Chapter 5. Searching in the console introduction

For Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes, search provides visibility into your Kubernetes resources across all of your clusters. Search also indexes the Kubernetes resources and the relationships to other resources.

5.1. Search components

The search architecture is composed of the following components:

Table 5.1. Search component table
Component name	Metrics	Metric type	Description
`search-collector`			Watches the Kubernetes resources, collects the resource metadata, computes relationships for resources across all of your managed clusters, and sends the collected data to the `search-indexer`. The `search-collector` on your managed cluster runs as a pod named, `klusterlet-addon-search`.
`search-indexer` Receives resource metadata from the collectors and writes to PostgreSQL database. The `search-indexer` also watches resources in the hub cluster to keep track of active managed clusters.	`search_indexer_request_duration`	Histogram	Time (seconds) the search indexer takes to process a request (from managed cluster).
	`search_indexer_request_size`	Histogram	Total changes (add, update, delete) in the search indexer request (from managed cluster).
	`search_indexer_request_count`	Counter	Total requests received by the search indexer (from managed clusters).
	`search_indexer_requests_in_flight`	Gauge	Total requests the search indexer is processing at a given time.
`search-api` Provides access to all cluster data in the `search-indexer` through GraphQL and enforces role-based access control (RBAC).	`search_api_requests`	Histogram	Histogram of HTTP requests duration in seconds.
	`search_dbquery_duration_seconds`	Histogram	Latency of database requests in seconds.
	`search_api_db_connection_failed_total`	Counter	The total number of database connection attempts that failed.
`search-postgres`			Stores collected data from all managed clusters in an instance of the PostgreSQL database.

Search is configured by default on the hub cluster. When you provision or manually import a managed cluster, the klusterlet-addon-search is enabled. If you want to disable search on your managed cluster, see Modifying the klusterlet add-ons settings of your cluster for more information.

5.2. Search customization and configurations

You can modify the default values in the search-v2-operator custom resource. To view details of the custom resource, run the following command:

oc get search search-v2-operator -o yaml

The search operator watches the search-v2-operator custom resource, reconciles the changes and updates active pods. View the following descriptions of the configurations:

PostgreSQL database storage:
When you install Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management, the PostgreSQL database is configured to save the PostgreSQL data in an empty directory (emptyDir) volume. If the empty directory size is limited, you can save the PostgreSQL data on a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) to improve search performance. You can select a storageclass from your Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management hub cluster to back up your search data. For example, if you select the gp2 storageclass your configuration might resemble the following example:
```
apiVersion: search.open-cluster-management.io/v1alpha1
kind: Search
metadata:
  name: search-v2-operator
  namespace: open-cluster-management
  labels:
    cluster.open-cluster-management.io/backup: ""
spec:
  dbStorage:
    size: 10Gi
    storageClassName: gp2
```
This configuration creates a PVC named gp2-search and is mounted to the search-postgres pod. By default, the storage size is 10Gi. You can modify the storage size. For example, 20Gi might be sufficient for about 200 managed clusters.
Optimize cost by tuning the pod memory or CPU requirements, replica count, and update log levels for any of the four search pods (indexer, database, queryapi, or collector pod). Update the deployment section of the search-v2-operator custom resource. There are four deployments managed by the search-v2-operator, which can be updated individually. Your search-v2-operator custom resource might resemble the following file:
```
apiVersion: search.open-cluster-management.io/v1alpha1
kind: Search
metadata:
  name: search-v2-operator
  namespace: open-cluster-management
spec:
  deployments:
    collector:
      resources: 1
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 128Mi
        requests:
          cpu: 250m
          memory: 64Mi
    indexer:
      replicaCount: 3
    database: 2
        envVar:
          - name: POSTGRESQL_EFFECTIVE_CACHE_SIZE
            value: 1024MB
          - name: POSTGRESQL_SHARED_BUFFERS
            value: 512MB
          - name: WORK_MEM
            value: 128MB
    queryapi:
      arguments: 3
      - -v=3
```
1 1
You can apply resources to an indexer, database, queryapi, or collector pod.
2 2
You can add multiple environment variables in the envVar section to specify a value for each variable that you name.
3
You can control the log level verbosity for any of the previous four pods by adding the - -v=3 argument.
See the following example where memory resources are applied to the indexer pod:
```
    indexer:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 5Gi
        requests:
          memory: 1Gi
```

Node placement for search pods:

You can update the Placement of search pods by using the nodeSelector parameter, or the tolerations parameter. View the following example configuration:

spec:
 dbStorage:
  size: 10Gi
 deployments:
  collector: {}
  database: {}
  indexer: {}
  queryapi: {}
 nodeSelector:
  node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
 tolerations:
 - effect: NoSchedule
  key: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
  operator: Exists

5.3. Additional resources

For instruction about how to manage search, see Managing search.
For more topics about the Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes console, see Web console.

5.4. Managing search

Use search to query resource data from your clusters.

