Netdata Helm chart for Kubernetes deployments | Learn Netdata (2024)

Based on the work of varyumin (https://github.com/varyumin/netdata).

Introduction​

This chart bootstraps a Netdata deployment on a Kubernetescluster using the Helm package manager.

By default, the chart installs:

• A Netdata child pod on each node of a cluster, using a Daemonset
• A Netdata k8s state monitoring pod on one node, using a Deployment. This virtual node is called netdata-k8s-state.
• A Netdata parent pod on one node, using a Deployment. This virtual node is called netdata-parent.

Disabled by default:

• A Netdata restarter CronJob. Its main purpose is to automatically update Netdata when using nightly releases.

The child pods and the state pod function as headless collectors that collect and forwardall the metrics to the parent pod. The parent pod uses persistent volumes to store metrics and alarms, handle alarmnotifications, and provide the Netdata UI to view metrics using an ingress controller.

Please validate that the settings are suitable for your cluster before using them in production.

Prerequisites​

• A working cluster running Kubernetes v1.9 or newer.
• The kubectl command line tool,within one minor version difference ofyour cluster, on an administrative system.
• The Helm package manager v3.8.0 or newer on the same administrative system.

Installing the Helm chart​

You can install the Helm chart via our Helm repository, or by cloning this repository.

Installing via our Helm repository (recommended)​

To use Netdata's Helm repository, run the following commands:

helm repo add netdata https://netdata.github.io/helmchart/
helm install netdata netdata/netdata

See our install Netdata on Kubernetesdocumentation for detailed installation and configuration instructions. The remainder of this document assumes youinstalled the Helm chart by cloning this repository, and thus uses slightly different helm install/helm upgradecommands.

Install by cloning the repository​

Clone the repository locally.

git clone https://github.com/netdata/helmchart.git netdata-helmchart

To install the chart with the release name netdata:

helm install netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

The command deploys ingress on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The configurationsection lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

Tip: List all releases using helm list.

Once the Netdata deployment is up and running, read our guide, Monitor a Kubernetes (k8s) cluster withNetdata, for a breakdown of all the collectors,metrics, and charts available for health monitoring and performance troubleshooting.

Uninstalling the Chart​

To uninstall/delete the my-release deployment:

 helm delete netdata

The command removes all the Kubernetes components associated with the chart and deletes the release.

Configuration​

The following table lists the configurable parameters of the netdata chart and their default values.

Example to set the parameters from the command line:

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release \
 --set notifications.slack.webhook_url=MySlackAPIURL \
 --set notifications.slack.recipient="@MyUser MyChannel"

Another example, to set a different ingress controller.

By default kubernetes.io/ingress.class set to use nginx as an ingress controller, but you can set Traefik as youringress controller by setting ingress.annotations.

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release \
 --set ingress.annotations=kubernetes.io/ingress.class: traefik

Alternatively to passing each variable in the command line, a YAML file that specifies the values for the parameters canbe provided while installing the chart. For example,

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release -f values.yaml

Tip: You can use the default values.yaml

Note:: To opt out of anonymous statistics, set the DO_NOT_TRACKenvironment variable to non-zero or non-empty value inparent.env / child.env configuration (e.g: DO_NOT_TRACK: 1)or uncomment the line in values.yml.

Configuration files​

To deploy additional netdata user configuration files, you will need to add similar entries to eitherthe parent.configs or the child.configs arrays. Regardless of whether you add config files that reside directlyunder /etc/netdata or in a subdirectory such as /etc/netdata/go.d, you can use the already provided configurationsas reference. For reference, the parent.configs the array includes an example alarm that would get triggered if thepython.d example module was enabled. Whenever you pass the sensitive data to your configuration like the databasecredential you can take an option to put it into the Kubernetes Secret by specifying storedType: secret in theselected configuration. Default all the configuration will be placed in the Kubernetes configmap.

Note that with the default configuration of this chart, the parent does the health checks and triggers alarms, but doesnot collect much data. As a result, the only other configuration files that might make sense to add to the parent arethe alarm and alarm template definitions, under /etc/netdata/health.d.

