Network Observability

OpenShift Container Platform 4.11

The Network Observability Operator

Red Hat OpenShift Documentation Team

Abstract

This document provides instructions using the Network Observability Operator, which you can use to observe and analyze network traffic flows for OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

Chapter 1. Network Observability Operator release notes

The Network Observability Operator enables administrators to observe and analyze network traffic flows for OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

These release notes track the development of the Network Observability Operator in the OpenShift Container Platform.

For an overview of the Network Observability Operator, see About Network Observability Operator.

1.1. Network Observability Operator 1.4.2

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.4.2:

2023:6787 Network Observability Operator 1.4.2

1.1.1. CVEs

1.2. Network Observability Operator 1.4.1

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.4.1:

2023:5974 Network Observability Operator 1.4.1

1.2.1. CVEs

1.2.2. Bug fixes

In 1.4, there was a known issue when sending network flow data to Kafka. The Kafka message key was ignored, causing an error with connection tracking. Now the key is used for partitioning, so each flow from the same connection is sent to the same processor. (NETOBSERV-926)
In 1.4, the Inner flow direction was introduced to account for flows between pods running on the same node. Flows with the Inner direction were not taken into account in the generated Prometheus metrics derived from flows, resulting in under-evaluated bytes and packets rates. Now, derived metrics are including flows with the Inner direction, providing correct bytes and packets rates. (NETOBSERV-1344)

1.3. Network Observability Operator 1.4.0

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.4.0:

RHSA-2023:5379 Network Observability Operator 1.4.0

1.3.1. Channel removal

You must switch your channel from v1.0.x to stable to receive the latest Operator updates. The v1.0.x channel is now removed.

1.3.2. New features and enhancements

1.3.2.1. Notable enhancements

The 1.4 release of the Network Observability Operator adds improvements and new capabilities to the OpenShift Container Platform web console plugin and the Operator configuration.

Web console enhancements:

In the Query Options, the Duplicate flows checkbox is added to choose whether or not to show duplicated flows.
You can now filter source and destination traffic with One-way, Back-and-forth, and Swap filters.
The Network Observability metrics dashboards in Observe → Dashboards → NetObserv and NetObserv / Health are modified as follows:
- The NetObserv dashboard shows top bytes, packets sent, packets received per nodes, namespaces, and workloads. Flow graphs are removed from this dashboard.
- The NetObserv / Health dashboard shows flows overhead as well as top flow rates per nodes, namespaces, and workloads.
- Infrastructure and Application metrics are shown in a split-view for namespaces and workloads.

For more information, see Network Observability metrics and Quick filters.

Configuration enhancements:

You now have the option to specify different namespaces for any configured ConfigMap or Secret reference, such as in certificates configuration.
The spec.processor.clusterName parameter is added so that the name of the cluster appears in the flows data. This is useful in a multi-cluster context. When using OpenShift Container Platform, leave empty to make it automatically determined.

For more information, see Flow Collector sample resource and Flow Collector API Reference.

1.3.2.2. Network Observability without Loki

The Network Observability Operator is now functional and usable without Loki. If Loki is not installed, it can only export flows to KAFKA or IPFIX format and provide metrics in the Network Observability metrics dashboards. For more information, see Network Observability without Loki.

1.3.2.3. DNS tracking

In 1.4, the Network Observability Operator makes use of eBPF tracepoint hooks to enable DNS tracking. You can monitor your network, conduct security analysis, and troubleshoot DNS issues in the Network Traffic and Overview pages in the web console.

For more information, see Configuring DNS tracking and Working with DNS tracking.

1.3.2.4. SR-IOV support

You can now collect traffic from a cluster with Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) device. For more information, see Configuring the monitoring of SR-IOV interface traffic.

1.3.2.5. IPFIX exporter support

You can now export eBPF-enriched network flows to the IPFIX collector. For more information, see Export enriched network flow data.

1.3.2.6. s390x architecture support

Network Observability Operator can now run on s390x architecture. Previously it ran on amd64, ppc64le, or arm64.

1.3.3. Bug fixes

Previously, the Prometheus metrics exported by Network Observability were computed out of potentially duplicated network flows. In the related dashboards, from Observe → Dashboards, this could result in potentially doubled rates. Note that dashboards from the Network Traffic view were not affected. Now, network flows are filtered to eliminate duplicates prior to metrics calculation, which results in correct traffic rates displayed in the dashboards. (NETOBSERV-1131)
Previously, the Network Observability Operator agents were not able to capture traffic on network interfaces when configured with Multus or SR-IOV, non-default network namespaces. Now, all available network namespaces are recognized and used for capturing flows, allowing capturing traffic for SR-IOV. There are configurations needed for the FlowCollector and SRIOVnetwork custom resource to collect traffic. (NETOBSERV-1283)
Previously, in the Network Observability Operator details from Operators → Installed Operators, the FlowCollector Status field might have reported incorrect information about the state of the deployment. The status field now shows the proper conditions with improved messages. The history of events is kept, ordered by event date. (NETOBSERV-1224)
Previously, during spikes of network traffic load, certain eBPF pods were OOM-killed and went into a CrashLoopBackOff state. Now, the eBPF agent memory footprint is improved, so pods are not OOM-killed and entering a CrashLoopBackOff state. (NETOBSERV-975)
Previously when processor.metrics.tls was set to PROVIDED the insecureSkipVerify option value was forced to be true. Now you can set insecureSkipVerify to true or false, and provide a CA certificate if needed. (NETOBSERV-1087)

1.3.4. Known issues

Since the 1.2.0 release of the Network Observability Operator, using Loki Operator 5.6, a Loki certificate change periodically affects the flowlogs-pipeline pods and results in dropped flows rather than flows written to Loki. The problem self-corrects after some time, but it still causes temporary flow data loss during the Loki certificate change. This issue has only been observed in large-scale environments of 120 nodes or greater. (NETOBSERV-980)
Currently, when spec.agent.ebpf.features includes DNSTracking, larger DNS packets require the eBPF agent to look for DNS header outside of the 1st socket buffer (SKB) segment. A new eBPF agent helper function needs to be implemented to support it. Currently, there is no workaround for this issue. (NETOBSERV-1304)
Currently, when spec.agent.ebpf.features includes DNSTracking, DNS over TCP packets requires the eBPF agent to look for DNS header outside of the 1st SKB segment. A new eBPF agent helper function needs to be implemented to support it. Currently, there is no workaround for this issue. (NETOBSERV-1245)
Currently, when using a KAFKA deployment model, if conversation tracking is configured, conversation events might be duplicated across Kafka consumers, resulting in inconsistent tracking of conversations, and incorrect volumetric data. For that reason, it is not recommended to configure conversation tracking when deploymentModel is set to KAFKA. (NETOBSERV-926)
Currently, when the processor.metrics.server.tls.type is configured to use a PROVIDED certificate, the operator enters an unsteady state that might affect its performance and resource consumption. It is recommended to not use a PROVIDED certificate until this issue is resolved, and instead using an auto-generated certificate, setting processor.metrics.server.tls.type to AUTO. (NETOBSERV-1293

1.4. Network Observability Operator 1.3.0

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.3.0:

RHSA-2023:3905 Network Observability Operator 1.3.0

1.4.1. Channel deprecation

You must switch your channel from v1.0.x to stable to receive future Operator updates. The v1.0.x channel is deprecated and planned for removal in the next release.

1.4.2. New features and enhancements

1.4.2.1. Multi-tenancy in Network Observability

System administrators can allow and restrict individual user access, or group access, to the flows stored in Loki. For more information, see Multi-tenancy in Network Observability.

1.4.2.2. Flow-based metrics dashboard

This release adds a new dashboard, which provides an overview of the network flows in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. For more information, see Network Observability metrics.

1.4.2.3. Troubleshooting with the must-gather tool

Information about the Network Observability Operator can now be included in the must-gather data for troubleshooting. For more information, see Network Observability must-gather.

1.4.2.4. Multiple architectures now supported

Network Observability Operator can now run on an amd64, ppc64le, or arm64 architectures. Previously, it only ran on amd64.

1.4.3. Deprecated features

1.4.3.1. Deprecated configuration parameter setting

The release of Network Observability Operator 1.3 deprecates the spec.Loki.authToken HOST setting. When using the Loki Operator, you must now only use the FORWARD setting.

1.4.4. Bug fixes

Previously, when the Operator was installed from the CLI, the Role and RoleBinding that are necessary for the Cluster Monitoring Operator to read the metrics were not installed as expected. The issue did not occur when the operator was installed from the web console. Now, either way of installing the Operator installs the required Role and RoleBinding. (NETOBSERV-1003)
Since version 1.2, the Network Observability Operator can raise alerts when a problem occurs with the flows collection. Previously, due to a bug, the related configuration to disable alerts, spec.processor.metrics.disableAlerts was not working as expected and sometimes ineffectual. Now, this configuration is fixed so that it is possible to disable the alerts. (NETOBSERV-976)
Previously, when Network Observability was configured with spec.loki.authToken set to DISABLED, only a kubeadmin cluster administrator was able to view network flows. Other types of cluster administrators received authorization failure. Now, any cluster administrator is able to view network flows. (NETOBSERV-972)
Previously, a bug prevented users from setting spec.consolePlugin.portNaming.enable to false. Now, this setting can be set to false to disable port-to-service name translation. (NETOBSERV-971)
Previously, the metrics exposed by the console plugin were not collected by the Cluster Monitoring Operator (Prometheus), due to an incorrect configuration. Now the configuration has been fixed so that the console plugin metrics are correctly collected and accessible from the OpenShift Container Platform web console. (NETOBSERV-765)
Previously, when processor.metrics.tls was set to AUTO in the FlowCollector, the flowlogs-pipeline servicemonitor did not adapt the appropriate TLS scheme, and metrics were not visible in the web console. Now the issue is fixed for AUTO mode. (NETOBSERV-1070)
Previously, certificate configuration, such as used for Kafka and Loki, did not allow specifying a namespace field, implying that the certificates had to be in the same namespace where Network Observability is deployed. Moreover, when using Kafka with TLS/mTLS, the user had to manually copy the certificate(s) to the privileged namespace where the eBPF agent pods are deployed and manually manage certificate updates, such as in the case of certificate rotation. Now, Network Observability setup is simplified by adding a namespace field for certificates in the FlowCollector resource. As a result, users can now install Loki or Kafka in different namespaces without needing to manually copy their certificates in the Network Observability namespace. The original certificates are watched so that the copies are automatically updated when needed. (NETOBSERV-773)
Previously, the SCTP, ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 protocols were not covered by the Network Observability agents, resulting in a less comprehensive network flows coverage. These protocols are now recognized to improve the flows coverage. (NETOBSERV-934)

1.4.5. Known issues

When processor.metrics.tls is set to PROVIDED in the FlowCollector, the flowlogs-pipeline servicemonitor is not adapted to the TLS scheme. (NETOBSERV-1087)
Since the 1.2.0 release of the Network Observability Operator, using Loki Operator 5.6, a Loki certificate change periodically affects the flowlogs-pipeline pods and results in dropped flows rather than flows written to Loki. The problem self-corrects after some time, but it still causes temporary flow data loss during the Loki certificate change. This issue has only been observed in large-scale environments of 120 nodes or greater.(NETOBSERV-980)

1.5. Network Observability Operator 1.2.0

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.2.0:

RHSA-2023:1817 Network Observability Operator 1.2.0

1.5.1. Preparing for the next update

The subscription of an installed Operator specifies an update channel that tracks and receives updates for the Operator. Until the 1.2 release of the Network Observability Operator, the only channel available was v1.0.x. The 1.2 release of the Network Observability Operator introduces the stable update channel for tracking and receiving updates. You must switch your channel from v1.0.x to stable to receive future Operator updates. The v1.0.x channel is deprecated and planned for removal in a following release.

1.5.2. New features and enhancements

1.5.2.1. Histogram in Traffic Flows view

You can now choose to show a histogram bar chart of flows over time. The histogram enables you to visualize the history of flows without hitting the Loki query limit. For more information, see Using the histogram.

1.5.2.2. Conversation tracking

You can now query flows by Log Type, which enables grouping network flows that are part of the same conversation. For more information, see Working with conversations.

1.5.2.3. Network Observability health alerts

The Network Observability Operator now creates automatic alerts if the flowlogs-pipeline is dropping flows because of errors at the write stage or if the Loki ingestion rate limit has been reached. For more information, see Viewing health information.

