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Chapter 1. Preparing to configure the user workload monitoring stack

Learn which user-defined monitoring components can be configured , how to enable user workload monitoring, and how to prepare for configuring the user workload monitoring stack.

Important

1.1. Configurable monitoring components
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Review configurable monitoring components and their corresponding config map keys used to specify the components in the user-workload-monitoring-config config map.

Expand
Table 1.1. Configurable monitoring components for user-defined projects
Componentuser-workload-monitoring-config config map key

Prometheus Operator

prometheusOperator

Prometheus

prometheus

Alertmanager

alertmanager

Thanos Ruler

thanosRuler

Warning

Different configuration changes to the ConfigMap object result in different outcomes:

  • The pods are not redeployed. Therefore, there is no service outage.

  • The affected pods are redeployed:

    • For single-node clusters, this results in temporary service outage.
    • For multi-node clusters, because of high-availability, the affected pods are gradually rolled out and the monitoring stack remains available.
    • Configuring and resizing a persistent volume always results in a service outage, regardless of high availability.

Each procedure that requires a change in the config map includes its expected outcome.

1.2. Enabling monitoring for user-defined projects
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Enable monitoring for user-defined projects in addition to the default platform monitoring. Monitor your own projects without the need for an additional monitoring solution. Using this feature centralizes monitoring for core platform components and user-defined projects.

Note

Versions of Prometheus Operator installed using Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) are not compatible with user-defined monitoring. Therefore, custom Prometheus instances installed as a Prometheus custom resource (CR) managed by the OLM Prometheus Operator are not supported in OpenShift Container Platform.

Cluster administrators can enable monitoring for user-defined projects by setting the enableUserWorkload: true field in the cluster monitoring ConfigMap object.

Important

You must remove any custom Prometheus instances before enabling monitoring for user-defined projects.

Note

You must have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role to enable monitoring for user-defined projects in OpenShift Container Platform. Cluster administrators can then optionally grant users permission to configure the components that are responsible for monitoring user-defined projects.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have created the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object.

  • You have optionally created and configured the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. You can add configuration options to this ConfigMap object for the components that monitor user-defined projects.

    Note

    Every time you save configuration changes to the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object, the pods in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project are redeployed. It might sometimes take a while for these components to redeploy.

Procedure

  1. Edit the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: 

    $ oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config

  2. Add enableUserWorkload: true under data/config.yaml to enable monitoring for user-defined projects in a cluster: 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    enableUserWorkload: true

  3. Save the file to apply the changes. Monitoring for user-defined projects is then enabled automatically.

    Note

    If you enable monitoring for user-defined projects, the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object is created by default.

Verification

  • Verify that the prometheus-operator, prometheus-user-workload, and thanos-ruler-user-workload pods are running in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. It might take a short while for the pods to start: 

    $ oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod

    Example output: 

    NAME                                   READY   STATUS        RESTARTS   AGE
prometheus-operator-6f7b748d5b-t7nbg   2/2     Running       0          3h
prometheus-user-workload-0             4/4     Running       1          3h
prometheus-user-workload-1             4/4     Running       1          3h
thanos-ruler-user-workload-0           3/3     Running       0          3h
thanos-ruler-user-workload-1           3/3     Running       0          3h

As a cluster administrator, you can assign the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role to a user. This grants permission to configure and manage monitoring for user-defined projects without giving them permission to configure and manage core OpenShift Container Platform monitoring components.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • Assign the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role to a user in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project: 

    $ oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring adm policy add-role-to-user \
  user-workload-monitoring-config-edit <user> \
  --role-namespace openshift-user-workload-monitoring

Verification

  • Verify that the user is correctly assigned to the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role by displaying the related role binding: 

    $ oc describe rolebinding <role_binding_name> -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring

    Example command: 

    $ oc describe rolebinding user-workload-monitoring-config-edit -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring

    Example output: 

    Name:         user-workload-monitoring-config-edit
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
Role:
  Kind:  Role
  Name:  user-workload-monitoring-config-edit
Subjects:
  Kind  Name  Namespace
  ----  ----  ---------
  User  user1

    In this example, user1 is assigned to the user-workload-monitoring-config-edit role.

