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Chapter 16. Cluster Observability Operator

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16.1. Cluster Observability Operator release notes

Important

The Cluster Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

The Cluster Observability Operator (COO) is an optional OpenShift Container Platform Operator that enables administrators to create standalone monitoring stacks that are independently configurable for use by different services and users.

The COO complements the built-in monitoring capabilities of OpenShift Container Platform. You can deploy it in parallel with the default platform and user workload monitoring stacks managed by the Cluster Monitoring Operator (CMO).

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

16.1.1. Cluster Observability Operator 0.1.1

This release updates the Cluster Observability Operator to support installing the Operator in restricted networks or disconnected environments.

16.1.2. Cluster Observability Operator 0.1

This release makes a Technology Preview version of the Cluster Observability Operator available on OperatorHub.

16.2. Cluster Observability Operator overview

Important

The Cluster Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

The Cluster Observability Operator (COO) is an optional component of the OpenShift Container Platform. You can deploy it to create standalone monitoring stacks that are independently configurable for use by different services and users.

The COO deploys the following monitoring components:

  • Prometheus
  • Thanos Querier (optional)
  • Alertmanager (optional)

The COO components function independently of the default in-cluster monitoring stack, which is deployed and managed by the Cluster Monitoring Operator (CMO). Monitoring stacks deployed by the two Operators do not conflict. You can use a COO monitoring stack in addition to the default platform monitoring components deployed by the CMO.

16.2.1. Understanding the Cluster Observability Operator

A default monitoring stack created by the Cluster Observability Operator (COO) includes a highly available Prometheus instance capable of sending metrics to an external endpoint by using remote write.

Each COO stack also includes an optional Thanos Querier component, which you can use to query a highly available Prometheus instance from a central location, and an optional Alertmanager component, which you can use to set up alert configurations for different services.

16.2.1.1. Advantages of using the Cluster Observability Operator

The MonitoringStack CRD used by the COO offers an opinionated default monitoring configuration for COO-deployed monitoring components, but you can customize it to suit more complex requirements.

Deploying a COO-managed monitoring stack can help meet monitoring needs that are difficult or impossible to address by using the core platform monitoring stack deployed by the Cluster Monitoring Operator (CMO). A monitoring stack deployed using COO has the following advantages over core platform and user workload monitoring:

Extendability
Users can add more metrics to a COO-deployed monitoring stack, which is not possible with core platform monitoring without losing support. In addition, COO-managed stacks can receive certain cluster-specific metrics from core platform monitoring by using federation.
Multi-tenancy support
The COO can create a monitoring stack per user namespace. You can also deploy multiple stacks per namespace or a single stack for multiple namespaces. For example, cluster administrators, SRE teams, and development teams can all deploy their own monitoring stacks on a single cluster, rather than having to use a single shared stack of monitoring components. Users on different teams can then independently configure features such as separate alerts, alert routing, and alert receivers for their applications and services.
Scalability
You can create COO-managed monitoring stacks as needed. Multiple monitoring stacks can run on a single cluster, which can facilitate the monitoring of very large clusters by using manual sharding. This ability addresses cases where the number of metrics exceeds the monitoring capabilities of a single Prometheus instance.
Flexibility
Deploying the COO with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) decouples COO releases from OpenShift Container Platform release cycles. This method of deployment enables faster release iterations and the ability to respond rapidly to changing requirements and issues. Additionally, by deploying a COO-managed monitoring stack, users can manage alerting rules independently of OpenShift Container Platform release cycles.
Highly customizable
The COO can delegate ownership of single configurable fields in custom resources to users by using Server-Side Apply (SSA), which enhances customization.

16.3. Installing the Cluster Observability Operator

Important

The Cluster Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

As a cluster administrator, you can install the Cluster Observability Operator (COO) from OperatorHub by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or CLI. OperatorHub is a user interface that works in conjunction with Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), which installs and manages Operators on a cluster.

To install the COO using OperatorHub, follow the procedure described in Adding Operators to a cluster.

16.3.1. Uninstalling the Cluster Observability Operator using the web console

If you have installed the Cluster Observability Operator (COO) by using OperatorHub, you can uninstall it in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role.
  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

  1. Go to Operators Installed Operators.
  2. Locate the Cluster Observability Operator entry in the list.
  3. Click kebab for this entry and select Uninstall Operator.

16.4. Configuring the Cluster Observability Operator to monitor a service

Important

The Cluster Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

You can monitor metrics for a service by configuring monitoring stacks managed by the Cluster Observability Operator (COO).

To test monitoring a service, follow these steps:

  • Deploy a sample service that defines a service endpoint.
  • Create a ServiceMonitor object that specifies how the service is to be monitored by the COO.
  • Create a MonitoringStack object to discover the ServiceMonitor object.