1.5.3. Bug fixes

Previously, after changing the namespace value in the FlowCollector spec, eBPF agent pods running in the previous namespace were not appropriately deleted. Now, the pods running in the previous namespace are appropriately deleted. (NETOBSERV-774)
Previously, after changing the caCert.name value in the FlowCollector spec (such as in Loki section), FlowLogs-Pipeline pods and Console plug-in pods were not restarted, therefore they were unaware of the configuration change. Now, the pods are restarted, so they get the configuration change. (NETOBSERV-772)
Previously, network flows between pods running on different nodes were sometimes not correctly identified as being duplicates because they are captured by different network interfaces. This resulted in over-estimated metrics displayed in the console plug-in. Now, flows are correctly identified as duplicates, and the console plug-in displays accurate metrics. (NETOBSERV-755)
The "reporter" option in the console plug-in is used to filter flows based on the observation point of either source node or destination node. Previously, this option mixed the flows regardless of the node observation point. This was due to network flows being incorrectly reported as Ingress or Egress at the node level. Now, the network flow direction reporting is correct. The "reporter" option filters for source observation point, or destination observation point, as expected. (NETOBSERV-696)
Previously, for agents configured to send flows directly to the processor as gRPC+protobuf requests, the submitted payload could be too large and is rejected by the processors' GRPC server. This occurred under very-high-load scenarios and with only some configurations of the agent. The agent logged an error message, such as: grpc: received message larger than max. As a consequence, there was information loss about those flows. Now, the gRPC payload is split into several messages when the size exceeds a threshold. As a result, the server maintains connectivity. (NETOBSERV-617)

1.5.4. Known issue

In the 1.2.0 release of the Network Observability Operator, using Loki Operator 5.6, a Loki certificate transition periodically affects the flowlogs-pipeline pods and results in dropped flows rather than flows written to Loki. The problem self-corrects after some time, but it still causes temporary flow data loss during the Loki certificate transition. (NETOBSERV-980)

1.5.5. Notable technical changes

Previously, you could install the Network Observability Operator using a custom namespace. This release introduces the conversion webhook which changes the ClusterServiceVersion. Because of this change, all the available namespaces are no longer listed. Additionally, to enable Operator metrics collection, namespaces that are shared with other Operators, like the openshift-operators namespace, cannot be used. Now, the Operator must be installed in the openshift-netobserv-operator namespace. You cannot automatically upgrade to the new Operator version if you previously installed the Network Observability Operator using a custom namespace. If you previously installed the Operator using a custom namespace, you must delete the instance of the Operator that was installed and re-install your operator in the openshift-netobserv-operator namespace. It is important to note that custom namespaces, such as the commonly used netobserv namespace, are still possible for the FlowCollector, Loki, Kafka, and other plug-ins. (NETOBSERV-907)(NETOBSERV-956)

1.6. Network Observability Operator 1.1.0

The following advisory is available for the Network Observability Operator 1.1.0:

RHSA-2023:0786 Network Observability Operator Security Advisory Update

The Network Observability Operator is now stable and the release channel is upgraded to v1.1.0.

1.6.1. Bug fix

Previously, unless the Loki authToken configuration was set to FORWARD mode, authentication was no longer enforced, allowing any user who could connect to the OpenShift Container Platform console in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to retrieve flows without authentication. Now, regardless of the Loki authToken mode, only cluster administrators can retrieve flows. (BZ#2169468)

Chapter 2. About Network Observability

Red Hat offers cluster administrators the Network Observability Operator to observe the network traffic for OpenShift Container Platform clusters. The Network Observability Operator uses the eBPF technology to create network flows. The network flows are then enriched with OpenShift Container Platform information and stored in Loki. You can view and analyze the stored network flows information in the OpenShift Container Platform console for further insight and troubleshooting.

2.1. Optional dependencies of the Network Observability Operator

Loki Operator: Loki is the backend that is used to store all collected flows. It is recommended to install Loki to use with the Network Observability Operator. You can choose to use Network Observability without Loki, but there are some considerations for doing this, as described in the linked section. If you choose to install Loki, it is recommended to use the Loki Operator, as it is supported by Red Hat.
Grafana Operator: You can install Grafana for creating custom dashboards and querying capabilities, by using an open source product, such as the Grafana Operator. Red Hat does not support the Grafana Operator.
AMQ Streams Operator: Kafka provides scalability, resiliency and high availability in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster for large scale deployments. If you choose to use Kafka, it is recommended to use the AMQ Streams Operator, because it is supported by Red Hat.

2.2. Network Observability Operator

The Network Observability Operator provides the Flow Collector API custom resource definition. A Flow Collector instance is created during installation and enables configuration of network flow collection. The Flow Collector instance deploys pods and services that form a monitoring pipeline where network flows are then collected and enriched with the Kubernetes metadata before storing in Loki. The eBPF agent, which is deployed as a daemonset object, creates the network flows.

2.3. OpenShift Container Platform console integration

OpenShift Container Platform console integration offers overview, topology view and traffic flow tables.

2.3.1. Network Observability metrics dashboards

On the Overview tab in the OpenShift Container Platform console, you can view the overall aggregated metrics of the network traffic flow on the cluster. You can choose to display the information by node, namespace, owner, pod, and service. Filters and display options can further refine the metrics.

In Observe → Dashboards, the Netobserv dashboard provides a quick overview of the network flows in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. You can view distillations of the network traffic metrics in the following categories:

Top byte rates received per source and destination nodes
Top byte rates received per source and destination namespaces
Top byte rates received per source and destination workloads

Infrastructure and Application metrics are shown in a split-view for namespace and workloads. You can configure the FlowCollector spec.processor.metrics to add or remove metrics by changing the ignoreTags list. For more information about available tags, see the Flow Collector API Reference

Also in Observe → Dashboards, the Netobserv/Health dashboard provides metrics about the health of the Operator in the following categories.

Flows
Flows Overhead
Top flow rates per source and destination nodes
Top flow rates per source and destination namespaces
Top flow rates per source and destination workloads
Agents
Processor
Operator

Infrastructure and Application metrics are shown in a split-view for namespace and workloads.

2.3.2. Network Observability topology views

The OpenShift Container Platform console offers the Topology tab which displays a graphical representation of the network flows and the amount of traffic. The topology view represents traffic between the OpenShift Container Platform components as a network graph. You can refine the graph by using the filters and display options. You can access the information for node, namespace, owner, pod, and service.

2.3.3. Traffic flow tables

The traffic flow table view provides a view for raw flows, non aggregated filtering options, and configurable columns. The OpenShift Container Platform console offers the Traffic flows tab which displays the data of the network flows and the amount of traffic.

Chapter 3. Installing the Network Observability Operator

Installing Loki is a recommended prerequisite for using the Network Observability Operator. You can choose to use Network Observability without Loki, but there are some considerations for doing this, described in the previously linked section.

The Loki Operator integrates a gateway that implements multi-tenancy and authentication with Loki for data flow storage. The LokiStack resource manages Loki, which is a scalable, highly-available, multi-tenant log aggregation system, and a web proxy with OpenShift Container Platform authentication. The LokiStack proxy uses OpenShift Container Platform authentication to enforce multi-tenancy and facilitate the saving and indexing of data in Loki log stores.

Note

The Loki Operator can also be used for configuring the LokiStack log store. The Network Observability Operator requires a dedicated LokiStack separate from the logging.

3.1. Network Observability without Loki

You can use Network Observability without Loki by not performing the Loki installation steps and skipping directly to "Installing the Network Observability Operator". If you only want to export flows to a Kafka consumer or IPFIX collector, or you only need dashboard metrics, then you do not need to install Loki or provide storage for Loki. Without Loki, there won’t be a Network Traffic panel under Observe, which means there is no overview charts, flow table, or topology. The following table compares available features with and without Loki:

Table 3.1. Comparison of feature availability with and without Loki
	With Loki	Without Loki
Exporters
Flow-based metrics and dashboards
Traffic Flow Overview, Table and Topology views
Quick Filters
OpenShift Container Platform console Network Traffic tab integration

Additional resources

Export enriched network flow data.

3.2. Installing the Loki Operator

The Loki Operator versions 5.7+ are the supported Loki Operator versions for Network Observabilty; these versions provide the ability to create a LokiStack instance using the openshift-network tenant configuration mode and provide fully-automatic, in-cluster authentication and authorization support for Network Observability. There are several ways you can install Loki. One way is by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console Operator Hub.

Prerequisites

Supported Log Store (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Swift, Minio, OpenShift Data Foundation)
OpenShift Container Platform 4.10+
Linux Kernel 4.18+

Procedure

In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click Operators → OperatorHub.
Choose Loki Operator from the list of available Operators, and click Install.
Under Installation Mode, select All namespaces on the cluster.

Verification

Verify that you installed the Loki Operator. Visit the Operators → Installed Operators page and look for Loki Operator.
Verify that Loki Operator is listed with Status as Succeeded in all the projects.

Important

To uninstall Loki, refer to the uninstallation process that corresponds with the method you used to install Loki. You might have remaining ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings, data stored in object store, and persistent volume that must be removed.

3.2.1. Creating a secret for Loki storage

The Loki Operator supports a few log storage options, such as AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Swift, Minio, OpenShift Data Foundation. The following example shows how to create a secret for AWS S3 storage. The secret created in this example, loki-s3, is referenced in "Creating a LokiStack resource". You can create this secret in the web console or CLI.

Using the web console, navigate to the Project → All Projects dropdown and select Create Project. Name the project netobserv and click Create.
Navigate to the Import icon, +, in the top right corner. Paste your YAML file into the editor.
The following shows an example secret YAML file for S3 storage:
```
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: loki-s3
  namespace: netobserv   1
stringData:
  access_key_id: QUtJQUlPU0ZPRE5ON0VYQU1QTEUK
  access_key_secret: d0phbHJYVXRuRkVNSS9LN01ERU5HL2JQeFJmaUNZRVhBTVBMRUtFWQo=
  bucketnames: s3-bucket-name
  endpoint: https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com
  region: eu-central-1
```
1
The installation examples in this documentation use the same namespace, netobserv, across all components. You can optionally use a different namespace for the different components

Verification

Once you create the secret, you should see it listed under Workloads → Secrets in the web console.

Additional resources

3.2.2. Creating a LokiStack custom resource

You can deploy a LokiStack using the web console or CLI to create a namespace, or new project.

Important

Querying application logs for multiple namespaces as a cluster-admin user, where the sum total of characters of all of the namespaces in the cluster is greater than 5120, results in the error Parse error: input size too long (XXXX > 5120). For better control over access to logs in LokiStack, make the cluster-admin user a member of the cluster-admin group. If the cluster-admin group does not exist, create it and add the desired users to it.

For more information about creating a cluster-admin group, see the "Additional resources" section.

Procedure

Navigate to Operators → Installed Operators, viewing All projects from the Project dropdown.
Look for Loki Operator. In the details, under Provided APIs, select LokiStack.
Click Create LokiStack.
Ensure the following fields are specified in either Form View or YAML view:
```
apiVersion: loki.grafana.com/v1
kind: LokiStack
metadata:
  name: loki
  namespace: netobserv   1
spec:
  size: 1x.small
  storage:
    schemas:
    - version: v12
      effectiveDate: '2022-06-01'
    secret:
      name: loki-s3
      type: s3
  storageClassName: gp3  2
  tenants:
    mode: openshift-network
```
1
The installation examples in this documentation use the same namespace, netobserv, across all components. You can optionally use a different namespace.
2
Use a storage class name that is available on the cluster for ReadWriteOnce access mode. You can use oc get storageclasses to see what is available on your cluster.
Important
You must not reuse the same LokiStack that is used for cluster logging.
Click Create.

3.2.2.1. Deployment Sizing

Sizing for Loki follows the format of N<x>.<size> where the value <N> is the number of instances and <size> specifies performance capabilities.

Note

1x.extra-small is for demo purposes only, and is not supported.

Table 3.2. Loki Sizing
	1x.extra-small	1x.small	1x.medium
Data transfer	Demo use only.	500GB/day	2TB/day
Queries per second (QPS)	Demo use only.	25-50 QPS at 200ms	25-75 QPS at 200ms
Replication factor	None	2	3
Total CPU requests	5 vCPUs	36 vCPUs	54 vCPUs
Total Memory requests	7.5Gi	63Gi	139Gi
Total Disk requests	150Gi	300Gi	450Gi

Additional resources

Creating a new group for the cluster-admin user role

3.2.3. LokiStack ingestion limits and health alerts

The LokiStack instance comes with default settings according to the configured size. It is possible to override some of these settings, such as the ingestion and query limits. You might want to update them if you get Loki errors showing up in the Console plugin, or in flowlogs-pipeline logs. An automatic alert in the web console notifies you when these limits are reached.

Here is an example of configured limits:

spec:
  limits:
    global:
      ingestion:
        ingestionBurstSize: 40
        ingestionRate: 20
        maxGlobalStreamsPerTenant: 25000
      queries:
        maxChunksPerQuery: 2000000
        maxEntriesLimitPerQuery: 10000
        maxQuerySeries: 3000

For more information about these settings, see the LokiStack API reference.

3.2.4. Configuring authorization and multi-tenancy

Define ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding. The netobserv-reader ClusterRole enables multi-tenancy and allows individual user access, or group access, to the flows stored in Loki. You can create a YAML file to define these roles.

Procedure

Using the web console, click the Import icon, +.
Drop your YAML file into the editor and click Create:

Example ClusterRole reader yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: netobserv-reader    1
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - 'loki.grafana.com'
  resources:
  - network
  resourceNames:
  - logs
  verbs:
  - 'get'

1: This role can be used for multi-tenancy.

Example ClusterRole writer yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: netobserv-writer
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - 'loki.grafana.com'
  resources:
  - network
  resourceNames:
  - logs
  verbs:
  - 'create'

Example ClusterRoleBinding yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: netobserv-writer-flp
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: netobserv-writer
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: flowlogs-pipeline    1
  namespace: netobserv
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: flowlogs-pipeline-transformer
  namespace: netobserv

1: The flowlogs-pipeline writes to Loki. If you are using Kafka, this value is flowlogs-pipeline-transformer.

3.2.5. Enabling multi-tenancy in Network Observability

Multi-tenancy in the Network Observability Operator allows and restricts individual user access, or group access, to the flows stored in Loki. Access is enabled for project admins. Project admins who have limited access to some namespaces can access flows for only those namespaces.

Prerequisite

You have installed Loki Operator version 5.7
The FlowCollector spec.loki.authToken configuration must be set to FORWARD.
You must be logged in as a project administrator

Procedure

Authorize reading permission to user1 by running the following command:
```
$ oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user netobserv-reader user1
```
Now, the data is restricted to only allowed user namespaces. For example, a user that has access to a single namespace can see all the flows internal to this namespace, as well as flows going from and to this namespace. Project admins have access to the Administrator perspective in the OpenShift Container Platform console to access the Network Flows Traffic page.

