// Module included in the following assemblies:
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//* *service_mesh/v2x/ossm-kiali-ossmc-plugin.adoc


:_mod-docs-content-type: CONCEPT
[id="ossm-kiali-ossmc-plugin-user-guide_{context}"]
= About the OpenShift Service Mesh Console plugin
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The {SMPlugin} is an extension to the {product-title} web console that provides visibility into your Service Mesh.

[WARNING]
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The {SMPluginShort} only supports a single Kiali instance. Whether that Kiali instance is configured to access only a subset of OpenShift projects or has access cluster-wide to all projects does not matter. However, only a single Kiali instance can be accessed.
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You can install the OSSMC plugin in only one of two ways: using the {product-title} web console, or through the CLI.

[NOTE]
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The {SMPluginShort} is only supported on {SMProductShortName} 2.5 or later. Specifically, the `ServiceMeshControlPlane` version must be set to 2.5 or later.
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Installing the {SMPluginShort} creates a new category, *Service Mesh*, in the main {product-title} web console navigation. Click *Service Mesh* to see:

* *Overview* for a summary of your mesh displayed as cards that represent the namespaces in the mesh
* *Graph* for a full topology view of your mesh represented by nodes and edges, each node representing a component of the mesh and each edge representing traffic flowing through the mesh between components
* *Istio config* for a list of all Istio configuration files in your mesh with a column that provides a quick way to know if the configuration for each resource is valid

Under *Workloads*, the OSSMC plugin adds a *Service Mesh* tab that contains the following subtabs:

* *Overview* subtab provides a summary of the selected workload including a localized topology graph showing the workload with all inbound and outbound edges and nodes
* *Traffic* subtab displays information about all inbound and outbound traffic to the workload.
* *Logs* subtab shows the logs for the workload's containers
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** You can view container logs individually or in a unified fashion, ordered by log time. This is especially helpful to see how the Envoy sidecar proxy logs relate to your workload's application logs.
** You can enable the tracing span integration which then allows you to see which logs correspond to trace spans.
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* *Metrics* subtab shows both inbound and outbound metric graphs in the corresponding subtabs. All the workload metrics can be displayed here, providing you with a detail view of the performance of your workload.
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** You can enable the tracing span integration which allows you to see which spans occurred at the same time as the metrics. Click a span marker in the graph to view the specific spans associated with that timeframe.
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* *Traces* provides a chart showing the trace spans collected over the given timeframe.
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** Click a bubble to drill down into those trace spans; the trace spans can provide you the most low-level detail within your workload application, down to the individual request level. The trace details view gives further details, including heatmaps that provide you with a comparison of one span in relation to other requests and spans in the same timeframe.
** If you hover over a cell in a heatmap, a tooltip gives some details on the cell data.
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* *Envoy* subtab provides information about the Envoy sidecar configuration. This is useful when you need to dig down deep into the sidecar configuration when debugging things such as connectivity issues.

Under *Networking*, the OSSMC plugin adds a *Service Mesh* tab to Services and contains the *Overview*, *Traffic*, *Inbound Metrics*, and *Traces* subtabs that are similar to the same subtabs found in *Workloads*.