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How to configure monitoring

This guide explains how to enable metrics and log collection on a Hikube Kubernetes cluster with the Monitoring Agents addon, and how to check that it works in the cluster.

Prerequisites​

  • A deployed Hikube Kubernetes cluster (see the quick start)
  • The cluster kubeconfig downloaded from the console (Kubeconfig button, reserved for project administrators)

Steps​

1. Enable the Monitoring Agents addon​

The Monitoring Agents addon ("Monitoring agents for logs and metrics") is checked by default when a cluster is created. To enable it on an existing cluster:

  1. In Infrastructure > Kubernetes, open the cluster's Actions menu and choose Edit.
  2. In the Extensions & Addons section, check Monitoring Agents.
  3. Click Save.

The cluster detail page then shows Monitoring Agents in the Extensions section.

2. Understand what is deployed​

The addon installs collection agents in the cluster that forward data to the Hikube platform's monitoring. There is no option to enable in the project:

ComponentRole
VictoriaMetrics Agent (vmagent)Collects and sends metrics
Fluent BitCollects and sends container logs
kube-state-metricsExposes the state of Kubernetes objects as metrics
Node exporterExposes the nodes' system metrics

The agents run on the cluster nodes; the storage of metrics and logs does not use your nodes.

note

Access to the project's monitoring dashboards is not offered in the console; contact support.

3. Check the agents in the cluster​

export KUBECONFIG=~/Downloads/kubeconfig-<cluster-name>.yaml

# List the monitoring agent pods
kubectl get pods -A | grep -E "vmagent|fluent-bit|kube-state-metrics|node-exporter"

Expected result: the agent pods are in Running state, with one Fluent Bit pod and one node exporter pod per node.

4. View the metrics in the cluster​

# Node metrics
kubectl top nodes

# Pod metrics
kubectl top pods -A

# Cluster events
kubectl get events -A --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

Example result for kubectl top nodes:

NAME                          CPU(cores)   CPU%   MEMORY(bytes)   MEMORY%
my-cluster-general-xxxxx      250m         6%     1200Mi          15%
my-cluster-general-yyyyy      310m         7%     1350Mi          17%

Verification​

# Logs of a Fluent Bit agent, if in doubt about log forwarding
# Namespace of the Fluent Bit agents
FLUENTBIT_NS=$(kubectl get ds -A -l app.kubernetes.io/name=fluent-bit -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.namespace}')
kubectl logs -n "$FLUENTBIT_NS" -l app.kubernetes.io/name=fluent-bit --tail=20 --prefix
warning

The destinations of metrics and logs are configured by the platform. To change the behavior of the agents (resources, collection filters), contact support.

Going further​