3.3. Installing the Network Observability Operator

You can install the Network Observability Operator using the OpenShift Container Platform web console Operator Hub. When you install the Operator, it provides the FlowCollector custom resource definition (CRD). You can set specifications in the web console when you create the FlowCollector.

Important

The actual memory consumption of the Operator depends on your cluster size and the number of resources deployed. Memory consumption might need to be adjusted accordingly. For more information refer to "Network Observability controller manager pod runs out of memory" in the "Important Flow Collector configuration considerations" section.

Prerequisites

If you choose to use Loki, install the Loki Operator version 5.7+.
You must have cluster-admin privileges.
One of the following supported architectures is required: amd64, ppc64le, arm64, or s390x.
Any CPU supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.
Must be configured with OVN-Kubernetes or OpenShift SDN as the main network plugin, and optionally using secondary interfaces, such as Multus and SR-IOV.

Note

This documentation assumes that your LokiStack instance name is loki. Using a different name requires additional configuration.

Procedure

In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click Operators → OperatorHub.
Choose Network Observability Operator from the list of available Operators in the OperatorHub, and click Install.
Select the checkbox Enable Operator recommended cluster monitoring on this Namespace.
Navigate to Operators → Installed Operators. Under Provided APIs for Network Observability, select the Flow Collector link.
Navigate to the Flow Collector tab, and click Create FlowCollector. Make the following selections in the form view:
1. spec.agent.ebpf.Sampling: Specify a sampling size for flows. Lower sampling sizes will have higher impact on resource utilization. For more information, see the "FlowCollector API reference", spec.agent.ebpf.
2. If you are using Loki, set the following specifications:
  1. spec.loki.enable: Select the check box to enable storing flows in Loki.
  2. spec.loki.url: Since authentication is specified separately, this URL needs to be updated to https://loki-gateway-http.netobserv.svc:8080/api/logs/v1/network. The first part of the URL, "loki", must match the name of your LokiStack.
  3. spec.loki.authToken: Select the FORWARD value.
  4. spec.loki.statusUrl: Set this to https://loki-query-frontend-http.netobserv.svc:3100/. The first part of the URL, "loki", must match the name of your LokiStack.
  5. spec.loki.tls.enable: Select the checkbox to enable TLS.
  6. spec.loki.statusTls: The enable value is false by default.
    For the first part of the certificate reference names: loki-gateway-ca-bundle, loki-ca-bundle, and loki-query-frontend-http,loki, must match the name of your LokiStack.
3. Optional: If you are in a large-scale environment, consider configuring the FlowCollector with Kafka for forwarding data in a more resilient, scalable way. See "Configuring the Flow Collector resource with Kafka storage" in the "Important Flow Collector configuration considerations" section.
4. Optional: Configure other optional settings before the next step of creating the FlowCollector. For example, if you choose not to use Loki, then you can configure exporting flows to Kafka or IPFIX. See "Export enriched network flow data to Kafka and IPFIX" and more in the "Important Flow Collector configuration considerations" section.
5. Click Create.

Verification

To confirm this was successful, when you navigate to Observe you should see Network Traffic listed in the options.

In the absence of Application Traffic within the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, default filters might show that there are "No results", which results in no visual flow. Beside the filter selections, select Clear all filters to see the flow.

Important

If you installed Loki using the Loki Operator, it is advised not to use querierUrl, as it can break the console access to Loki. If you installed Loki using another type of Loki installation, this does not apply.

3.4. Important Flow Collector configuration considerations

Once you create the FlowCollector instance, you can reconfigure it, but the pods are terminated and recreated again, which can be disruptive. Therefore, you can consider configuring the following options when creating the FlowCollector for the first time:

Additional resources

For more general information about Flow Collector specifications and the Network Observability Operator architecture and resource use, see the following resources:

3.5. Installing Kafka (optional)

The Kafka Operator is supported for large scale environments. Kafka provides high-throughput and low-latency data feeds for forwarding network flow data in a more resilient, scalable way. You can install the Kafka Operator as Red Hat AMQ Streams from the Operator Hub, just as the Loki Operator and Network Observability Operator were installed. Refer to "Configuring the FlowCollector resource with Kafka" to configure Kafka as a storage option.

Note

To uninstall Kafka, refer to the uninstallation process that corresponds with the method you used to install.

Additional resources

Configuring the FlowCollector resource with Kafka.

3.6. Uninstalling the Network Observability Operator

You can uninstall the Network Observability Operator using the OpenShift Container Platform web console Operator Hub, working in the Operators → Installed Operators area.

Procedure

Remove the FlowCollector custom resource.
1. Click Flow Collector, which is next to the Network Observability Operator in the Provided APIs column.
2. Click the options menu for the cluster and select Delete FlowCollector.
Uninstall the Network Observability Operator.
1. Navigate back to the Operators → Installed Operators area.
2. Click the options menu next to the Network Observability Operator and select Uninstall Operator.
3. Home → Projects and select openshift-netobserv-operator
4. Navigate to Actions and select Delete Project
Remove the FlowCollector custom resource definition (CRD).
1. Navigate to Administration → CustomResourceDefinitions.
2. Look for FlowCollector and click the options menu .
3. Select Delete CustomResourceDefinition.
  Important
  The Loki Operator and Kafka remain if they were installed and must be removed separately. Additionally, you might have remaining data stored in an object store, and a persistent volume that must be removed.

Chapter 4. Network Observability Operator in OpenShift Container Platform

Network Observability is an OpenShift operator that deploys a monitoring pipeline to collect and enrich network traffic flows that are produced by the Network Observability eBPF agent.

4.1. Viewing statuses

The Network Observability Operator provides the Flow Collector API. When a Flow Collector resource is created, it deploys pods and services to create and store network flows in the Loki log store, as well as to display dashboards, metrics, and flows in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

Run the following command to view the state of FlowCollector:

$ oc get flowcollector/cluster

Example output

NAME      AGENT   SAMPLING (EBPF)   DEPLOYMENT MODEL   STATUS
cluster   EBPF    50                DIRECT             Ready

Check the status of pods running in the netobserv namespace by entering the following command:

$ oc get pods -n netobserv

Example output

NAME                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
flowlogs-pipeline-56hbp           1/1     Running   0          147m
flowlogs-pipeline-9plvv           1/1     Running   0          147m
flowlogs-pipeline-h5gkb           1/1     Running   0          147m
flowlogs-pipeline-hh6kf           1/1     Running   0          147m
flowlogs-pipeline-w7vv5           1/1     Running   0          147m
netobserv-plugin-cdd7dc6c-j8ggp   1/1     Running   0          147m

flowlogs-pipeline pods collect flows, enriches the collected flows, then send flows to the Loki storage. netobserv-plugin pods create a visualization plugin for the OpenShift Container Platform Console.

Check the status of pods running in the namespace netobserv-privileged by entering the following command:

$ oc get pods -n netobserv-privileged

Example output

NAME                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
netobserv-ebpf-agent-4lpp6   1/1     Running   0          151m
netobserv-ebpf-agent-6gbrk   1/1     Running   0          151m
netobserv-ebpf-agent-klpl9   1/1     Running   0          151m
netobserv-ebpf-agent-vrcnf   1/1     Running   0          151m
netobserv-ebpf-agent-xf5jh   1/1     Running   0          151m

netobserv-ebpf-agent pods monitor network interfaces of the nodes to get flows and send them to flowlogs-pipeline pods.

If you are using the Loki Operator, check the status of pods running in the openshift-operators-redhat namespace by entering the following command:

$ oc get pods -n openshift-operators-redhat

Example output

NAME                                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
loki-operator-controller-manager-5f6cff4f9d-jq25h   2/2     Running   0          18h
lokistack-compactor-0                               1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-distributor-654f87c5bc-qhkhv              1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-distributor-654f87c5bc-skxgm              1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-gateway-796dc6ff7-c54gz                   2/2     Running   0          18h
lokistack-index-gateway-0                           1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-index-gateway-1                           1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-ingester-0                                1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-ingester-1                                1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-ingester-2                                1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-querier-66747dc666-6vh5x                  1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-querier-66747dc666-cjr45                  1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-querier-66747dc666-xh8rq                  1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-query-frontend-85c6db4fbd-b2xfb           1/1     Running   0          18h
lokistack-query-frontend-85c6db4fbd-jm94f           1/1     Running   0          18h

4.2. Network Observablity Operator architecture

The Network Observability Operator provides the FlowCollector API, which is instantiated at installation and configured to reconcile the eBPF agent, the flowlogs-pipeline, and the netobserv-plugin components. Only a single FlowCollector per cluster is supported.

The eBPF agent runs on each cluster node with some privileges to collect network flows. The flowlogs-pipeline receives the network flows data and enriches the data with Kubernetes identifiers. If you are using Loki, the flowlogs-pipeline sends flow logs data to Loki for storing and indexing. The netobserv-plugin, which is a dynamic OpenShift Container Platform web console plugin, queries Loki to fetch network flows data. Cluster-admins can view the data in the web console.

Network Observability eBPF export architecture

If you are using the Kafka option, the eBPF agent sends the network flow data to Kafka, and the flowlogs-pipeline reads from the Kafka topic before sending to Loki, as shown in the following diagram.

4.3. Viewing Network Observability Operator status and configuration

You can inspect the status and view the details of the FlowCollector using the oc describe command.

Procedure

Run the following command to view the status and configuration of the Network Observability Operator:
```
$ oc describe flowcollector/cluster
```

Chapter 5. Configuring the Network Observability Operator

You can update the Flow Collector API resource to configure the Network Observability Operator and its managed components. The Flow Collector is explicitly created during installation. Since this resource operates cluster-wide, only a single FlowCollector is allowed, and it has to be named cluster.

5.1. View the FlowCollector resource

You can view and edit YAML directly in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster then select the YAML tab. There, you can modify the FlowCollector resource to configure the Network Observability operator.

The following example shows a sample FlowCollector resource for OpenShift Container Platform Network Observability operator:

Sample FlowCollector resource

apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1beta1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  namespace: netobserv
  deploymentModel: DIRECT
  agent:
    type: EBPF                                1
    ebpf:
      sampling: 50                            2
      logLevel: info
      privileged: false
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: 50Mi
          cpu: 100m
        limits:
          memory: 800Mi
  processor:
    logLevel: info
    resources:
      requests:
        memory: 100Mi
        cpu: 100m
      limits:
        memory: 800Mi
    conversationEndTimeout: 10s
    logTypes: FLOWS                            3
    conversationHeartbeatInterval: 30s
  loki:                                       4
    url: 'https://loki-gateway-http.netobserv.svc:8080/api/logs/v1/network'
    statusUrl: 'https://loki-query-frontend-http.netobserv.svc:3100/'
    authToken: FORWARD
    tls:
      enable: true
      caCert:
        type: configmap
        name: loki-gateway-ca-bundle
        certFile: service-ca.crt
        namespace: loki-namespace          #  5
  consolePlugin:
    register: true
    logLevel: info
    portNaming:
      enable: true
      portNames:
        "3100": loki
    quickFilters:                             6
    - name: Applications
      filter:
        src_namespace!: 'openshift-,netobserv'
        dst_namespace!: 'openshift-,netobserv'
      default: true
    - name: Infrastructure
      filter:
        src_namespace: 'openshift-,netobserv'
        dst_namespace: 'openshift-,netobserv'
    - name: Pods network
      filter:
        src_kind: 'Pod'
        dst_kind: 'Pod'
      default: true
    - name: Services network
      filter:
        dst_kind: 'Service'

1: The Agent specification, spec.agent.type, must be EBPF. eBPF is the only OpenShift Container Platform supported option.
2: You can set the Sampling specification, spec.agent.ebpf.sampling, to manage resources. Lower sampling values might consume a large amount of computational, memory and storage resources. You can mitigate this by specifying a sampling ratio value. A value of 100 means 1 flow every 100 is sampled. A value of 0 or 1 means all flows are captured. The lower the value, the increase in returned flows and the accuracy of derived metrics. By default, eBPF sampling is set to a value of 50, so 1 flow every 50 is sampled. Note that more sampled flows also means more storage needed. It is recommend to start with default values and refine empirically, to determine which setting your cluster can manage.
3: The optional specifications spec.processor.logTypes, spec.processor.conversationHeartbeatInterval, and spec.processor.conversationEndTimeout can be set to enable conversation tracking. When enabled, conversation events are queryable in the web console. The values for spec.processor.logTypes are as follows: FLOWS CONVERSATIONS, ENDED_CONVERSATIONS, or ALL. Storage requirements are highest for ALL and lowest for ENDED_CONVERSATIONS.
4: The Loki specification, spec.loki, specifies the Loki client. The default values match the Loki install paths mentioned in the Installing the Loki Operator section. If you used another installation method for Loki, specify the appropriate client information for your install.
5: The original certificates are copied to the Network Observability instance namespace and watched for updates. When not provided, the namespace defaults to be the same as "spec.namespace". If you chose to install Loki in a different namespace, you must specify it in the spec.loki.tls.caCert.namespace field. Similarly, the spec.exporters.kafka.tls.caCert.namespace field is available for Kafka installed in a different namespace.
6: The spec.quickFilters specification defines filters that show up in the web console. The Application filter keys,src_namespace and dst_namespace, are negated (!), so the Application filter shows all traffic that does not originate from, or have a destination to, any openshift- or netobserv namespaces. For more information, see Configuring quick filters below.

