The Kubernetes Cluster receiver collects cluster-level metrics from the Kubernetes API server. It uses the K8s API to listen for updates. A single instance of this receiver can be used to monitor a cluster.

Currently this receiver supports authentication via service accounts only. See example for more information.

The following settings are required:

• auth_type (default = serviceAccount): Determines how to authenticate to the K8s API server. This can be one of none (for no auth), serviceAccount (to use the standard service account token provided to the agent pod), or kubeConfig to use credentials from ~/.kube/config.

The following settings are optional:

• collection_interval (default = 10s): This receiver continuously watches for events using K8s API. However, the metrics collected are emitted only once every collection interval. collection_interval will determine the frequency at which metrics are emitted by this receiver.
• node_conditions_to_report (default = [Ready]): An array of node conditions this receiver should report. See here for list of node conditions. The receiver will emit one metric per entry in the array.
• distribution (default = kubernetes): The Kubernetes distribution being used by the cluster. Currently supported versions are kubernetes and openshift. Setting the value to openshift enables OpenShift specific metrics in addition to standard kubernetes ones.
• allocatable_types_to_report (default = []): An array of allocatable resource types this receiver should report. The following allocatable resource types are available.
  • cpu
  • memory
  • ephemeral-storage
  • storage

Example:

  k8s_cluster:
    auth_type: kubeConfig
    node_conditions_to_report: [Ready, MemoryPressure]
    allocatable_types_to_report: [cpu, memory]

The full list of settings exposed for this receiver are documented here with detailed sample configurations here.

For example, with the config below the receiver will emit two metrics k8s.node.condition_ready and k8s.node.condition_memory_pressure, one for each condition in the config. The value will be 1 if the ConditionStatus for the corresponding Condition is True, 0 if it is False and -1 if it is Unknown.

...
k8s_cluster:
  node_conditions_to_report:
    - Ready
    - MemoryPressure
...

A list of metadata exporters to which metadata being collected by this receiver should be synced. Exporters specified in this list are expected to implement the following interface. If an exporter that does not implement the interface is listed, startup will fail.

type MetadataExporter interface {
  ConsumeMetadata(metadata []*MetadataUpdate) error
}

type MetadataUpdate struct {
  ResourceIDKey string
  ResourceID    ResourceID
  MetadataDelta
}

type MetadataDelta struct {
  MetadataToAdd    map[string]string
  MetadataToRemove map[string]string
  MetadataToUpdate map[string]string
}

See here for details about the above types.

Here is an example deployment of the collector that sets up this receiver along with the SignalFx Exporter.

Follow the below sections to setup various Kubernetes resources required for the deployment.

Create a ConfigMap with the config for otelcontribcol. Replace SIGNALFX_TOKEN and SIGNALFX_REALM with valid values.

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      k8s_cluster:
        collection_interval: 10s
    exporters:
      signalfx:
        access_token: <SIGNALFX_TOKEN>
        realm: <SIGNALFX_REALM>

    service:
      pipelines:
        metrics:
          receivers: [k8s_cluster]
          exporters: [signalfx]
EOF

Create a service account that the collector should use.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
  name: otelcontribcol
EOF

Use the below commands to create a ClusterRole with required permissions and a ClusterRoleBinding to grant the role to the service account created above.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - events
  - namespaces
  - namespaces/status
  - nodes
  - nodes/spec
  - pods
  - pods/status
  - replicationcontrollers
  - replicationcontrollers/status
  - resourcequotas
  - services
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resources:
  - daemonsets
  - deployments
  - replicasets
  - statefulsets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - daemonsets
  - deployments
  - replicasets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - batch
  resources:
  - jobs
  - cronjobs
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
    - autoscaling
  resources:
    - horizontalpodautoscalers
  verbs:
    - get
    - list
    - watch
EOF

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: otelcontribcol
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: otelcontribcol
  namespace: default
EOF

Create a Deployment to deploy the collector.

<<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: otelcontribcol
  labels:
    app: otelcontribcol
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: otelcontribcol
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: otelcontribcol
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: otelcontribcol
      containers:
      - name: otelcontribcol
        image: otelcontribcol:latest # specify image
        args: ["--config", "/etc/config/config.yaml"]
        volumeMounts:
        - name: config
          mountPath: /etc/config
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: otelcontribcol
EOF

You can enable OpenShift support to collect OpenShift specific metrics in addition to the default kubernetes ones. To do this, set the distribution key to openshift.

Example:

  k8s_cluster:
    distribution: openshift

Add the following rules to your ClusterRole:

- apigroups:
  - quota.openshift.io
  resources:
  - clusterresourcequotas
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch