Kubernetes Monitoring With KloudMate

4min
Monitoring metrics and logs within a Kubernetes cluster is extremely important to ensure everything is running well, resources are being used efficiently, and the overall health of the cluster is maintained.
By monitoring different parts of the system and the numbers that represent their performance, you can learn useful things, fix problems, make sure that resources such as memory and CPU are being used wisely, and ensure your Kubernetes setup is working nicely.
In this guide, we're going to look at the main things that Kubernetes keeps an eye on, the critical numbers that tell us how they are doing, who is allowed to see these stats, and how to set up a tool called OpenTelemetry Collector to collect these numbers and send them to a particular place called Prometheus or Cortex, which helps us to make sense of it all.
Kubernetes Components to Monitor:
The OpenTelemetry Collector offers a variety of tools to help with monitoring Kubernetes. Some of the most important components for collecting Kubernetes data.
kubeletstats receivers
k8sobjects receiver
hostmetrics receiver
kubernetes cluster receiver
filelog receiver
Prometheus receiver
These components are crucial components to monitoring the Kubernetes cluster.
Following are the steps to integrate OpenTelemetry with your cluster:
Step 1: Install certificate manager.
Text
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.12.0/cert-manager.yaml 
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.12.0/cert-manager.yaml 
﻿
Step 2: Install open telemetry operator.
Text
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-operator.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-operator.yaml
﻿
Step 3: Enable kubestate-metrics and node exporter by which Prometheus receiver can scrape the available k8s resources and node-level metrics.
Text
helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
helm install ksm prometheus-community/kube-state-metrics -n "default"
helm install nodeexporter prometheus-community/prometheus-node-exporter -n "default"

helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update
helm install ksm prometheus-community/kube-state-metrics -n "default"
helm install nodeexporter prometheus-community/prometheus-node-exporter -n "default"
﻿
Step 4: Enable Kubernetes audit log for better log response. Click here to enable the audit log.
Step 5: The below configuration will create the required configuration and send Kubernetes telemetry data to KloudMate.
YAML
# This manifest is for Kubernetes metrics and logs to the KM-Backend
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default

---

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
rules:
  -
    apiGroups:
      - ""
      - apps
      - autoscaling
      - batch
      - extensions
      - policy
      - rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    resources:
      - componentstatuses
      - configmaps
      - nodes/proxy
      - daemonsets
      - deployments
      - events
      - cronjobs
      - statefulsets
      - endpoints
      - horizontalpodautoscalers
      - ingress
      - jobs
      - limitranges
      - namespaces
      - nodes
      - pods
      - nodes/stats
      - persistentvolumes
      - persistentvolumeclaims
      - resourcequotas
      - replicasets
      - replicationcontrollers
      - serviceaccounts
      - services
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: otel-collector
    namespace: default
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otel-collector
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

---

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      prometheus:
        config:
          scrape_configs:
            - bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
              job_name: integrations/kubernetes/cadvisor
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: node
              relabel_configs:
                - replacement: kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local:443
                  target_label: __address__
                - regex: (.+)
                  replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$${1}/proxy/metrics/cadvisor
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_node_name
                  target_label: __metrics_path__
              scheme: https
              tls_config:
                ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
                insecure_skip_verify: true
                server_name: kubernetes
            - bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
              job_name: integrations/kubernetes/kubelet
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: node
              relabel_configs:
                - replacement: kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local:443
                  target_label: __address__
                - regex: (.+)
                  replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$${1}/proxy/metrics
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_node_name
                  target_label: __metrics_path__
              scheme: https
              tls_config:
                ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
                insecure_skip_verify: true
                server_name: kubernetes
            - job_name: integrations/kubernetes/kube-state-metrics
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: pod
              relabel_configs:
                - action: keep
                  regex: kube-state-metrics
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name
            - job_name: integrations/node_exporter
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - namespaces:
                    names:
                      - default
                  role: pod
              relabel_configs:
                - action: keep
                  regex: prometheus-node-exporter.*
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name
                - action: replace
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name
                  target_label: instance
                - action: replace
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_namespace
                  target_label: namespace
      k8s_events:
        namespaces: []
      filelog:
        include:
          - /var/log/pods/*/*/*.log
          - /var/log/containers/*/*.log
        exclude:
          - /var/log/pods/*/otel-collector/*.log
        start_at: beginning
        include_file_path: true
        include_file_name: false
        operators:
          - type: router
            id: get-format
            routes:
              - output: parser-docker
                expr: 'body matches "^\\{"'
              - output: parser-crio
                expr: 'body matches "^[^ Z]+ "'
              - output: parser-containerd
                expr: 'body matches "^[^ Z]+Z"'
          - type: regex_parser
            id: parser-crio
            regex: '^(?P<time>[^ Z]+) (?P<stream>stdout|stderr) (?P<logtag>[^ ]*) ?(?P<log>.*)$'
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout_type: gotime
              layout: '2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00'
          - type: regex_parser
            id: parser-containerd
            regex: '^(?P<time>[^ ^Z]+Z) (?P<stream>stdout|stderr) (?P<logtag>[^ ]*) ?(?P<log>.*)$'
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ'
          - type: json_parser
            id: parser-docker
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ'
          - type: move
            from: attributes.log
            to: body
          - type: regex_parser
            id: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            regex: '^.*\/(?P<namespace>[^_]+)_(?P<pod_name>[^_]+)_(?P<uid>[a-f0-9\-]{36})\/(?P<container_name>[^\._]+)\/(?P<restart_count>\d+)\.log$'
            parse_from: attributes["log.file.path"]
            cache:
              size: 128
          - type: move
            from: attributes.stream
            to: attributes["log.iostream"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.container_name
            to: resource["k8s.container.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.namespace
            to: resource["k8s.namespace.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.pod_name
            to: resource["k8s.pod.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.restart_count
            to: resource["k8s.container.restart_count"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.uid
            to: resource["k8s.pod.uid"]

    processors:
      k8sattributes:
        auth_type: "serviceAccount"
        passthrough: true
        filter:
          node_from_env_var: KUBE_NODE_NAME
        extract:
          metadata:
            - k8s.pod.name
            - k8s.pod.uid
            - k8s.deployment.name
            - k8s.namespace.name
            - k8s.node.name
            - k8s.pod.start_time
          labels:
            - tag_name: app.label.component
              key: app.kubernetes.io/component
              from: pod
        pod_association:
          - sources:
              - from: resource_attribute
                name: k8s.pod.ip
          - sources:
              - from: resource_attribute
                name: k8s.pod.uid
          - sources:
              - from: connection
      resourcedetection:
        detectors:
            - env
            - ec2
            - system
            - docker
        timeout: 5s
        override: false
      attributes/metrics:
        actions:
            - key: cluster
              value: 'test-metrics'  #add the cluster name
              action: insert
      attributes/logs:
        actions:
            - key: source
              from_attribute: name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: operator_type
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: log.file.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: fluent.tag
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: service.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: project.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: serviceName
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: projectName
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: pod_name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: container_name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: namespace
              action: upsert
            - key: serviceName
              value: 'k8s-logs'
              action: insert


    exporters:
      otlphttp:
        endpoint: 'https://otel.kloudmate.com:4318'
        headers:
          Authorization: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  #add the required auth key

    service:
      pipelines:
        metrics:
          receivers: [prometheus]
          processors: [k8sattributes, resourcedetection, attributes/metrics]
          exporters: [otlphttp]
        logs:
          receivers: [filelog, k8s_events]
          processors: [k8sattributes, resourcedetection, attributes/logs]
          exporters: [otlphttp]