Additional resources

For more information about conversation tracking, see Working with conversations.

5.2. Configuring the Flow Collector resource with Kafka

You can configure the FlowCollector resource to use Kafka for high-throughput and low-latency data feeds. A Kafka instance needs to be running, and a Kafka topic dedicated to OpenShift Container Platform Network Observability must be created in that instance. For more information, see Kafka documentation with AMQ Streams.

Prerequisites

Kafka is installed. Red Hat supports Kafka with AMQ Streams Operator.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the Network Observability Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select the cluster and then click the YAML tab.
Modify the FlowCollector resource for OpenShift Container Platform Network Observability Operator to use Kafka, as shown in the following sample YAML:

Sample Kafka configuration in FlowCollector resource

apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1beta1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  deploymentModel: KAFKA                                    1
  kafka:
    address: "kafka-cluster-kafka-bootstrap.netobserv"      2
    topic: network-flows                                    3
    tls:
      enable: false                                         4

1: Set spec.deploymentModel to KAFKA instead of DIRECT to enable the Kafka deployment model.
2: spec.kafka.address refers to the Kafka bootstrap server address. You can specify a port if needed, for instance kafka-cluster-kafka-bootstrap.netobserv:9093 for using TLS on port 9093.
3: spec.kafka.topic should match the name of a topic created in Kafka.
4: spec.kafka.tls can be used to encrypt all communications to and from Kafka with TLS or mTLS. When enabled, the Kafka CA certificate must be available as a ConfigMap or a Secret, both in the namespace where the flowlogs-pipeline processor component is deployed (default: netobserv) and where the eBPF agents are deployed (default: netobserv-privileged). It must be referenced with spec.kafka.tls.caCert. When using mTLS, client secrets must be available in these namespaces as well (they can be generated for instance using the AMQ Streams User Operator) and referenced with spec.kafka.tls.userCert.

5.3. Export enriched network flow data

You can send network flows to Kafka, IPFIX, or both at the same time. Any processor or storage that supports Kafka or IPFIX input, such as Splunk, Elasticsearch, or Fluentd, can consume the enriched network flow data.

Prerequisites

Your Kafka or IPFIX collector endpoint(s) are available from Network Observability flowlogs-pipeline pods.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster and then select the YAML tab.
Edit the FlowCollector to configure spec.exporters as follows:
```
apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  exporters:
  - type: KAFKA                         1
      kafka:
        address: "kafka-cluster-kafka-bootstrap.netobserv"
        topic: netobserv-flows-export   2
        tls:
          enable: false                 3
  - type: IPFIX                         4
      ipfix:
        targetHost: "ipfix-collector.ipfix.svc.cluster.local"
        targetPort: 4739
        transport: tcp or udp           5
```
2
The Network Observability Operator exports all flows to the configured Kafka topic.
3
You can encrypt all communications to and from Kafka with SSL/TLS or mTLS. When enabled, the Kafka CA certificate must be available as a ConfigMap or a Secret, both in the namespace where the flowlogs-pipeline processor component is deployed (default: netobserv). It must be referenced with spec.exporters.tls.caCert. When using mTLS, client secrets must be available in these namespaces as well (they can be generated for instance using the AMQ Streams User Operator) and referenced with spec.exporters.tls.userCert.
1 4
You can export flows to IPFIX instead of or in conjunction with exporting flows to Kafka.
5
You have the option to specify transport. The default value is tcp but you can also specify udp.
After configuration, network flows data can be sent to an available output in a JSON format. For more information, see Network flows format reference.

Additional resources

For more information about specifying flow format, see Network flows format reference.

5.4. Updating the Flow Collector resource

As an alternative to editing YAML in the OpenShift Container Platform web console, you can configure specifications, such as eBPF sampling, by patching the flowcollector custom resource (CR):

Procedure

Run the following command to patch the flowcollector CR and update the spec.agent.ebpf.sampling value:

$ oc patch flowcollector cluster --type=json -p "[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/agent/ebpf/sampling", "value": <new value>}] -n netobserv"

5.5. Configuring quick filters

You can modify the filters in the FlowCollector resource. Exact matches are possible using double-quotes around values. Otherwise, partial matches are used for textual values. The bang (!) character, placed at the end of a key, means negation. See the sample FlowCollector resource for more context about modifying the YAML.

Note

The filter matching types "all of" or "any of" is a UI setting that the users can modify from the query options. It is not part of this resource configuration.

Here is a list of all available filter keys:

Table 5.1. Filter keys
Universal*	Source	Destination	Description
namespace	`src_namespace`	`dst_namespace`	Filter traffic related to a specific namespace.
name	`src_name`	`dst_name`	Filter traffic related to a given leaf resource name, such as a specific pod, service, or node (for host-network traffic).
kind	`src_kind`	`dst_kind`	Filter traffic related to a given resource kind. The resource kinds include the leaf resource (Pod, Service or Node), or the owner resource (Deployment and StatefulSet).
owner_name	`src_owner_name`	`dst_owner_name`	Filter traffic related to a given resource owner; that is, a workload or a set of pods. For example, it can be a Deployment name, a StatefulSet name, etc.
resource	`src_resource`	`dst_resource`	Filter traffic related to a specific resource that is denoted by its canonical name, that identifies it uniquely. The canonical notation is `kind.namespace.name` for namespaced kinds, or `node.name` for nodes. For example, `Deployment.my-namespace.my-web-server`.
address	`src_address`	`dst_address`	Filter traffic related to an IP address. IPv4 and IPv6 are supported. CIDR ranges are also supported.
mac	`src_mac`	`dst_mac`	Filter traffic related to a MAC address.
port	`src_port`	`dst_port`	Filter traffic related to a specific port.
host_address	`src_host_address`	`dst_host_address`	Filter traffic related to the host IP address where the pods are running.
protocol	N/A	N/A	Filter traffic related to a protocol, such as TCP or UDP.

Universal keys filter for any of source or destination. For example, filtering name: 'my-pod' means all traffic from my-pod and all traffic to my-pod, regardless of the matching type used, whether Match all or Match any.

5.6. Configuring monitoring for SR-IOV interface traffic

In order to collect traffic from a cluster with a Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) device, you must set the FlowCollector spec.agent.ebpf.privileged field to true. Then, the eBPF agent monitors other network namespaces in addition to the host network namespaces, which are monitored by default. When a pod with a virtual functions (VF) interface is created, a new network namespace is created. With SRIOVNetwork policy IPAM configurations specified, the VF interface is migrated from the host network namespace to the pod network namespace.

Prerequisites

Access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster with a SR-IOV device.
The SRIOVNetwork custom resource (CR) spec.ipam configuration must be set with an IP address from the range that the interface lists or from other plugins.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster and then select the YAML tab.
Configure the FlowCollector custom resource. A sample configuration is as follows:
Configure FlowCollector for SR-IOV monitoring
```
apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  namespace: netobserv
  deploymentModel: DIRECT
  agent:
    type: EBPF
    ebpf:
      privileged: true   1
```
1
The spec.agent.ebpf.privileged field value must be set to true to enable SR-IOV monitoring.

Additional resources

For more information about creating the SriovNetwork custom resource, see Creating an additional SR-IOV network attachment with the CNI VRF plugin.

5.7. Resource management and performance considerations

The amount of resources required by Network Observability depends on the size of your cluster and your requirements for the cluster to ingest and store observability data. To manage resources and set performance criteria for your cluster, consider configuring the following settings. Configuring these settings might meet your optimal setup and observability needs.

The following settings can help you manage resources and performance from the outset:

eBPF Sampling: You can set the Sampling specification, spec.agent.ebpf.sampling, to manage resources. Smaller sampling values might consume a large amount of computational, memory and storage resources. You can mitigate this by specifying a sampling ratio value. A value of 100 means 1 flow every 100 is sampled. A value of 0 or 1 means all flows are captured. Smaller values result in an increase in returned flows and the accuracy of derived metrics. By default, eBPF sampling is set to a value of 50, so 1 flow every 50 is sampled. Note that more sampled flows also means more storage needed. Consider starting with the default values and refine empirically, in order to determine which setting your cluster can manage.
Restricting or excluding interfaces: Reduce the overall observed traffic by setting the values for spec.agent.ebpf.interfaces and spec.agent.ebpf.excludeInterfaces. By default, the agent fetches all the interfaces in the system, except the ones listed in excludeInterfaces and lo (local interface). Note that the interface names might vary according to the Container Network Interface (CNI) used.

The following settings can be used to fine-tune performance after the Network Observability has been running for a while:

Resource requirements and limits: Adapt the resource requirements and limits to the load and memory usage you expect on your cluster by using the spec.agent.ebpf.resources and spec.processor.resources specifications. The default limits of 800MB might be sufficient for most medium-sized clusters.
Cache max flows timeout: Control how often flows are reported by the agents by using the eBPF agent’s spec.agent.ebpf.cacheMaxFlows and spec.agent.ebpf.cacheActiveTimeout specifications. A larger value results in less traffic being generated by the agents, which correlates with a lower CPU load. However, a larger value leads to a slightly higher memory consumption, and might generate more latency in the flow collection.

5.7.1. Resource considerations

The following table outlines examples of resource considerations for clusters with certain workload sizes.

Important

The examples outlined in the table demonstrate scenarios that are tailored to specific workloads. Consider each example only as a baseline from which adjustments can be made to accommodate your workload needs.

Table 5.2. Resource recommendations
	Extra small (10 nodes)	Small (25 nodes)	Medium (65 nodes) ^[2]	Large (120 nodes) ^[2]
Worker Node vCPU and memory	4 vCPUs\| 16GiB mem ^[1]	16 vCPUs\| 64GiB mem ^[1]	16 vCPUs\| 64GiB mem ^[1]	16 vCPUs\| 64GiB Mem ^[1]
LokiStack size	`1x.extra-small`	`1x.small`	`1x.small`	`1x.medium`
Network Observability controller memory limit	400Mi (default)	400Mi (default)	400Mi (default)	800Mi
eBPF sampling rate	50 (default)	50 (default)	50 (default)	50 (default)
eBPF memory limit	800Mi (default)	800Mi (default)	2000Mi	800Mi (default)
FLP memory limit	800Mi (default)	800Mi (default)	800Mi (default)	800Mi (default)
FLP Kafka partitions	N/A	48	48	48
Kafka consumer replicas	N/A	24	24	24
Kafka brokers	N/A	3 (default)	3 (default)	3 (default)

Tested with AWS M6i instances.
In addition to this worker and its controller, 3 infra nodes (size M6i.12xlarge) and 1 workload node (size M6i.8xlarge) were tested.

Chapter 6. Network Policy

As a user with the admin role, you can create a network policy for the netobserv namespace.

6.1. Creating a network policy for Network Observability

You might need to create a network policy to secure ingress traffic to the netobserv namespace. In the web console, you can create a network policy using the form view.

Procedure

Navigate to Networking → NetworkPolicies.
Select the netobserv project from the Project dropdown menu.
Name the policy. For this example, the policy name is allow-ingress.
Click Add ingress rule three times to create three ingress rules.
Specify the following in the form:
1. Make the following specifications for the first Ingress rule:
  1. From the Add allowed source dropdown menu, select Allow pods from the same namespace.
2. Make the following specifications for the second Ingress rule:
  1. From the Add allowed source dropdown menu, select Allow pods from inside the cluster.
  2. Click + Add namespace selector.
  3. Add the label, kubernetes.io/metadata.name, and the selector, openshift-console.
3. Make the following specifications for the third Ingress rule:
  1. From the Add allowed source dropdown menu, select Allow pods from inside the cluster.
  2. Click + Add namespace selector.
  3. Add the label, kubernetes.io/metadata.name, and the selector, openshift-monitoring.

Verification

Navigate to Observe → Network Traffic.
View the Traffic Flows tab, or any tab, to verify that the data is displayed.
Navigate to Observe → Dashboards. In the NetObserv/Health selection, verify that the flows are being ingested and sent to Loki, which is represented in the first graph.

6.2. Example network policy

The following annotates an example NetworkPolicy object for the netobserv namespace:

Sample network policy

kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: allow-ingress
  namespace: netobserv
spec:
  podSelector: {}            1
  ingress:
    - from:
        - podSelector: {}    2
          namespaceSelector: 3
            matchLabels:
              kubernetes.io/metadata.name: openshift-console
        - podSelector: {}
          namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              kubernetes.io/metadata.name: openshift-monitoring
  policyTypes:
    - Ingress
status: {}

1: A selector that describes the pods to which the policy applies. The policy object can only select pods in the project that defines the NetworkPolicy object. In this documentation, it would be the project in which the Network Observability Operator is installed, which is the netobserv project.
2: A selector that matches the pods from which the policy object allows ingress traffic. The default is that the selector matches pods in the same namespace as the NetworkPolicy.
3: When the namespaceSelector is specified, the selector matches pods in the specified namespace.

Additional resources

Creating a network policy using the CLI

Chapter 7. Observing the network traffic

As an administrator, you can observe the network traffic in the OpenShift Container Platform console for detailed troubleshooting and analysis. This feature helps you get insights from different graphical representations of traffic flow. There are several available views to observe the network traffic.

7.1. Observing the network traffic from the Overview view

The Overview view displays the overall aggregated metrics of the network traffic flow on the cluster. As an administrator, you can monitor the statistics with the available display options.

7.1.1. Working with the Overview view

As an administrator, you can navigate to the Overview view to see the graphical representation of the flow rate statistics.

Procedure

Navigate to Observe → Network Traffic.
In the Network Traffic page, click the Overview tab.

You can configure the scope of each flow rate data by clicking the menu icon.

7.1.2. Configuring advanced options for the Overview view

You can customize the graphical view by using advanced options. To access the advanced options, click Show advanced options.You can configure the details in the graph by using the Display options drop-down menu. The options available are:

Metric type: The metrics to be shown in Bytes or Packets. The default value is Bytes.
Scope: To select the detail of components between which the network traffic flows. You can set the scope to Node, Namespace, Owner, or Resource. Owner is an aggregation of resources. Resource can be a pod, service, node, in case of host-network traffic, or an unknown IP address. The default value is Namespace.
Truncate labels: Select the required width of the label from the drop-down list. The default value is M.

7.1.2.1. Managing panels

You can select the required statistics to be displayed, and reorder them. To manage columns, click Manage panels.

7.1.2.2. DNS tracking

You can configure graphical representation of Domain Name System (DNS) tracking of network flows in the Overview view. Using DNS tracking with extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) tracepoint hooks can serve various purposes:

Network Monitoring: Gain insights into DNS queries and responses, helping network administrators identify unusual patterns, potential bottlenecks, or performance issues.
Security Analysis: Detect suspicious DNS activities, such as domain name generation algorithms (DGA) used by malware, or identify unauthorized DNS resolutions that might indicate a security breach.
Troubleshooting: Debug DNS-related issues by tracing DNS resolution steps, tracking latency, and identifying misconfigurations.

When DNS tracking is enabled, you can see the following metrics represented in a chart in the Overview. See the Additional Resources in this section for more information about enabling and working with this view.

Top 5 average DNS latencies
Top 5 DNS response code
Top 5 DNS response code stacked with total

This feature is supported for IPv4 and IPv6 UDP protocol.

Additional resources

For more information about configuring DNS in the FlowCollector, see Working with DNS tracking.

7.2. Observing the network traffic from the Traffic flows view

The Traffic flows view displays the data of the network flows and the amount of traffic in a table. As an administrator, you can monitor the amount of traffic across the application by using the traffic flow table.

7.2.1. Working with the Traffic flows view

As an administrator, you can navigate to Traffic flows table to see network flow information.

Procedure

Navigate to Observe → Network Traffic.
In the Network Traffic page, click the Traffic flows tab.

You can click on each row to get the corresponding flow information.

7.2.2. Configuring advanced options for the Traffic flows view

You can customize and export the view by using Show advanced options. You can set the row size by using the Display options drop-down menu. The default value is Normal.

7.2.2.1. Managing columns

You can select the required columns to be displayed, and reorder them. To manage columns, click Manage columns.

7.2.2.2. Exporting the traffic flow data

You can export data from the Traffic flows view.

Procedure

Click Export data.
In the pop-up window, you can select the Export all data checkbox to export all the data, and clear the checkbox to select the required fields to be exported.
Click Export.

7.2.3. Working with conversation tracking

As an administrator, you can you can group network flows that are part of the same conversation. A conversation is defined as a grouping of peers that are identified by their IP addresses, ports, and protocols, resulting in an unique Conversation Id. You can query conversation events in the web console. These events are represented in the web console as follows:

Conversation start: This event happens when a connection is starting or TCP flag intercepted
Conversation tick: This event happens at each specified interval defined in the FlowCollector spec.processor.conversationHeartbeatInterval parameter while the connection is active.
Conversation end: This event happens when the FlowCollector spec.processor.conversationEndTimeout parameter is reached or the TCP flag is intercepted.
Flow: This is the network traffic flow that occurs within the specified interval.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster then select the YAML tab.
Configure the FlowCollector custom resource so that spec.processor.logTypes, conversationEndTimeout, and conversationHeartbeatInterval parameters are set according to your observation needs. A sample configuration is as follows:
Configure FlowCollector for conversation tracking
```
apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
 processor:
  conversationEndTimeout: 10s                  1
  logTypes: FLOWS                              2
  conversationHeartbeatInterval: 30s           3
```
1
The Conversation end event represents the point when the conversationEndTimeout is reached or the TCP flag is intercepted.
2
When logTypes is set to FLOWS, only the Flow event is exported. If you set the value to ALL, both conversation and flow events are exported and visible in the Network Traffic page. To focus only on conversation events, you can specify CONVERSATIONS which exports the Conversation start, Conversation tick and Conversation end events; or ENDED_CONVERSATIONS exports only the Conversation end events. Storage requirements are highest for ALL and lowest for ENDED_CONVERSATIONS.
3
The Conversation tick event represents each specified interval defined in the FlowCollector conversationHeartbeatInterval parameter while the network connection is active.
Note
If you update the logType option, the flows from the previous selection do not clear from the console plugin. For example, if you initially set logType to CONVERSATIONS for a span of time until 10 AM and then move to ENDED_CONVERSATIONS, the console plugin shows all conversation events before 10 AM and only ended conversations after 10 AM.
Refresh the Network Traffic page on the Traffic flows tab. Notice there are two new columns, Event/Type and Conversation Id. All the Event/Type fields are Flow when Flow is the selected query option.
Select Query Options and choose the Log Type, Conversation. Now the Event/Type shows all of the desired conversation events.
Next you can filter on a specific conversation ID or switch between the Conversation and Flow log type options from the side panel.

7.2.4. Working with DNS tracking

Using DNS tracking, you can monitor your network, conduct security analysis, and troubleshoot DNS issues. You can track DNS by editing the FlowCollector to the specifications in the following YAML example.

Important

CPU and memory usage increases are observed in the eBPF agent when this feature is enabled.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster then select the YAML tab.
Configure the FlowCollector custom resource. A sample configuration is as follows:
Configure FlowCollector for DNS tracking
```
apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  namespace: netobserv
  deploymentModel: DIRECT
  agent:
    type: EBPF
    ebpf:
      features:
       - DNSTracking           1
      privileged: true         2
```
1
You can set the spec.agent.ebpf.features parameter list to enable DNS tracking of each network flow in the web console.
2
Note that the spec.agent.ebpf.privileged specification value must be true for DNS tracking to be enabled.
When you refresh the Network Traffic page, there are new DNS representations you can choose to view in the Overview and Traffic Flow views and new filters you can apply.
1. Select new DNS choices in Manage panels to display graphical visualizations and DNS metrics in the Overview.
2. Select new choices in Manage columns to add DNS columns to the Traffic Flows view.
3. Filter on specific DNS metrics, such as DNS Id, DNS Latency and DNS Response Code, and see more information from the side panel.

7.2.4.1. Using the histogram

You can click Show histogram to display a toolbar view for visualizing the history of flows as a bar chart. The histogram shows the number of logs over time. You can select a part of the histogram to filter the network flow data in the table that follows the toolbar.

7.3. Observing the network traffic from the Topology view

The Topology view provides a graphical representation of the network flows and the amount of traffic. As an administrator, you can monitor the traffic data across the application by using the Topology view.

7.3.1. Working with the Topology view

As an administrator, you can navigate to the Topology view to see the details and metrics of the component.

Procedure

Navigate to Observe → Network Traffic.
In the Network Traffic page, click the Topology tab.

You can click each component in the Topology to view the details and metrics of the component.

7.3.2. Configuring the advanced options for the Topology view

You can customize and export the view by using Show advanced options. The advanced options view has the following features:

Find in view: To search the required components in the view.
Display options: To configure the following options:
- Layout: To select the layout of the graphical representation. The default value is ColaNoForce.
- Scope: To select the scope of components between which the network traffic flows. The default value is Namespace.
- Groups: To enchance the understanding of ownership by grouping the components. The default value is None.
- Collapse groups: To expand or collapse the groups. The groups are expanded by default. This option is disabled if Groups has value None.
- Show: To select the details that need to be displayed. All the options are checked by default. The options available are: Edges, Edges label, and Badges.
- Truncate labels: To select the required width of the label from the drop-down list. The default value is M.

7.3.2.1. Exporting the topology view

To export the view, click Export topology view. The view is downloaded in PNG format.

7.4. Filtering the network traffic

By default, the Network Traffic page displays the traffic flow data in the cluster based on the default filters configured in the FlowCollector instance. You can use the filter options to observe the required data by changing the preset filter.

Query Options

You can use Query Options to optimize the search results, as listed below:

Log Type: The available options Conversation and Flows provide the ability to query flows by log type, such as flow log, new conversation, completed conversation, and a heartbeat, which is a periodic record with updates for long conversations. A conversation is an aggregation of flows between the same peers.
Duplicated flows: A flow might be reported from several interfaces, and from both source and destination nodes, making it appear in the data several times. By selecting this query option, you can choose to show duplicated flows. Duplicated flows have the same sources and destinations, including ports, and also have the same protocols, with the exception of Interface and Direction fields. Duplicates are hidden by default. Use the Direction filter in the Common section of the dropdown list to switch between ingress and egress traffic.
Match filters: You can determine the relation between different filter parameters selected in the advanced filter. The available options are Match all and Match any. Match all provides results that match all the values, and Match any provides results that match any of the values entered. The default value is Match all.
Limit: The data limit for internal backend queries. Depending upon the matching and the filter settings, the number of traffic flow data is displayed within the specified limit.

Quick filters

The default values in Quick filters drop-down menu are defined in the FlowCollector configuration. You can modify the options from console.

Advanced filters

You can set the advanced filters, Common, Source, or Destination, by selecting the parameter to be filtered from the dropdown list. The flow data is filtered based on the selection. To enable or disable the applied filter, you can click on the applied filter listed below the filter options.

You can toggle between One way and Back and forth filtering. The One way filter shows only Source and Destination traffic according to your filter selections. You can use Swap to change the directional view of the Source and Destination traffic. The Back and forth filter includes return traffic with the Source and Destination filters. The directional flow of network traffic is shown in the Direction column in the Traffic flows table as Ingress`or `Egress for inter-node traffic and `Inner`for traffic inside a single node.

You can click Reset defaults to remove the existing filters, and apply the filter defined in FlowCollector configuration.

Note

To understand the rules of specifying the text value, click Learn More.

Alternatively, you can access the traffic flow data in the Network Traffic tab of the Namespaces, Services, Routes, Nodes, and Workloads pages which provide the filtered data of the corresponding aggregations.

Additional resources

For more information about configuring quick filters in the FlowCollector, see Configuring Quick Filters and the Flow Collector sample resource.

Chapter 8. Monitoring the Network Observability Operator

You can use the web console to monitor alerts related to the health of the Network Observability Operator.

8.1. Viewing health information

You can access metrics about health and resource usage of the Network Observability Operator from the Dashboards page in the web console. A health alert banner that directs you to the dashboard can appear on the Network Traffic and Home pages in the event that an alert is triggered. Alerts are generated in the following cases:

The NetObservLokiError alert occurs if the flowlogs-pipeline workload is dropping flows because of Loki errors, such as if the Loki ingestion rate limit has been reached.
The NetObservNoFlows alert occurs if no flows are ingested for a certain amount of time.

Prerequisites

You have the Network Observability Operator installed.
You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role or with view permissions for all projects.

Procedure

From the Administrator perspective in the web console, navigate to Observe → Dashboards.
From the Dashboards dropdown, select Netobserv/Health. Metrics about the health of the Operator are displayed on the page.

8.1.1. Disabling health alerts

You can opt out of health alerting by editing the FlowCollector resource:

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
Under the Provided APIs heading for the NetObserv Operator, select Flow Collector.
Select cluster then select the YAML tab.
Add spec.processor.metrics.disableAlerts to disable health alerts, as in the following YAML sample:

apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  processor:
    metrics:
      disableAlerts: [NetObservLokiError, NetObservNoFlows] 1

1: You can specify one or a list with both types of alerts to disable.

8.2. Creating Loki rate limit alerts for the NetObserv dashboard

You can create custom rules for the Netobserv dashboard metrics to trigger alerts when Loki rate limits have been reached.

An example of an alerting rule configuration YAML file is as follows:

apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PrometheusRule
metadata:
  name: loki-alerts
  namespace: openshift-operators-redhat
spec:
  groups:
  - name: LokiRateLimitAlerts
    rules:
    - alert: LokiTenantRateLimit
      annotations:
        message: |-
          {{ $labels.job }} {{ $labels.route }} is experiencing 429 errors.
        summary: "At any number of requests are responded with the rate limit error code."
      expr: sum(irate(loki_request_duration_seconds_count{status_code="429"}[1m])) by (job, namespace, route) / sum(irate(loki_request_duration_seconds_count[1m])) by (job, namespace, route) * 100 > 0
      for: 10s
      labels:
        severity: warning

Additional resources

For more information about creating alerts that you can see on the dashboard, see Creating alerting rules for user-defined projects.

Chapter 9. FlowCollector configuration parameters

FlowCollector is the Schema for the network flows collection API, which pilots and configures the underlying deployments.

9.1. FlowCollector API specifications

Description: FlowCollector is the schema for the network flows collection API, which pilots and configures the underlying deployments.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`apiVersion`	`string`	APIVersion defines the versioned schema of this representation of an object. Servers should convert recognized schemas to the latest internal value, and might reject unrecognized values. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#resources
`kind`	`string`	Kind is a string value representing the REST resource this object represents. Servers might infer this from the endpoint the client submits requests to. Cannot be updated. In CamelCase. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#types-kinds
`metadata`	`object`	Standard object’s metadata. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#metadata
`spec`	`object`	Defines the desired state of the FlowCollector resource. *: the mention of "unsupported", or "deprecated" for a feature throughout this document means that this feature is not officially supported by Red Hat. It might have been, for example, contributed by the community and accepted without a formal agreement for maintenance. The product maintainers might provide some support for these features as a best effort only.