Tip: Do pay attention to the indentation of the config file contents, as it matters for the parsing of the yaml file. Note that the first line under var: |must be indented with two more spaces relative to the preceding line:

 data: |-
 config line 1 #Need those two spaces
 config line 2 #No problem indenting more here

Persistent volumes​

There are two different persistent volumes on parent node by design (not counting any Configmap/Secret mounts). Bothcan be used, but they don't have to be. Keep in mind that whenever persistent volumes for parent are not used, all thedata for specific PV is lost in case of pod removal.

1. database (/var/cache/netdata) - all metrics data is stored here. Performance of this volume affects query timings.
2. alarms (/var/lib/netdata) - alarm log, if not persistent pod recreation will result in parent appearing as a newnode in netdata.cloud (due to ./registry/ and ./cloud.d/ being removed).

In case of child instance it is a bit simpler. By default, hostPath: /var/lib/netdata-k8s-child is mounted on childin: /var/lib/netdata. You can disable it but this option is pretty much required in a real life scenario, as withoutit each pod deletion will result in new replication node for a parent.

Service discovery and supported services​

Netdata's service discovery, which is installed as part of theHelm chart installation, finds what services are running on a cluster's pods, converts that into configuration files,and exports them, so they can be monitored.

Applications​

Service discovery currently supports the following applications via their associated collector:

• ActiveMQ
• Apache
• Bind
• co*ckroachDB
• Consul
• CoreDNS
• Elasticsearch
• Fluentd
• FreeRADIUS
• HDFS
• Lighttpd
• Logstash
• MySQL
• NGINX
• OpenVPN
• PHP-FPM
• RabbitMQ
• Solr
• Tengine
• Unbound
• VerneMQ
• ZooKeeper

Prometheus endpoints​

Service discovery supports Prometheus endpoints viathe Prometheus collector.

Annotations on pods allow a fine control of the scraping process:

• prometheus.io/scrape: The default configuration will scrape all pods and, if set to false, this annotation excludesthe pod from the scraping process.
• prometheus.io/path: If the metrics path is not /metrics, define it with this annotation.
• prometheus.io/port: Scrape the pod on the indicated port instead of the pod’s declared ports.

Configure service discovery​

If your cluster runs services on non-default ports or uses non-default names, you may need to configure servicediscovery to start collecting metrics from your services. You have to editthe default ConfigMap that is shipped with theHelmchart and deploy that to your cluster.

First, copy netdata-helmchart/sdconfig/child.yml to a new location outside the netdata-helmchart directory. Thedestination can be anywhere you like, but the following examples assume it resides next to the netdata-helmchartdirectory.

cp netdata-helmchart/sdconfig/child.yml .

Edit the new child.yml file according to your needs. Seethe Helm chart configuration and the file itself for details. Youcan then runhelm install/helm upgrade with the --set-file argument to use your configured child.yml file instead of thedefault, changing the path if you copied it elsewhere.

helm install --set-file sd.child.configmap.from.value=./child.yml netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata
helm upgrade --set-file sd.child.configmap.from.value=./child.yml netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

Now that you pushed an edited ConfigMap to your cluster, service discovery should find and set up metrics collectionfrom your non-default service.

Custom pod labels and annotations​

Occasionally, you will want to addspecific labelsand annotations to the parent and/orchild pods. You might want to do this to tell other applications on the cluster how to treat your pods, or simply tocategorize applications on your cluster. You can label and annotate the parent and child pods by using the podLabelsand podAnnotations dictionaries under the parent and child objects, respectively.

For example, suppose you're installing Netdata on all your database nodes, and you'd like the child pods to be labeledwith workload: database so that you're able to recognize this.

At the same time, say you've configured chaoskube to killall pods annotated with chaoskube.io/enabled: true, and you'd like chaoskube to be enabled for the parent pod but notthe childs.

You would do this by installing as:

$ helm install \
 --set child.podLabels.workload=database \
 --set 'child.podAnnotations.chaoskube\.io/enabled=false' \
 --set 'parent.podAnnotations.chaoskube\.io/enabled=true' \
 netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

Contributing​

If you want to contribute, we are humbled!

• Take a look at our Contributing Guidelines.
• This repository is under the Netdata Code Of Conduct.
• Chat about your contribution and let us help you inour forum!