An administrator can enable alert routing for user-defined projects to allow developers and other users to configure alert routing for their custom alerts in user-defined projects.

This process consists of the following steps:

  • Enable alert routing for user-defined projects:

    • Use the default platform Alertmanager instance.
    • Use a separate Alertmanager instance only for user-defined projects.
  • Grant users permission to configure alert routing for user-defined projects.

Cluster administrators can allow users to create user-defined alert routing configurations that use the main platform instance of Alertmanager to centralize alert management.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • A cluster administrator has enabled monitoring for user-defined projects.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Edit the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: 

    $ oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config

  2. Add enableUserAlertmanagerConfig: true in the alertmanagerMain section under data/config.yaml: 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    # ...
    alertmanagerMain:
      enableUserAlertmanagerConfig: true
    # ...

    Setting the enableUserAlertmanagerConfig value to true allows users to create user-defined alert routing configurations that use the main platform instance of Alertmanager.

  3. Save the file to apply the changes. The new configuration is applied automatically.

In some clusters, you might want to enable a dedicated Alertmanager instance for user-defined projects, which can help reduce the load on the default platform Alertmanager instance and can better separate user-defined alerts from default platform alerts.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • You have enabled monitoring for user-defined projects.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Edit the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: 

    $ oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring edit configmap user-workload-monitoring-config

  2. Add enabled: true and enableAlertmanagerConfig: true in the alertmanager section under data/config.yaml: 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: user-workload-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-user-workload-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    alertmanager:
      enabled: true
      enableAlertmanagerConfig: true

    where:

    alertmanager.enabled
    Defines whether to enable a dedicated instance of the Alertmanager for user-defined projects in a cluster. Set the value to true to enable or false to disable. If you set this value to false or if the key is omitted, user-defined alerts are routed to the default platform Alertmanager instance.
    alertmanager.enableAlertmanagerConfig
    Defines whether to enable users to define their own alert routing configurations with AlertmanagerConfig objects. Set the value to true to enable or false to disable.
  3. Save the file to apply the changes. The dedicated instance of Alertmanager for user-defined projects starts automatically.

Verification

  • Verify that the user-workload Alertmanager instance has started: 

    $ oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get alertmanager

    Example output: 

    NAME            VERSION   REPLICAS   AGE
user-workload   0.24.0    2          100s

Administrators can grant users permission to configure alert routing for user-defined projects. This enables developers and other users to configure notifications for their custom alerts in user-defined projects.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • You have enabled monitoring for user-defined projects.
  • The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • Assign the alert-routing-edit cluster role to a user in the user-defined project: 

    $ oc -n <namespace> adm policy add-role-to-user alert-routing-edit <user>

    where:

    <namespace>
    Specifies the namespace for the user-defined project.
    <user>
    Specifies the username for the account to which you want to assign the role.

As a cluster administrator, you can monitor all core platform and user-defined projects. To delegate user workload monitoring capabilities to other users, assign different permission levels.

You can grant permissions for different monitoring activities:

  • Monitoring user-defined projects
  • Configuring the components that monitor user-defined projects
  • Configuring alert routing for user-defined projects
  • Managing alerts and silences for user-defined projects

You can grant the permissions by assigning one of the following monitoring roles or cluster roles:

Expand
Table 1.2. Monitoring roles
Role nameDescriptionProject

user-workload-monitoring-config-edit

Users with this role can edit the user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object to configure Prometheus, Prometheus Operator, Alertmanager, and Thanos Ruler for user-defined workload monitoring.

openshift-user-workload-monitoring

monitoring-alertmanager-api-reader

Users with this role have read access to the user-defined Alertmanager API for all projects, if the user-defined Alertmanager is enabled.

openshift-user-workload-monitoring

monitoring-alertmanager-api-writer

Users with this role have read and write access to the user-defined Alertmanager API for all projects, if the user-defined Alertmanager is enabled.

openshift-user-workload-monitoring

Expand
Table 1.3. Monitoring cluster roles
Cluster role nameDescriptionProject

monitoring-rules-view

Users with this cluster role have read access to PrometheusRule custom resources (CRs) for user-defined projects.

Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project.

monitoring-rules-edit

Users with this cluster role can create, modify, and delete PrometheusRule CRs for user-defined projects.

Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project.

monitoring-edit

Users with this cluster role have the same privileges as users with the monitoring-rules-edit cluster role. Additionally, users can create, read, modify, and delete ServiceMonitor and PodMonitor resources to scrape metrics from services and pods.

Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project.

alert-routing-edit

Users with this cluster role can create, update, and delete AlertmanagerConfig CRs for user-defined projects.

Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project.

pod-metrics-reader

Users with this cluster role can access Thanos API endpoints for user-defined projects.

Can be bound with RoleBinding to any user project.

Cluster administrators can grant users permissions for the openshift-monitoring project or their own projects, by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, go to User Management RoleBindings Create binding.
  2. In the Binding Type section, select the Namespace Role Binding type.
  3. In the Name field, enter a name for the role binding.

  4. In the Namespace field, select the project where you want to grant the access.

    Important

    The monitoring role or cluster role permissions that you grant to a user by using this procedure apply only to the project that you select in the Namespace field.

  5. Select a monitoring role or cluster role from the Role Name list.
  6. In the Subject section, select User.
  7. In the Subject Name field, enter the name of the user.
  8. Select Create to apply the role binding.

1.4.2. Granting user permissions by using the CLI
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Cluster administrators can grant users permissions to monitor their own projects, by using the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Important

Whichever role or cluster role you choose, you must bind it against a specific project as a cluster administrator.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • The user account that you are assigning the role to already exists.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • To assign a monitoring role to a user for a project, enter the following command: 

    $ oc adm policy add-role-to-user <role> <user> -n <namespace> --role-namespace <namespace>

    where:

    <role>
    Specifies the wanted monitoring role.
    <user>
    Specifies the user to whom you want to assign the role.
    <namespace>
    Specifies the project where you want to grant the access.

  • To assign a monitoring cluster role to a user for a project, enter the following command: 

    $ oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user <cluster-role> <user> -n <namespace>

    where:

    <cluster-role>
    Specifies the wanted monitoring cluster role.
    <user>
    Specifies the user to whom you want to assign the cluster role.
    <namespace>
    Specifies the project where you want to grant the access.

Exclude individual user-defined projects from monitoring by adding the openshift.io/user-monitoring=false label to the project’s namespace. For example, you can use this to exclude test environments, reduce monitoring overhead, or meet compliance requirements.

Procedure

  1. Add the label to the project namespace: 

    $ oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring=false'

  2. To re-enable monitoring, remove the label from the namespace: 

    $ oc label namespace my-project 'openshift.io/user-monitoring-'
    Note

    If there were any active monitoring targets for the project, it may take a few minutes for Prometheus to stop scraping them after adding the label.

After enabling monitoring for user-defined projects, you can disable it again by setting enableUserWorkload: false in the cluster-monitoring-config config map if you no longer require monitoring of your applications.

Note

Alternatively, you can remove enableUserWorkload: true to disable monitoring for user-defined projects.

Procedure

  1. Edit the cluster-monitoring-config ConfigMap object: 

    $ oc -n openshift-monitoring edit configmap cluster-monitoring-config

  2. Set enableUserWorkload: to false under data/config.yaml: 

    apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    enableUserWorkload: false
  3. Save the file to apply the changes. Monitoring for user-defined projects is then disabled automatically.

Verification

  1. Verify that the prometheus-operator, prometheus-user-workload and thanos-ruler-user-workload pods are terminated in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project. This might take a short while: 

    $ oc -n openshift-user-workload-monitoring get pod

    Example output: 

    No resources found in openshift-user-workload-monitoring project.
Note

The user-workload-monitoring-config ConfigMap object in the openshift-user-workload-monitoring project is not automatically deleted when monitoring for user-defined projects is disabled. This is to preserve any custom configurations that you may have created in the ConfigMap object.

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