9.1.1. .metadata

Description: Standard object’s metadata. More info: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-architecture/api-conventions.md#metadata
Type: object

9.1.2. .spec

Description: Defines the desired state of the FlowCollector resource.

*: the mention of "unsupported", or "deprecated" for a feature throughout this document means that this feature is not officially supported by Red Hat. It might have been, for example, contributed by the community and accepted without a formal agreement for maintenance. The product maintainers might provide some support for these features as a best effort only.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`agent`	`object`	Agent configuration for flows extraction.
`consolePlugin`	`object`	`consolePlugin` defines the settings related to the OpenShift Container Platform Console plugin, when available.
`deploymentModel`	`string`	`deploymentModel` defines the desired type of deployment for flow processing. Possible values are: - `DIRECT` (default) to make the flow processor listening directly from the agents. - `KAFKA` to make flows sent to a Kafka pipeline before consumption by the processor. Kafka can provide better scalability, resiliency, and high availability (for more details, see https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/integration/what-is-apache-kafka).
`exporters`	`array`	`exporters` define additional optional exporters for custom consumption or storage.
`kafka`	`object`	Kafka configuration, allowing to use Kafka as a broker as part of the flow collection pipeline. Available when the `spec.deploymentModel` is `KAFKA`.
`loki`	`object`	Loki, the flow store, client settings.
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace where Network Observability pods are deployed.
`processor`	`object`	`processor` defines the settings of the component that receives the flows from the agent, enriches them, generates metrics, and forwards them to the Loki persistence layer and/or any available exporter.

9.1.3. .spec.agent

Description: Agent configuration for flows extraction.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`ebpf`	`object`	`ebpf` describes the settings related to the eBPF-based flow reporter when `spec.agent.type` is set to `EBPF`.
`ipfix`	`object`	`ipfix` [deprecated (*)] - describes the settings related to the IPFIX-based flow reporter when `spec.agent.type` is set to `IPFIX`.
`type`	`string`	`type` selects the flows tracing agent. Possible values are: - `EBPF` (default) to use Network Observability eBPF agent. - `IPFIX` [deprecated (*)] - to use the legacy IPFIX collector. `EBPF` is recommended as it offers better performances and should work regardless of the CNI installed on the cluster. `IPFIX` works with OVN-Kubernetes CNI (other CNIs could work if they support exporting IPFIX, but they would require manual configuration).

9.1.4. .spec.agent.ebpf

Description: ebpf describes the settings related to the eBPF-based flow reporter when spec.agent.type is set to EBPF.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`cacheActiveTimeout`	`string`	`cacheActiveTimeout` is the max period during which the reporter aggregates flows before sending. Increasing `cacheMaxFlows` and `cacheActiveTimeout` can decrease the network traffic overhead and the CPU load, however you can expect higher memory consumption and an increased latency in the flow collection.
`cacheMaxFlows`	`integer`	`cacheMaxFlows` is the max number of flows in an aggregate; when reached, the reporter sends the flows. Increasing `cacheMaxFlows` and `cacheActiveTimeout` can decrease the network traffic overhead and the CPU load, however you can expect higher memory consumption and an increased latency in the flow collection.
`debug`	`object`	`debug` allows setting some aspects of the internal configuration of the eBPF agent. This section is aimed exclusively for debugging and fine-grained performance optimizations, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS env vars. Users setting its values do it at their own risk.
`excludeInterfaces`	`array (string)`	`excludeInterfaces` contains the interface names that are excluded from flow tracing. An entry is enclosed by slashes, such as `/br-/` and is matched as a regular expression. Otherwise it is matched as a case-sensitive string.
`features`	`array (string)`	List of additional features to enable. They are all disabled by default. Enabling additional features might have performance impacts. Possible values are: - `PacketDrop`: enable the packets drop flows logging feature. This feature requires mounting the kernel debug filesystem, so the eBPF pod has to run as privileged. If the `spec.agent.eBPF.privileged` parameter is not set, an error is reported. - `DNSTracking`: enable the DNS tracking feature. This feature requires mounting the kernel debug filesystem hence the eBPF pod has to run as privileged. If the `spec.agent.eBPF.privileged` parameter is not set, an error is reported. - `FlowRTT` [unsupported (*)]: enable flow latency (RTT) calculations in the eBPF agent during TCP handshakes. This feature better works with `sampling` set to 1.
`imagePullPolicy`	`string`	`imagePullPolicy` is the Kubernetes pull policy for the image defined above
`interfaces`	`array (string)`	`interfaces` contains the interface names from where flows are collected. If empty, the agent fetches all the interfaces in the system, excepting the ones listed in ExcludeInterfaces. An entry is enclosed by slashes, such as `/br-/`, is matched as a regular expression. Otherwise it is matched as a case-sensitive string.
`kafkaBatchSize`	`integer`	`kafkaBatchSize` limits the maximum size of a request in bytes before being sent to a partition. Ignored when not using Kafka. Default: 10MB.
`logLevel`	`string`	`logLevel` defines the log level for the Network Observability eBPF Agent
`privileged`	`boolean`	Privileged mode for the eBPF Agent container. In general this setting can be ignored or set to false: in that case, the operator sets granular capabilities (BPF, PERFMON, NET_ADMIN, SYS_RESOURCE) to the container, to enable its correct operation. If for some reason these capabilities cannot be set, such as if an old kernel version not knowing CAP_BPF is in use, then you can turn on this mode for more global privileges.
`resources`	`object`	`resources` are the compute resources required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
`sampling`	`integer`	Sampling rate of the flow reporter. 100 means one flow on 100 is sent. 0 or 1 means all flows are sampled.

9.1.5. .spec.agent.ebpf.debug

Description: debug allows setting some aspects of the internal configuration of the eBPF agent. This section is aimed exclusively for debugging and fine-grained performance optimizations, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS env vars. Users setting its values do it at their own risk.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`env`	`object (string)`	`env` allows passing custom environment variables to underlying components. Useful for passing some very concrete performance-tuning options, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS, that should not be publicly exposed as part of the FlowCollector descriptor, as they are only useful in edge debug or support scenarios.

9.1.6. .spec.agent.ebpf.resources

Description: resources are the compute resources required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`limits`	`integer-or-string`	Limits describes the maximum amount of compute resources allowed. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
`requests`	`integer-or-string`	Requests describes the minimum amount of compute resources required. If Requests is omitted for a container, it defaults to Limits if that is explicitly specified, otherwise to an implementation-defined value. Requests cannot exceed Limits. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/

9.1.7. .spec.agent.ipfix

Description: ipfix [deprecated (*)] - describes the settings related to the IPFIX-based flow reporter when spec.agent.type is set to IPFIX.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`cacheActiveTimeout`	`string`	`cacheActiveTimeout` is the max period during which the reporter aggregates flows before sending.
`cacheMaxFlows`	`integer`	`cacheMaxFlows` is the max number of flows in an aggregate; when reached, the reporter sends the flows.
`clusterNetworkOperator`	`object`	`clusterNetworkOperator` defines the settings related to the OpenShift Container Platform Cluster Network Operator, when available.
`forceSampleAll`	`boolean`	`forceSampleAll` allows disabling sampling in the IPFIX-based flow reporter. It is not recommended to sample all the traffic with IPFIX, as it might generate cluster instability. If you REALLY want to do that, set this flag to true. Use at your own risk. When it is set to true, the value of `sampling` is ignored.
`ovnKubernetes`	`object`	`ovnKubernetes` defines the settings of the OVN-Kubernetes CNI, when available. This configuration is used when using OVN’s IPFIX exports, without OpenShift Container Platform. When using OpenShift Container Platform, refer to the `clusterNetworkOperator` property instead.
`sampling`	`integer`	`sampling` is the sampling rate on the reporter. 100 means one flow on 100 is sent. To ensure cluster stability, it is not possible to set a value below 2. If you really want to sample every packet, which might impact the cluster stability, refer to `forceSampleAll`. Alternatively, you can use the eBPF Agent instead of IPFIX.

9.1.8. .spec.agent.ipfix.clusterNetworkOperator

Description: clusterNetworkOperator defines the settings related to the OpenShift Container Platform Cluster Network Operator, when available.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace where the config map is going to be deployed.

9.1.9. .spec.agent.ipfix.ovnKubernetes

Description: ovnKubernetes defines the settings of the OVN-Kubernetes CNI, when available. This configuration is used when using OVN’s IPFIX exports, without OpenShift Container Platform. When using OpenShift Container Platform, refer to the clusterNetworkOperator property instead.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`containerName`	`string`	`containerName` defines the name of the container to configure for IPFIX.
`daemonSetName`	`string`	`daemonSetName` defines the name of the DaemonSet controlling the OVN-Kubernetes pods.
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace where OVN-Kubernetes pods are deployed.

9.1.10. .spec.consolePlugin

Description: consolePlugin defines the settings related to the OpenShift Container Platform Console plugin, when available.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`autoscaler`	`object`	`autoscaler` spec of a horizontal pod autoscaler to set up for the plugin Deployment. Refer to HorizontalPodAutoscaler documentation (autoscaling/v2).
`enable`	`boolean`	enable the console plugin deployment. spec.Loki.enable must also be true
`imagePullPolicy`	`string`	`imagePullPolicy` is the Kubernetes pull policy for the image defined above
`logLevel`	`string`	`logLevel` for the console plugin backend
`port`	`integer`	`port` is the plugin service port. Do not use 9002, which is reserved for metrics.
`portNaming`	`object`	`portNaming` defines the configuration of the port-to-service name translation
`quickFilters`	`array`	`quickFilters` configures quick filter presets for the Console plugin
`register`	`boolean`	`register` allows, when set to true, to automatically register the provided console plugin with the OpenShift Container Platform Console operator. When set to false, you can still register it manually by editing console.operator.openshift.io/cluster with the following command: `oc patch console.operator.openshift.io cluster --type='json' -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/plugins/-", "value": "netobserv-plugin"}]'`
`replicas`	`integer`	`replicas` defines the number of replicas (pods) to start.
`resources`	`object`	`resources`, in terms of compute resources, required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/

9.1.11. .spec.consolePlugin.autoscaler

Description: autoscaler spec of a horizontal pod autoscaler to set up for the plugin Deployment. Refer to HorizontalPodAutoscaler documentation (autoscaling/v2).
Type: object

9.1.12. .spec.consolePlugin.portNaming

Description: portNaming defines the configuration of the port-to-service name translation
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`enable`	`boolean`	Enable the console plugin port-to-service name translation
`portNames`	`object (string)`	`portNames` defines additional port names to use in the console, for example, `portNames: {"3100": "loki"}`.

9.1.13. .spec.consolePlugin.quickFilters

Description: quickFilters configures quick filter presets for the Console plugin
Type: array

9.1.14. .spec.consolePlugin.quickFilters[]

Description

QuickFilter defines preset configuration for Console’s quick filters

Type

object

Required

filter
name

Property	Type	Description
`default`	`boolean`	`default` defines whether this filter should be active by default or not
`filter`	`object (string)`	`filter` is a set of keys and values to be set when this filter is selected. Each key can relate to a list of values using a coma-separated string, for example, `filter: {"src_namespace": "namespace1,namespace2"}`.
`name`	`string`	Name of the filter, that is displayed in the Console

9.1.15. .spec.consolePlugin.resources

Description: resources, in terms of compute resources, required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`limits`	`integer-or-string`	Limits describes the maximum amount of compute resources allowed. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
`requests`	`integer-or-string`	Requests describes the minimum amount of compute resources required. If Requests is omitted for a container, it defaults to Limits if that is explicitly specified, otherwise to an implementation-defined value. Requests cannot exceed Limits. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/

9.1.16. .spec.exporters

Description: exporters define additional optional exporters for custom consumption or storage.
Type: array

9.1.17. .spec.exporters[]

Description

FlowCollectorExporter defines an additional exporter to send enriched flows to.

Type

object

Required

type

Property	Type	Description
`ipfix`	`object`	IPFIX configuration, such as the IP address and port to send enriched IPFIX flows to.
`kafka`	`object`	Kafka configuration, such as the address and topic, to send enriched flows to.
`type`	`string`	`type` selects the type of exporters. The available options are `KAFKA` and `IPFIX`.

9.1.18. .spec.exporters[].ipfix

Description

IPFIX configuration, such as the IP address and port to send enriched IPFIX flows to.

Type

object

Required

targetHost
targetPort

Property	Type	Description
`targetHost`	`string`	Address of the IPFIX external receiver
`targetPort`	`integer`	Port for the IPFIX external receiver
`transport`	`string`	Transport protocol (`TCP` or `UDP`) to be used for the IPFIX connection, defaults to `TCP`.

9.1.19. .spec.exporters[].kafka

Description

Kafka configuration, such as the address and topic, to send enriched flows to.

Type

object

Required

address
topic

Property	Type	Description
`address`	`string`	Address of the Kafka server
`sasl`	`object`	SASL authentication configuration. [Unsupported (*)].
`tls`	`object`	TLS client configuration. When using TLS, verify that the address matches the Kafka port used for TLS, generally 9093.
`topic`	`string`	Kafka topic to use. It must exist. Network Observability does not create it.

