Heapster probe

1 Main Features

The Heapster probe access to the Heapster API in order to list the pods and the containers available per pod, retrieving several metrics at the pod and container level, since they are complementary. These metrics, later on, are sent to the Zabbix server.

2.2 Pre-Requisites

Not fulfilling these requisites will have a negative impact in the execution of the probes.

• It is necessary to have a Heapster deployed in the corresponding Kubernetes cluster to be monitored, since the metrics are obtained from its APIs;

• It requires a Zabbix agent already installed, since the probe needs to run scripts provided by the Zabbix agent in order to send the metrics to the Zabbix server.

Since the implementation of the probes is in Java, it requires, at least, a Java7 JVM to be already installed.

2.3 Installation

First of all, make sure the main dependencies of the probes are available: the JRE and the Zabbix Agent. If this is not the case, they can be installed following a few simple steps.

In order to install the JRE:

• Ubuntu:

  sudo apt-get install default-jre

• CentOS:

  sudo yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk

In order to install the Zabbix Agent, it is necessary to run the following commands (see https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/3.0/manual/installation/install_from_packages):

• Ubuntu (look at the link for repositories configuration):

  apt-get install zabbix-agent

• CentOS:

  yum install zabbix-agent

Then, it is necessary to install the corresponding packages generated for the probes.

• Ubuntu:

  wget https://github.com/indigo-dc/Monitoring/raw/master/zabbix-probes/heapster-zabbix-probe/heapster-zabbix-probe-1.01.deb

  dpkg --install heapster-zabbix-probe-1.01.deb

• CentOS

  sudo yum install https://github.com/indigo-dc/Monitoring/raw/master/zabbix-probes/heapster-zabbix-probe/HeapsterZabbixProbe-1.01.rpm

Although the probes can be run just on demand, the best option is to configure them as Cron jobs. That can be configured by editing the configuration file with the following command:

crontab -e

Then, add the following lines:

30 * * * * java -jar /usr/share/java/zabbix/heapster-zabbix-probe-1.01-jar-with-dependencies.jar

This means that the probe will run every hour at xx:30 please note that when running more than one probe at a time, it's recommended to separate their execution to avoid potential issues when both probes aim at using the Zabbix Agent at the same time. Modify this configuration according to your needs, so the probes will run when required, but bear in mind that running them in parallel may create issues with the Zabbix Agent, since it is not ready to work with concurrent tasks.

2.4 Configuration

The Heapster probe requires the heapsterprobe.properties file to be adapted:

• heapster.url - Provide the URL where the Heapster API is available

• java.keystore - Set here the full location of the security certificates keystore

• zabbix.ip - Provide the IP address of the Zabbix server where metrics will be sent

• zabbix.sender.location - Configure the location where the Zabbix agent was installed, indicating the zabbix sender path

2.5 Packages Update

If a previous version of the packages is already installed, it is necessary to update them to the new version. That can be done through the following commands.

• Ubuntu:

  wget https://github.com/indigo-dc/Monitoring/raw/master/zabbix-probes/heapster-zabbix-probe/heapster-zabbix-probe-1.01.deb

  dpkg -i heapster-zabbix-probe-1.01.deb

• CentOS

  sudo rpm -Uvh https://github.com/indigo-dc/Monitoring/raw/master/zabbix-probes/heapster-zabbix-probe/HeapsterZabbixProbe-1.01.rpm

2.6 Potential Issues

In the case of providers requiring some communication using SSL, if the provider certificate is not signed by a known entity, the JVM may throw exceptions. In such case, it is necessary to register the corresponding certificate with the following command:

keytool -importcert -trustcacerts -alias infnkeystone -file infnkeystone.cer -keystore "%JAVA_HOME%/jre/lib/security/cacerts"