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet

metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: otel-collector
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: otel-collector
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: otel-collector
      containers:
        - name: otel-collector
          image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
          args: ["--config=/etc/otel-collector-config/config.yaml"]
          env:
            - name: K8S_NODE_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: spec.nodeName
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config-vol
              mountPath: /etc/otel-collector-config
            - name: varlogpods
              mountPath: /var/log/pods
              readOnly: true
            - name: varlibdockercontainers
              mountPath: /var/lib/docker/containers
              readOnly: true
            - name: varlogcontainers
              mountPath: /var/log/containers
              readOnly: true
      volumes:
        - name: config-vol
          configMap:
            name: otel-collector
        - name: varlogpods
          hostPath:
            path: /var/log/pods
        - name: varlibdockercontainers
          hostPath:
            path: /var/lib/docker/containers
        - name: varlogcontainers
          hostPath:
            path: /var/log/containers

      securityContext:
        runAsUser: 0

# This manifest is for Kubernetes metrics and logs to the KM-Backend
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default

---

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
rules:
  -
    apiGroups:
      - ""
      - apps
      - autoscaling
      - batch
      - extensions
      - policy
      - rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    resources:
      - componentstatuses
      - configmaps
      - nodes/proxy
      - daemonsets
      - deployments
      - events
      - cronjobs
      - statefulsets
      - endpoints
      - horizontalpodautoscalers
      - ingress
      - jobs
      - limitranges
      - namespaces
      - nodes
      - pods
      - nodes/stats
      - persistentvolumes
      - persistentvolumeclaims
      - resourcequotas
      - replicasets
      - replicationcontrollers
      - serviceaccounts
      - services
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: otel-collector
    namespace: default
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otel-collector
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

---

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      prometheus:
        config:
          scrape_configs:
            - bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
              job_name: integrations/kubernetes/cadvisor
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: node
              relabel_configs:
                - replacement: kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local:443
                  target_label: __address__
                - regex: (.+)
                  replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$${1}/proxy/metrics/cadvisor
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_node_name
                  target_label: __metrics_path__
              scheme: https
              tls_config:
                ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
                insecure_skip_verify: true
                server_name: kubernetes
            - bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
              job_name: integrations/kubernetes/kubelet
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: node
              relabel_configs:
                - replacement: kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local:443
                  target_label: __address__
                - regex: (.+)
                  replacement: /api/v1/nodes/$${1}/proxy/metrics
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_node_name
                  target_label: __metrics_path__
              scheme: https
              tls_config:
                ca_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
                insecure_skip_verify: true
                server_name: kubernetes
            - job_name: integrations/kubernetes/kube-state-metrics
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - role: pod
              relabel_configs:
                - action: keep
                  regex: kube-state-metrics
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name
            - job_name: integrations/node_exporter
              kubernetes_sd_configs:
                - namespaces:
                    names:
                      - default
                  role: pod
              relabel_configs:
                - action: keep
                  regex: prometheus-node-exporter.*
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_app_kubernetes_io_name
                - action: replace
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name
                  target_label: instance
                - action: replace
                  source_labels:
                    - __meta_kubernetes_namespace
                  target_label: namespace
      k8s_events:
        namespaces: []
      filelog:
        include:
          - /var/log/pods/*/*/*.log
          - /var/log/containers/*/*.log
        exclude:
          - /var/log/pods/*/otel-collector/*.log
        start_at: beginning
        include_file_path: true
        include_file_name: false
        operators:
          - type: router
            id: get-format
            routes:
              - output: parser-docker
                expr: 'body matches "^\\{"'
              - output: parser-crio
                expr: 'body matches "^[^ Z]+ "'
              - output: parser-containerd
                expr: 'body matches "^[^ Z]+Z"'
          - type: regex_parser
            id: parser-crio
            regex: '^(?P<time>[^ Z]+) (?P<stream>stdout|stderr) (?P<logtag>[^ ]*) ?(?P<log>.*)$'
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout_type: gotime
              layout: '2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00'
          - type: regex_parser
            id: parser-containerd
            regex: '^(?P<time>[^ ^Z]+Z) (?P<stream>stdout|stderr) (?P<logtag>[^ ]*) ?(?P<log>.*)$'
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ'
          - type: json_parser
            id: parser-docker
            output: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ'
          - type: move
            from: attributes.log
            to: body
          - type: regex_parser
            id: extract_metadata_from_filepath
            regex: '^.*\/(?P<namespace>[^_]+)_(?P<pod_name>[^_]+)_(?P<uid>[a-f0-9\-]{36})\/(?P<container_name>[^\._]+)\/(?P<restart_count>\d+)\.log$'
            parse_from: attributes["log.file.path"]
            cache:
              size: 128
          - type: move
            from: attributes.stream
            to: attributes["log.iostream"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.container_name
            to: resource["k8s.container.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.namespace
            to: resource["k8s.namespace.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.pod_name
            to: resource["k8s.pod.name"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.restart_count
            to: resource["k8s.container.restart_count"]
          - type: move
            from: attributes.uid
            to: resource["k8s.pod.uid"]