9.1.20. .spec.exporters[].kafka.sasl

Description: SASL authentication configuration. [Unsupported (*)].
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`clientIDReference`	`object`	Reference to the secret or config map containing the client ID
`clientSecretReference`	`object`	Reference to the secret or config map containing the client secret
`type`	`string`	Type of SASL authentication to use, or `DISABLED` if SASL is not used

9.1.21. .spec.exporters[].kafka.sasl.clientIDReference

Description: Reference to the secret or config map containing the client ID
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`file`	`string`	File name within the config map or secret
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing the file
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing the file. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the file reference: "configmap" or "secret"

9.1.22. .spec.exporters[].kafka.sasl.clientSecretReference

Description: Reference to the secret or config map containing the client secret
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`file`	`string`	File name within the config map or secret
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing the file
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing the file. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the file reference: "configmap" or "secret"

9.1.23. .spec.exporters[].kafka.tls

Description: TLS client configuration. When using TLS, verify that the address matches the Kafka port used for TLS, generally 9093.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`caCert`	`object`	`caCert` defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
`enable`	`boolean`	Enable TLS
`insecureSkipVerify`	`boolean`	`insecureSkipVerify` allows skipping client-side verification of the server certificate. If set to true, the `caCert` field is ignored.
`userCert`	`object`	`userCert` defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)

9.1.24. .spec.exporters[].kafka.tls.caCert

Description: caCert defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.25. .spec.exporters[].kafka.tls.userCert

Description: userCert defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.26. .spec.kafka

Description

Kafka configuration, allowing to use Kafka as a broker as part of the flow collection pipeline. Available when the spec.deploymentModel is KAFKA.

Type

object

Required

address
topic

Property	Type	Description
`address`	`string`	Address of the Kafka server
`sasl`	`object`	SASL authentication configuration. [Unsupported (*)].
`tls`	`object`	TLS client configuration. When using TLS, verify that the address matches the Kafka port used for TLS, generally 9093.
`topic`	`string`	Kafka topic to use. It must exist, Network Observability does not create it.

9.1.27. .spec.kafka.sasl

Description: SASL authentication configuration. [Unsupported (*)].
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`clientIDReference`	`object`	Reference to the secret or config map containing the client ID
`clientSecretReference`	`object`	Reference to the secret or config map containing the client secret
`type`	`string`	Type of SASL authentication to use, or `DISABLED` if SASL is not used

9.1.28. .spec.kafka.sasl.clientIDReference

Description: Reference to the secret or config map containing the client ID
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`file`	`string`	File name within the config map or secret
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing the file
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing the file. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the file reference: "configmap" or "secret"

9.1.29. .spec.kafka.sasl.clientSecretReference

Description: Reference to the secret or config map containing the client secret
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`file`	`string`	File name within the config map or secret
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing the file
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing the file. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the file reference: "configmap" or "secret"

9.1.30. .spec.kafka.tls

Description: TLS client configuration. When using TLS, verify that the address matches the Kafka port used for TLS, generally 9093.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`caCert`	`object`	`caCert` defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
`enable`	`boolean`	Enable TLS
`insecureSkipVerify`	`boolean`	`insecureSkipVerify` allows skipping client-side verification of the server certificate. If set to true, the `caCert` field is ignored.
`userCert`	`object`	`userCert` defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)

9.1.31. .spec.kafka.tls.caCert

Description: caCert defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.32. .spec.kafka.tls.userCert

Description: userCert defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.33. .spec.loki

Description: Loki, the flow store, client settings.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`authToken`	`string`	`authToken` describes the way to get a token to authenticate to Loki. - `DISABLED` does not send any token with the request. - `FORWARD` forwards the user token for authorization. - `HOST` [deprecated (*)] - uses the local pod service account to authenticate to Loki. When using the Loki Operator, this must be set to `FORWARD`.
`batchSize`	`integer`	`batchSize` is the maximum batch size (in bytes) of logs to accumulate before sending.
`batchWait`	`string`	`batchWait` is the maximum time to wait before sending a batch.
`enable`	`boolean`	Set to `enable` to store flows to Loki. It is required for the OpenShift Container Platform Console plugin installation.
`maxBackoff`	`string`	`maxBackoff` is the maximum backoff time for client connection between retries.
`maxRetries`	`integer`	`maxRetries` is the maximum number of retries for client connections.
`minBackoff`	`string`	`minBackoff` is the initial backoff time for client connection between retries.
`querierUrl`	`string`	`querierURL` specifies the address of the Loki querier service, in case it is different from the Loki ingester URL. If empty, the URL value is used (assuming that the Loki ingester and querier are in the same server). When using the Loki Operator, do not set it, since ingestion and queries use the Loki gateway.
`staticLabels`	`object (string)`	`staticLabels` is a map of common labels to set on each flow.
`statusTls`	`object`	TLS client configuration for Loki status URL.
`statusUrl`	`string`	`statusURL` specifies the address of the Loki `/ready`, `/metrics` and `/config` endpoints, in case it is different from the Loki querier URL. If empty, the `querierURL` value is used. This is useful to show error messages and some context in the frontend. When using the Loki Operator, set it to the Loki HTTP query frontend service, for example https://loki-query-frontend-http.netobserv.svc:3100/. `statusTLS` configuration is used when `statusUrl` is set.
`tenantID`	`string`	`tenantID` is the Loki `X-Scope-OrgID` that identifies the tenant for each request. When using the Loki Operator, set it to `network`, which corresponds to a special tenant mode.
`timeout`	`string`	`timeout` is the maximum time connection / request limit. A timeout of zero means no timeout.
`tls`	`object`	TLS client configuration for Loki URL.
`url`	`string`	`url` is the address of an existing Loki service to push the flows to. When using the Loki Operator, set it to the Loki gateway service with the `network` tenant set in path, for example https://loki-gateway-http.netobserv.svc:8080/api/logs/v1/network.

9.1.34. .spec.loki.statusTls

Description: TLS client configuration for Loki status URL.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`caCert`	`object`	`caCert` defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
`enable`	`boolean`	Enable TLS
`insecureSkipVerify`	`boolean`	`insecureSkipVerify` allows skipping client-side verification of the server certificate. If set to true, the `caCert` field is ignored.
`userCert`	`object`	`userCert` defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)

9.1.35. .spec.loki.statusTls.caCert

Description: caCert defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.36. .spec.loki.statusTls.userCert

Description: userCert defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.37. .spec.loki.tls

Description: TLS client configuration for Loki URL.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`caCert`	`object`	`caCert` defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
`enable`	`boolean`	Enable TLS
`insecureSkipVerify`	`boolean`	`insecureSkipVerify` allows skipping client-side verification of the server certificate. If set to true, the `caCert` field is ignored.
`userCert`	`object`	`userCert` defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)

9.1.38. .spec.loki.tls.caCert

Description: caCert defines the reference of the certificate for the Certificate Authority
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.39. .spec.loki.tls.userCert

Description: userCert defines the user certificate reference and is used for mTLS (you can ignore it when using one-way TLS)
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.40. .spec.processor

Description: processor defines the settings of the component that receives the flows from the agent, enriches them, generates metrics, and forwards them to the Loki persistence layer and/or any available exporter.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`clusterName`	`string`	`clusterName` is the name of the cluster to appear in the flows data. This is useful in a multi-cluster context. When using OpenShift Container Platform, leave empty to make it automatically determined.
`conversationEndTimeout`	`string`	`conversationEndTimeout` is the time to wait after a network flow is received, to consider the conversation ended. This delay is ignored when a FIN packet is collected for TCP flows (see `conversationTerminatingTimeout` instead).
`conversationHeartbeatInterval`	`string`	`conversationHeartbeatInterval` is the time to wait between "tick" events of a conversation
`conversationTerminatingTimeout`	`string`	`conversationTerminatingTimeout` is the time to wait from detected FIN flag to end a conversation. Only relevant for TCP flows.
`debug`	`object`	`debug` allows setting some aspects of the internal configuration of the flow processor. This section is aimed exclusively for debugging and fine-grained performance optimizations, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS env vars. Users setting its values do it at their own risk.
`dropUnusedFields`	`boolean`	`dropUnusedFields` allows, when set to true, to drop fields that are known to be unused by OVS, to save storage space.
`enableKubeProbes`	`boolean`	`enableKubeProbes` is a flag to enable or disable Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes
`healthPort`	`integer`	`healthPort` is a collector HTTP port in the Pod that exposes the health check API
`imagePullPolicy`	`string`	`imagePullPolicy` is the Kubernetes pull policy for the image defined above
`kafkaConsumerAutoscaler`	`object`	`kafkaConsumerAutoscaler` is the spec of a horizontal pod autoscaler to set up for `flowlogs-pipeline-transformer`, which consumes Kafka messages. This setting is ignored when Kafka is disabled. Refer to HorizontalPodAutoscaler documentation (autoscaling/v2).
`kafkaConsumerBatchSize`	`integer`	`kafkaConsumerBatchSize` indicates to the broker the maximum batch size, in bytes, that the consumer accepts. Ignored when not using Kafka. Default: 10MB.
`kafkaConsumerQueueCapacity`	`integer`	`kafkaConsumerQueueCapacity` defines the capacity of the internal message queue used in the Kafka consumer client. Ignored when not using Kafka.
`kafkaConsumerReplicas`	`integer`	`kafkaConsumerReplicas` defines the number of replicas (pods) to start for `flowlogs-pipeline-transformer`, which consumes Kafka messages. This setting is ignored when Kafka is disabled.
`logLevel`	`string`	`logLevel` of the processor runtime
`logTypes`	`string`	`logTypes` defines the desired record types to generate. Possible values are: - `FLOWS` (default) to export regular network flows - `CONVERSATIONS` to generate events for started conversations, ended conversations as well as periodic "tick" updates - `ENDED_CONVERSATIONS` to generate only ended conversations events - `ALL` to generate both network flows and all conversations events
`metrics`	`object`	`Metrics` define the processor configuration regarding metrics
`port`	`integer`	Port of the flow collector (host port). By convention, some values are forbidden. It must be greater than 1024 and different from 4500, 4789 and 6081.
`profilePort`	`integer`	`profilePort` allows setting up a Go pprof profiler listening to this port
`resources`	`object`	`resources` are the compute resources required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/

9.1.41. .spec.processor.debug

Description: debug allows setting some aspects of the internal configuration of the flow processor. This section is aimed exclusively for debugging and fine-grained performance optimizations, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS env vars. Users setting its values do it at their own risk.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`env`	`object (string)`	`env` allows passing custom environment variables to underlying components. Useful for passing some very concrete performance-tuning options, such as GOGC and GOMAXPROCS, that should not be publicly exposed as part of the FlowCollector descriptor, as they are only useful in edge debug or support scenarios.

9.1.42. .spec.processor.kafkaConsumerAutoscaler

Description: kafkaConsumerAutoscaler is the spec of a horizontal pod autoscaler to set up for flowlogs-pipeline-transformer, which consumes Kafka messages. This setting is ignored when Kafka is disabled. Refer to HorizontalPodAutoscaler documentation (autoscaling/v2).
Type: object

9.1.43. .spec.processor.metrics

Description: Metrics define the processor configuration regarding metrics
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`disableAlerts`	`array (string)`	`disableAlerts` is a list of alerts that should be disabled. Possible values are: `NetObservNoFlows`, which is triggered when no flows are being observed for a certain period. `NetObservLokiError`, which is triggered when flows are being dropped due to Loki errors.
`ignoreTags`	`array (string)`	`ignoreTags` is a list of tags to specify which metrics to ignore. Each metric is associated with a list of tags. More details in https://github.com/netobserv/network-observability-operator/tree/main/controllers/flowlogspipeline/metrics_definitions . Available tags are: `egress`, `ingress`, `flows`, `bytes`, `packets`, `namespaces`, `nodes`, `workloads`, `nodes-flows`, `namespaces-flows`, `workloads-flows`. Namespace-based metrics are covered by both `workloads` and `namespaces` tags, hence it is recommended to always ignore one of them (`workloads` offering a finer granularity).
`server`	`object`	Metrics server endpoint configuration for Prometheus scraper

9.1.44. .spec.processor.metrics.server

Description: Metrics server endpoint configuration for Prometheus scraper
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`port`	`integer`	The prometheus HTTP port
`tls`	`object`	TLS configuration.

9.1.45. .spec.processor.metrics.server.tls

Description: TLS configuration.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`insecureSkipVerify`	`boolean`	`insecureSkipVerify` allows skipping client-side verification of the provided certificate. If set to true, the `providedCaFile` field is ignored.
`provided`	`object`	TLS configuration when `type` is set to `PROVIDED`.
`providedCaFile`	`object`	Reference to the CA file when `type` is set to `PROVIDED`.
`type`	`string`	Select the type of TLS configuration: - `DISABLED` (default) to not configure TLS for the endpoint. - `PROVIDED` to manually provide cert file and a key file. - `AUTO` to use OpenShift Container Platform auto generated certificate using annotations.

9.1.46. .spec.processor.metrics.server.tls.provided

Description: TLS configuration when type is set to PROVIDED.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`certFile`	`string`	`certFile` defines the path to the certificate file name within the config map or secret
`certKey`	`string`	`certKey` defines the path to the certificate private key file name within the config map or secret. Omit when the key is not necessary.
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing certificates
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing certificates. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the certificate reference: `configmap` or `secret`

9.1.47. .spec.processor.metrics.server.tls.providedCaFile

Description: Reference to the CA file when type is set to PROVIDED.
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`file`	`string`	File name within the config map or secret
`name`	`string`	Name of the config map or secret containing the file
`namespace`	`string`	Namespace of the config map or secret containing the file. If omitted, the default is to use the same namespace as where Network Observability is deployed. If the namespace is different, the config map or the secret is copied so that it can be mounted as required.
`type`	`string`	Type for the file reference: "configmap" or "secret"

9.1.48. .spec.processor.resources

Description: resources are the compute resources required by this container. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
Type: object

Property	Type	Description
`limits`	`integer-or-string`	Limits describes the maximum amount of compute resources allowed. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/
`requests`	`integer-or-string`	Requests describes the minimum amount of compute resources required. If Requests is omitted for a container, it defaults to Limits if that is explicitly specified, otherwise to an implementation-defined value. Requests cannot exceed Limits. More info: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/

Chapter 10. Network flows format reference

These are the specifications for network flows format, used both internally and when exporting flows to Kafka.