16.4.1. Deploying a sample service for Cluster Observability Operator

This configuration deploys a sample service named prometheus-coo-example-app in the user-defined ns1-coo project. The service exposes the custom version metric.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role or as a user with administrative permissions for the namespace.

Procedure

  1. Create a YAML file named prometheus-coo-example-app.yaml that contains the following configuration details for a namespace, deployment, and service:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Namespace
    metadata:
      name: ns1-coo
    ---
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: prometheus-coo-example-app
      name: prometheus-coo-example-app
      namespace: ns1-coo
    spec:
      replicas: 1
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: prometheus-coo-example-app
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: prometheus-coo-example-app
        spec:
          containers:
          - image: ghcr.io/rhobs/prometheus-example-app:0.4.2
            imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
            name: prometheus-coo-example-app
    ---
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: prometheus-coo-example-app
      name: prometheus-coo-example-app
      namespace: ns1-coo
    spec:
      ports:
      - port: 8080
        protocol: TCP
        targetPort: 8080
        name: web
      selector:
        app: prometheus-coo-example-app
      type: ClusterIP
  2. Save the file.
  3. Apply the configuration to the cluster by running the following command:

    $ oc apply -f prometheus-coo-example-app.yaml
  4. Verify that the pod is running by running the following command and observing the output:

    $ oc -n -ns1-coo get pod

    Example output

    NAME                                      READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    prometheus-coo-example-app-0927545cb7-anskj   1/1       Running   0          81m

16.4.2. Specifying how a service is monitored by Cluster Observability Operator

To use the metrics exposed by the sample service you created in the "Deploying a sample service for Cluster Observability Operator" section, you must configure monitoring components to scrape metrics from the /metrics endpoint.

You can create this configuration by using a ServiceMonitor object that specifies how the service is to be monitored, or a PodMonitor object that specifies how a pod is to be monitored. The ServiceMonitor object requires a Service object. The PodMonitor object does not, which enables the MonitoringStack object to scrape metrics directly from the metrics endpoint exposed by a pod.

This procedure shows how to create a ServiceMonitor object for a sample service named prometheus-coo-example-app in the ns1-coo namespace.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role or as a user with administrative permissions for the namespace.
  • You have installed the Cluster Observability Operator.
  • You have deployed the prometheus-coo-example-app sample service in the ns1-coo namespace.

    Note

    The prometheus-coo-example-app sample service does not support TLS authentication.

Procedure

  1. Create a YAML file named example-coo-app-service-monitor.yaml that contains the following ServiceMonitor object configuration details:

    apiVersion: monitoring.rhobs/v1alpha1
    kind: ServiceMonitor
    metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: prometheus-coo-example-monitor
      name: prometheus-coo-example-monitor
      namespace: ns1-coo
    spec:
      endpoints:
      - interval: 30s
        port: web
        scheme: http
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: prometheus-coo-example-app

    This configuration defines a ServiceMonitor object that the MonitoringStack object will reference to scrape the metrics data exposed by the prometheus-coo-example-app sample service.

  2. Apply the configuration to the cluster by running the following command:

    $ oc apply -f example-app-service-monitor.yaml
  3. Verify that the ServiceMonitor resource is created by running the following command and observing the output:

    $ oc -n ns1-coo get servicemonitor

    Example output

    NAME                         AGE
    prometheus-coo-example-monitor   81m

16.4.3. Creating a MonitoringStack object for the Cluster Observability Operator

To scrape the metrics data exposed by the target prometheus-coo-example-app service, create a MonitoringStack object that references the ServiceMonitor object you created in the "Specifying how a service is monitored for Cluster Observability Operator" section. This MonitoringStack object can then discover the service and scrape the exposed metrics data from it.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin cluster role or as a user with administrative permissions for the namespace.
  • You have installed the Cluster Observability Operator.
  • You have deployed the prometheus-coo-example-app sample service in the ns1-coo namespace.
  • You have created a ServiceMonitor object named prometheus-coo-example-monitor in the ns1-coo namespace.

Procedure

  1. Create a YAML file for the MonitoringStack object configuration. For this example, name the file example-coo-monitoring-stack.yaml.
  2. Add the following MonitoringStack object configuration details:

    Example MonitoringStack object

    apiVersion: monitoring.rhobs/v1alpha1
    kind: MonitoringStack
    metadata:
      name: example-coo-monitoring-stack
      namespace: ns1-coo
    spec:
      logLevel: debug
      retention: 1d
      resourceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          k8s-app: prometheus-coo-example-monitor

  3. Apply the MonitoringStack object by running the following command:

    $ oc apply -f example-coo-monitoring-stack.yaml
  4. Verify that the MonitoringStack object is available by running the following command and inspecting the output:

    $ oc -n ns1-coo get monitoringstack

    Example output

    NAME                         AGE
    example-coo-monitoring-stack   81m

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