    processors:
      k8sattributes:
        auth_type: "serviceAccount"
        passthrough: true
        filter:
          node_from_env_var: KUBE_NODE_NAME
        extract:
          metadata:
            - k8s.pod.name
            - k8s.pod.uid
            - k8s.deployment.name
            - k8s.namespace.name
            - k8s.node.name
            - k8s.pod.start_time
          labels:
            - tag_name: app.label.component
              key: app.kubernetes.io/component
              from: pod
        pod_association:
          - sources:
              - from: resource_attribute
                name: k8s.pod.ip
          - sources:
              - from: resource_attribute
                name: k8s.pod.uid
          - sources:
              - from: connection
      resourcedetection:
        detectors:
            - env
            - ec2
            - system
            - docker
        timeout: 5s
        override: false
      attributes/metrics:
        actions:
            - key: cluster
              value: 'test-metrics'  #add the cluster name
              action: insert
      attributes/logs:
        actions:
            - key: source
              from_attribute: name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: operator_type
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: log.file.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: fluent.tag
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: service.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: project.name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: serviceName
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: projectName
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: pod_name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: container_name
              action: upsert
            - key: source
              from_attribute: namespace
              action: upsert
            - key: serviceName
              value: 'k8s-logs'
              action: insert


    exporters:
      otlphttp:
        endpoint: 'https://otel.kloudmate.com:4318'
        headers:
          Authorization: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  #add the required auth key

    service:
      pipelines:
        metrics:
          receivers: [prometheus]
          processors: [k8sattributes, resourcedetection, attributes/metrics]
          exporters: [otlphttp]
        logs:
          receivers: [filelog, k8s_events]
          processors: [k8sattributes, resourcedetection, attributes/logs]
          exporters: [otlphttp]

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet

metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: default
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: otel-collector
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: otel-collector
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: otel-collector
      containers:
        - name: otel-collector
          image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
          args: ["--config=/etc/otel-collector-config/config.yaml"]
          env:
            - name: K8S_NODE_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: spec.nodeName
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config-vol
              mountPath: /etc/otel-collector-config
            - name: varlogpods
              mountPath: /var/log/pods
              readOnly: true
            - name: varlibdockercontainers
              mountPath: /var/lib/docker/containers
              readOnly: true
            - name: varlogcontainers
              mountPath: /var/log/containers
              readOnly: true
      volumes:
        - name: config-vol
          configMap:
            name: otel-collector
        - name: varlogpods
          hostPath:
            path: /var/log/pods
        - name: varlibdockercontainers
          hostPath:
            path: /var/lib/docker/containers
        - name: varlogcontainers
          hostPath:
            path: /var/log/containers

      securityContext:
        runAsUser: 0
﻿
This configuration provided for the OpenTelemetry collector collects metrics and logs from all the mentioned components and then transmits these metrics to the KloudMate backend.
By using OpenTelemetry Collector alongside appropriate RBAC authorization, you can effectively gather and send out metrics. This process provides valuable information about resource usage, performance, and the overall well-being of the cluster.
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