10.1. Network Flows format reference

This is the specification of the network flows format, used both internally and when exporting flows to Kafka.

The document is organized in two main categories: Labels and regular Fields. This distinction only matters when querying Loki. This is because Labels, unlike Fields, must be used in stream selectors.

If you are reading this specification as a reference for the Kafka export feature, you must treat all Labels and Fields as regular fields and ignore any distinctions between them that are specific to Loki.

10.1.1. Labels

SrcK8S_Namespace

Optional SrcK8S_Namespace: string

Source namespace

DstK8S_Namespace

Optional DstK8S_Namespace: string

Destination namespace

SrcK8S_OwnerName

Optional SrcK8S_OwnerName: string

Source owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

DstK8S_OwnerName

Optional DstK8S_OwnerName: string

Destination owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

FlowDirection

FlowDirection: FlowDirection (see the following section, Enumeration: FlowDirection)

Flow direction from the node observation point

_RecordType

Optional _RecordType: RecordType

Type of record: 'flowLog' for regular flow logs, or 'allConnections', 'newConnection', 'heartbeat', 'endConnection' for conversation tracking

10.1.2. Fields

SrcAddr

SrcAddr: string

Source IP address (ipv4 or ipv6)

DstAddr

DstAddr: string

Destination IP address (ipv4 or ipv6)

SrcMac

SrcMac: string

Source MAC address

DstMac

DstMac: string

Destination MAC address

SrcK8S_Name

Optional SrcK8S_Name: string

Name of the source matched Kubernetes object, such as Pod name, Service name, etc.

DstK8S_Name

Optional DstK8S_Name: string

Name of the destination matched Kubernetes object, such as Pod name, Service name, etc.

SrcK8S_Type

Optional SrcK8S_Type: string

Kind of the source matched Kubernetes object, such as Pod, Service, etc.

DstK8S_Type

Optional DstK8S_Type: string

Kind of the destination matched Kubernetes object, such as Pod name, Service name, etc.

SrcPort

Optional SrcPort: number

Source port

DstPort

Optional DstPort: number

Destination port

SrcK8S_OwnerType

Optional SrcK8S_OwnerType: string

Kind of the source Kubernetes owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

DstK8S_OwnerType

Optional DstK8S_OwnerType: string

Kind of the destination Kubernetes owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

SrcK8S_HostIP

Optional SrcK8S_HostIP: string

Source node IP

DstK8S_HostIP

Optional DstK8S_HostIP: string

Destination node IP

SrcK8S_HostName

Optional SrcK8S_HostName: string

Source node name

DstK8S_HostName

Optional DstK8S_HostName: string

Destination node name

Proto

Proto: number

L4 protocol

Interface

Optional Interface: string

Network interface

IfDirection

Optional IfDirection: InterfaceDirection (see the following section, Enumeration: InterfaceDirection)

Flow direction from the network interface observation point

Flags

Optional Flags: number

TCP flags

Packets

Optional Packets: number

Number of packets

Packets_AB

Optional Packets_AB: number

In conversation tracking, A to B packets counter per conversation

Packets_BA

Optional Packets_BA: number

In conversation tracking, B to A packets counter per conversation

Bytes

Optional Bytes: number

Number of bytes

Bytes_AB

Optional Bytes_AB: number

In conversation tracking, A to B bytes counter per conversation

Bytes_BA

Optional Bytes_BA: number

In conversation tracking, B to A bytes counter per conversation

IcmpType

Optional IcmpType: number

ICMP type

IcmpCode

Optional IcmpCode: number

ICMP code

PktDropLatestState

Optional PktDropLatestState: string

Pkt TCP state for drops

PktDropLatestDropCause

Optional PktDropLatestDropCause: string

Pkt cause for drops

PktDropLatestFlags

Optional PktDropLatestFlags: number

Pkt TCP flags for drops

PktDropPackets

Optional PktDropPackets: number

Number of packets dropped by the kernel

PktDropPackets_AB

Optional PktDropPackets_AB: number

In conversation tracking, A to B packets dropped counter per conversation

PktDropPackets_BA

Optional PktDropPackets_BA: number

In conversation tracking, B to A packets dropped counter per conversation

PktDropBytes

Optional PktDropBytes: number

Number of bytes dropped by the kernel

PktDropBytes_AB

Optional PktDropBytes_AB: number

In conversation tracking, A to B bytes dropped counter per conversation

PktDropBytes_BA

Optional PktDropBytes_BA: number

In conversation tracking, B to A bytes dropped counter per conversation

DnsId

Optional DnsId: number

DNS record id

DnsFlags

Optional DnsFlags: number

DNS flags for DNS record

DnsFlagsResponseCode

Optional DnsFlagsResponseCode: string

Parsed DNS header RCODEs name

DnsLatencyMs

Optional DnsLatencyMs: number

Calculated time between response and request, in milliseconds

TimeFlowStartMs

TimeFlowStartMs: number

Start timestamp of this flow, in milliseconds

TimeFlowEndMs

TimeFlowEndMs: number

End timestamp of this flow, in milliseconds

TimeReceived

TimeReceived: number

Timestamp when this flow was received and processed by the flow collector, in seconds

TimeFlowRttNs

Optional TimeFlowRttNs: number

Flow Round Trip Time (RTT) in nanoseconds

_HashId

Optional _HashId: string

In conversation tracking, the conversation identifier

_IsFirst

Optional _IsFirst: string

In conversation tracking, a flag identifying the first flow

numFlowLogs

Optional numFlowLogs: number

In conversation tracking, a counter of flow logs per conversation

10.1.3. Enumeration: FlowDirection

Ingress

Ingress = "0"

Incoming traffic, from the node observation point

Egress

Egress = "1"

Outgoing traffic, from the node observation point

Inner

Inner = "2"

Inner traffic, with the same source and destination node

Chapter 11. Troubleshooting Network Observability

To assist in troubleshooting Network Observability issues, you can perform some troubleshooting actions.

11.1. Using the must-gather tool

You can use the must-gather tool to collect information about the Network Observability Operator resources and cluster-wide resources, such as pod logs, FlowCollector, and webhook configurations.

Procedure

Navigate to the directory where you want to store the must-gather data.

Run the following command to collect cluster-wide must-gather resources:

$ oc adm must-gather
 --image-stream=openshift/must-gather \
 --image=quay.io/netobserv/must-gather

11.2. Configuring network traffic menu entry in the OpenShift Container Platform console

Manually configure the network traffic menu entry in the OpenShift Container Platform console when the network traffic menu entry is not listed in Observe menu in the OpenShift Container Platform console.

Prerequisites

You have installed OpenShift Container Platform version 4.10 or newer.

Procedure

Check if the spec.consolePlugin.register field is set to true by running the following command:

$ oc -n netobserv get flowcollector cluster -o yaml

Example output

apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  consolePlugin:
    register: false

Optional: Add the netobserv-plugin plugin by manually editing the Console Operator config:
```
$ oc edit console.operator.openshift.io cluster
```
Example output
```
...
spec:
  plugins:
  - netobserv-plugin
...
```

Optional: Set the spec.consolePlugin.register field to true by running the following command:

$ oc -n netobserv edit flowcollector cluster -o yaml

Example output

apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  consolePlugin:
    register: true

Ensure the status of console pods is running by running the following command:
```
$ oc get pods -n openshift-console -l app=console
```
Restart the console pods by running the following command:
```
$ oc delete pods -n openshift-console -l app=console
```
Clear your browser cache and history.

Check the status of Network Observability plugin pods by running the following command:

$ oc get pods -n netobserv -l app=netobserv-plugin

Example output

NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
netobserv-plugin-68c7bbb9bb-b69q6   1/1     Running   0          21s

Check the logs of the Network Observability plugin pods by running the following command:

$ oc logs -n netobserv -l app=netobserv-plugin

Example output

time="2022-12-13T12:06:49Z" level=info msg="Starting netobserv-console-plugin [build version: , build date: 2022-10-21 15:15] at log level info" module=main
time="2022-12-13T12:06:49Z" level=info msg="listening on https://:9001" module=server

11.3. Flowlogs-Pipeline does not consume network flows after installing Kafka

If you deployed the flow collector first with deploymentModel: KAFKA and then deployed Kafka, the flow collector might not connect correctly to Kafka. Manually restart the flow-pipeline pods where Flowlogs-pipeline does not consume network flows from Kafka.

Procedure

Delete the flow-pipeline pods to restart them by running the following command:
```
$ oc delete pods -n netobserv -l app=flowlogs-pipeline-transformer
```

11.4. Failing to see network flows from both `br-int` and `br-ex` interfaces

br-ex` and br-int are virtual bridge devices operated at OSI layer 2. The eBPF agent works at the IP and TCP levels, layers 3 and 4 respectively. You can expect that the eBPF agent captures the network traffic passing through br-ex and br-int, when the network traffic is processed by other interfaces such as physical host or virtual pod interfaces. If you restrict the eBPF agent network interfaces to attach only to br-ex and br-int, you do not see any network flow.

Manually remove the part in the interfaces or excludeInterfaces that restricts the network interfaces to br-int and br-ex.

Procedure

Remove the interfaces: [ 'br-int', 'br-ex' ] field. This allows the agent to fetch information from all the interfaces. Alternatively, you can specify the Layer-3 interface for example, eth0. Run the following command:
```
$ oc edit -n netobserv flowcollector.yaml -o yaml
```
Example output
```
apiVersion: flows.netobserv.io/v1alpha1
kind: FlowCollector
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  agent:
    type: EBPF
    ebpf:
      interfaces: [ 'br-int', 'br-ex' ] 1
```
1
Specifies the network interfaces.

11.5. Network Observability controller manager pod runs out of memory

You can increase memory limits for the Network Observability operator by editing the spec.config.resources.limits.memory specification in the Subscription object.

Procedure

In the web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators
Click Network Observability and then select Subscription.
From the Actions menu, click Edit Subscription.
1. Alternatively, you can use the CLI to open the YAML configuration for the Subscription object by running the following command:
```
$ oc edit subscription netobserv-operator -n openshift-netobserv-operator
```

Edit the Subscription object to add the config.resources.limits.memory specification and set the value to account for your memory requirements. See the Additional resources for more information about resource considerations:

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: netobserv-operator
  namespace: openshift-netobserv-operator
spec:
  channel: stable
  config:
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: 800Mi     1
      requests:
        cpu: 100m
        memory: 100Mi
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: netobserv-operator
  source: redhat-operators
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  startingCSV: <network_observability_operator_latest_version> 2

1: For example, you can increase the memory limit to 800Mi.
2: This value should not be edited, but note that it changes depending on the most current release of the Operator.

Additional resources

Resource considerations

11.6. Troubleshooting Loki ResourceExhausted error

Loki may return a ResourceExhausted error when network flow data sent by Network Observability exceeds the configured maximum message size. If you are using the Red Hat Loki Operator, this maximum message size is configured to 100 MiB.

Procedure

Navigate to Operators → Installed Operators, viewing All projects from the Project drop-down menu.
In the Provided APIs list, select the Network Observability Operator.
Click the Flow Collector then the YAML view tab.
1. If you are using the Loki Operator, check that the spec.loki.batchSize value does not exceed 98 MiB.
2. If you are using a Loki installation method that is different from the Red Hat Loki Operator, such as Grafana Loki, verify that the grpc_server_max_recv_msg_size Grafana Loki server setting is higher than the FlowCollector resource spec.loki.batchSize value. If it is not, you must either increase the grpc_server_max_recv_msg_size value, or decrease the spec.loki.batchSize value so that it is lower than the limit.
Click Save if you edited the FlowCollector.

11.7. Resource troubleshooting

11.8. LokiStack rate limit errors

A rate-limit placed on the Loki tenant can result in potential temporary loss of data and a 429 error: Per stream rate limit exceeded (limit:xMB/sec) while attempting to ingest for stream. You might consider having an alert set to notify you of this error. For more information, see "Creating Loki rate limit alerts for the NetObserv dashboard" in the Additional resources of this section.

You can update the LokiStack CRD with the perStreamRateLimit and perStreamRateLimitBurst specifications, as shown in the following procedure.

Procedure

Navigate to Operators → Installed Operators, viewing All projects from the Project dropdown.
Look for Loki Operator, and select the LokiStack tab.

Create or edit an existing LokiStack instance using the YAML view to add the perStreamRateLimit and perStreamRateLimitBurst specifications:

apiVersion: loki.grafana.com/v1
kind: LokiStack
metadata:
  name: loki
  namespace: netobserv
spec:
  limits:
    global:
      ingestion:
        perStreamRateLimit: 6        1
        perStreamRateLimitBurst: 30  2
  tenants:
    mode: openshift-network
  managementState: Managed

1: The default value for perStreamRateLimit is 3.
2: The default value for perStreamRateLimitBurst is 15.

Click Save.

Verification

Once you update the perStreamRateLimit and perStreamRateLimitBurst specifications, the pods in your cluster restart and the 429 rate-limit error no longer occurs.

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Portions adapted from https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/service-catalog/ with modifications by Red Hat.

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