Required access: Cluster administrator

Continue reading the following topics:

5.4.1. Creating search configurable collection

Create the search-collector-config ConfigMap to define which Kubernetes resources get collected from the cluster by listing the resources in the allow and deny list section. List the resources in the data.AllowedResources and data.DeniedResources sections within the ConfigMap. Run the following command to create the resource:

oc apply -f yourconfigMapFile.yaml

Your ConfigMap might resemble the following YAML file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
 name: search-collector-config
 namespace: <namespace where search-collector add-on is deployed>
data:
 AllowedResources: |-
   - apiGroups:
       - "*"
     resources:
       - services
       - pods
   - apiGroups:
       - admission.k8s.io
       - authentication.k8s.io
     resources:
       - "*"
 DeniedResources: |-
   - apiGroups:
       - "*"
     resources:
       - secrets
   - apiGroups:
       - admission.k8s.io
     resources:
       - policies
       - iampolicies
       - certificatepolicies

The previous ConfigMap example allows services and pods to be collected from all apiGroups, while allowing all resources to be collected from the admission.k8s.io and authentication.k8s.io apiGroups. At the same time, the ConfigMap example also prevents the central collection of secrets from all apiGroups while preventing the collection of policies, iampolicies, and certificatepolicies from the apiGroup admission.k8s.io.

Note: If you do not provide a ConfigMap, all resources are collected by default. If you only provide AllowedResources, all resources not listed in AllowedResources are automatically excluded. Resources listed in AllowedResources and DeniedResources at the same time are also excluded.

5.4.2. Customizing the search console

You can customize the search result limit from the OpenShift Container Platform console. Update the console-mce-config in the multicluster-engine namespace. These settings apply to all users and might affect performance. View the following performance parameter descriptions:

SAVED_SEARCH_LIMIT - The maximum amount of saved searches per user. By default, there is a limit of ten saved searches for each user. The default value is 10. To update the limit, add the following key value to the console-config ConfigMap: SAVED_SEARCH_LIMIT: x.
SEARCH_RESULT_LIMIT - The maximum amount of search results displayed in the console. Default value is 1000. To remove this limit set to -1.
SEARCH_AUTOCOMPLETE_LIMIT - The maximum number of suggestions retrieved for the search bar typeahead. Default value is 10,000. To remove this limit set to -1.

Run the following patch command from the OpenShift Container Platform console to change the search result to 100 items:

oc patch configmap console-mce-config -n multicluster-engine --type merge -p '{"data":{"SEARCH_RESULT_LIMIT":"100"}}'

5.4.3. Querying in the console

You can type any text value in the Search box and results include anything with that value from any property, such as a name or namespace. Users are unable to search for values that contain an empty space.

For more specific search results, include the property selector in your search. You can combine related values for the property for a more precise scope of your search. For example, search for cluster:dev red to receive results that match the string "red" in the dev cluster.

Complete the following steps to make queries with search:

Click Search in the navigation menu.
Type a word in the Search box, then Search finds your resources that contain that value.
- As you search for resources, you receive other resources that are related to your original search result, which help you visualize how the resources interact with other resources in the system.
- Search returns and lists each cluster with the resource that you search. For resources in the hub cluster, the cluster name is displayed as local-cluster.
- Your search results are grouped by kind, and each resource kind is grouped in a table.
- Your search options depend on your cluster objects.
- You can refine your results with specific labels. Search is case-sensitive when you query labels. See the following examples that you can select for filtering: name, namespace, status, and other resource fields. Auto-complete provides suggestions to refine your search. See the following example:
- Search for a single field, such as kind:pod to find all pod resources.
- Search for multiple fields, such as kind:pod namespace:default to find the pods in the default namespace.
  Notes:
  - You can also search with conditions by using characters, such as >, >=, <, <=, !=.
  - When you search for more than one property selector with multiple values, the search returns either of the values that were queried. View the following examples:
  - When you search for kind:pod name:a, any pod named a is returned.
  - When you search for kind:pod name:a,b, any pod named a or b are returned.
  - Search for kind:pod status:!Running to find all pod resources where the status is not Running.
  - Search for kind:pod restarts:>1 to find all pods that restarted at least twice.
If you want to save your search, click the Save search icon.

5.4.3.1. Querying ArgoCD applications

When you search for an ArgoCD application, you are directed to the Applications page. Complete the following steps to access the ArgoCD application from the Search page:

Log in to your Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management hub cluster.
From the console header, select the Search icon.
Filter your query with the following values: kind:application and apigroup:argoproj.io.
Select an application to view. The Application page displays an overview of information for the application.

5.4.4. Updating klusterlet-addon-search deployments on managed clusters

To collect the Kubernetes objects from the managed clusters, the klusterlet-addon-search pod is run on all the managed clusters where search is enabled. This deployment is run in the open-cluster-management-agent-addon namespace. A managed cluster with a high number of resources might require more memory for the klusterlet-addon-search deployment to function.

Resource requirements for the klusterlet-addon-search pod in a managed cluster can be specified in the ManagedClusterAddon custom resource in your Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management hub cluster. There is a namespace for each managed cluster with the managed cluster name. Edit the ManagedClusterAddon custom resource from the namespace matching the managed cluster name. Run the following command to update the resource requirement in xyz managed cluster:

oc edit managedclusteraddon search-collector -n xyz

Append the resource requirements as annotations. View the following example:

apiVersion: addon.open-cluster-management.io/v1alpha1
kind: ManagedClusterAddOn
metadata:
  annotations: addon.open-cluster-management.io/search_memory_limit: 2048Mi
  addon.open-cluster-management.io/search_memory_request: 512Mi

The annotation overrides the resource requirements on the managed clusters and automatically restarts the pod with new resource requirements.

Return to Observing environments introduction.

Chapter 5. Searching in the console introduction

5.1. Search components

5.2. Search customization and configurations

5.3. Additional resources

5.4. Managing search

5.4.1. Creating search configurable collection

5.4.2. Customizing the search console

5.4.3. Querying in the console

5.4.3.1. Querying ArgoCD applications

5.4.4. Updating klusterlet-addon-search deployments on managed clusters

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