways independent from the `ServiceMeshControlPlane` resource and manage the gateways with your user applications. Using auto-injection for gateway deployments gives developers full control over the gateway deployment while simplifying operations. When a new upgrade is available, or a configuration has changed, you restart the gateway pods to update them. Doing so makes the experience of operating a gateway deployment the same as operating sidecars.

[NOTE]
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Injection is disabled by default for the `ServiceMeshControlPlane` namespace, for example the `istio-system` namespace. As a security best practice, deploy gateways in a different namespace from the control plane.
====
