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nrdot-collector-k8s

README.md

nrdot-collector-k8s

Note: See general README for information that applies to all distributions.

A distribution of the NRDOT collector focused on gathering metrics in a kubernetes environment with two different configs:

  • config-daemonset.yaml (default): Typically deployed as a DaemonSet. Collects node-level metrics via hostmetricsreceiver, filelogreceiver, kubeletstatsreceiver and prometheusreceiver (cAdvisor, kubelet).
  • config-deployment.yaml: Typically deployed as a Deployment. Collects cluster-level metrics via k8seventsreceiver, prometheusreceiver (kube-state-metrics, apiserver, controller-manager, scheduler). Can be enabled by overriding the default docker CMD, i.e. --config /etc/nrdot-collector-k8s/config-deployment.yaml.

Distribution is available as docker image and runs in daemonset mode by default.

Additional Configuration

See general README for information that applies to all distributions.

Environment Variable Description Default
K8S_CLUSTER_NAME Kubernetes Cluster Name used to populate attributes like k8s.cluster.name cluster-name-placeholder
MY_POD_IP Pod IP to configure otlpreceiver cluster-name-placeholder

Distro vs Helm Chart

The initial choice of components and configuration of this distribution was driven by the nr-k8s-otel-collector helm chart. However, the helm templating syntax is more expressive than the collector configuration and should be used if possible. The configurations embedded in the distro are intended as a stable default with minimal setup for users who cannot use the helm chart but still want to monitor their k8s cluster with the NRDOT collector.

Key differences are formally documented in the script that ensures the configurations stay in-sync and can be summarized as:

  • lowDataMode: false is hardcoded and cannot be toggled (easily - it is always possible to overwrite the config with native collector options)
  • hostmetricsreceiver in the daemonset config does not assume that the host file system is mounted, thus providing metrics about its container and not the host node.