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Note: This documentation is for the 0.x Magic Dashboard-based version of the Kubernetes integration. For the latest installation guide, refer to our Kubernetes 1.x documentation.
The AppSignal for Kubernetes integration extracts metrics from Kubernetes clusters. After adding the AppSignal Kubernetes deployment to your cluster, an magic dashboard with Kubernetes metrics will be created, showing an overview of node and pod metrics.

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Installation

To start reporting Kubernetes cluster metrics to AppSignal:
  1. Store your AppSignal API key in a secret
  2. Add AppSignal deployment to your cluster

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1. Store your AppSignal API key in a secret

In a Kubernetes cluster, set up your AppSignal API key (find your Front-end API key in App settings) by creating a secret: 
kubectl create secret generic appsignal --from-literal=api-key=<APPSIGNAL_API_KEY>

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2. Add AppSignal deployment to your cluster

Once you’ve created the AppSignal API key secret, add the AppSignal deployment to your cluster: 
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appsignal/appsignal-kubernetes/v0.2.0/deployment.yaml
Once configured, AppSignal for Kubernetes will start reporting Kubernetes metrics automatically.

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Magic dashboard

Your Kubernetes metrics will be used to create two magic dashboards. In both dashboards, you will be able to see graphs representing useful metrics over time, such as:
  • CPU Usage: CPU usage stats per node or pod
  • Memory Usage: memory usage statistics, comparing the used memory to what’s available per node or pod
  • Swap Usage: swap usage statistics, comparing the used swap to what’s available per node or pod
  • Disk Usage: disk usage statistics, comparing the used disk space to what’s available per node
  • Network usage: network usage, split by received and transmitted bytes per node
Below is an example of an automated Kubernetes dashboard: The Kubernetes magic dashboard

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Metrics

AppSignal for Kubernetes extracts the following metrics from the /api/v1/nodes/<NODE>/proxy/stats/summary endpoint:

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Node metrics

  • node_cpu_usage_nano_cores
  • node_cpu_usage_core_nano_seconds
  • node_memory_usage_bytes
  • node_memory_working_set_bytes
  • node_memory_rss_bytes
  • node_memory_page_faults
  • node_memory_major_page_faults
  • node_network_rx_bytes
  • node_network_rx_errors
  • node_network_tx_bytes
  • node_network_tx_errors
  • node_fs_available_bytes
  • node_s_capacity_bytes
  • node_fs_inodes_free
  • node_fs_inodes
  • node_fs_inodes_used
  • node_rlimit_maxpid
  • node_rlimit_curproc
  • node_swap_available_bytes
  • node_swap_usage_bytes

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Pod metrics

  • pod_cpu_usage_nano_cores
  • pod_cpu_usage_core_nano_seconds
  • pod_memory_working_set_bytes
  • pod_swap_available_bytes
  • pod_swap_usage_bytes
You can track any of these metrics with a custom dashboard.

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Disabling host metrics

The Kubernetes dashboards serve as a replacement for AppSignal’s host metrics, and will eventually replace them altogether. In the meantime, we recommend disabling host metrics for Kubernetes setups by setting the enable_host_metrics configuration to false.

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Support

If you are experiencing any difficulties configuring your application’s Kubernetes metrics, contact support, and we’ll help you get your metrics flowing.