Steps for Kubernetes (Vanilla)

Preparation

Kernel Headers

The Sysdig agent requires kernel header files to install successfully on a host.

Note

This setup step is required for some environments and not others, as noted.

If the hosts in your environment match the pre-compiled kernel modules available from Sysdig, no special action is required.

In some cases, the host(s) in your environment may use Unix versions that do not match the provided headers, and the agent may fail to install correctly. In those cases, you must install the kernel headers manually.

To do so:

For Debian-style distributions, run the command:

apt-get -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

For RHEL-style distributions, run the command:

yum -y install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)

Background info: see also About Kernel Headers and the Kernel Module.

Background Info

You can review Agent Install: Kubernetes | GKE | OpenShift | IBM and the Host Requirements for Agent Installation for additional context, if desired.

Installation Steps

To deploy agents using Kubernetes daemonsets, you will download the following configuration files, edit them as required, and deploy them.

Note

HELM CHART OPTIONKubernetes also offers a package manager, Helm, which uses charts to simplify this process.

If you are using Helm charts in your K8s environment, we recommend using them to deploy Sysdig agents, as described here.

Deploy the Agents

  1. Download the sample files:

    • sysdig-agent-clusterrole.yaml

    • sysdig-agent-daemonset-v2.yaml

    • sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml

    • sysdig-agent-service.yaml

  2. Create a namespace to use for the Sysdig agent.

    Note

    You can use whatever naming you prefer. In this document, we used sysdig-agent for both the namespace and the service account.

    The default service account name was automatically defined in sysdig-agent-daemonset-v2.yaml, at the line: serviceAccount: sysdig-agent.

    kubectl create ns sysdig-agent

  3. Create a secret key:

    kubectl create secret generic sysdig-agent --from-literal=access-key=<your sysdig access key> -n sysdig-agent

  4. Create a cluster role and service account, and define the cluster role bindingthat grants the Sysdig agent rules in the cluster role, using the commands:

    kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-clusterrole.yaml -n sysdig-agent
kubectl create serviceaccount sysdig-agent -n sysdig-agent
kubectl create clusterrolebinding sysdig-agent --clusterrole=sysdig-agent --serviceaccount=sysdig-agent:sysdig-agent

  5. Edit sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml to add the collector address , port , and the SSL/TLS information:

    collector: 
collector_port: 
ssl: #true or false
check_certificate: #true or false

  6. (All installs) Apply the sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml file:

    kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml -n sysdig-agent

  7. (All installs) Apply the sysdig-agent-service.yaml file:

    kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-service.yaml -n sysdig-agent

    This allows the agent to receive Kubernetes audit events from the Kubernetes API server. See Kubernetes Audit Logging for information on enabling Kubernetes audit logging.

  8. (All installs) Apply the daemonset-v2.yaml file :

    kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-daemonset-v2.yaml -n sysdig-agent

The agents will be deployed. See Getting Started with Sysdig Monitor to view some metrics in the Sysdig Monitor UI. You can make further edits to the configmap as described below.

Enable Kube State Metrics and Cluster Name

These steps are optional but recommended.

  1. Edit sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml to uncomment the line: new_k8s: true

    This allows kube state metrics to be automatically detected, monitored, and displayed in Sysdig Monitor.

    For more information, see the Kube State Metrics entry in the Sysdig blog.

    Note

    As of agent 9.6.0, new_k8s is enabled by default.

  2. Edit sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml to uncomment the line: k8s_cluster_name: and add your cluster name.

    Setting cluster name here allows you to view, scope, and segment metrics in the Sysdig Monitor UI by the Kubernetes cluster.

    Note: Alternatively, if you assign a tag with "cluster" in the tag name, Sysdig Monitor will display that as the Kubernetes cluster name.

  3. Apply the configmap changes using the command:

    kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml -n sysdig-agent

  4. Proceed to verify the metrics in the Sysdig Monitor UI.

Note

There are two ways to update the agent configuration

Option 1: Edit the files locally and apply the changes with kubectl apply -f:

kubectl apply -f sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml -n sysdig-agent

Option 2: Use kubectl edit to edit files on the fly:

kubectl edit configmap sysdig-agent -n sysdig-agent

Running agents will automatically pick the new configuration after Kubernetes pushes the changes across all the nodes in the cluster.

Additional Options

Connect to the Sysdig Backend via Static IPs (SaaS only)

Sysdig provides a list of static IP addresses that can be whitelisted in a Sysdig environment, allowing users to establish a network connection to the Sysdig backend without opening complete network connectivity. This is done by setting the Collector IP to collector-static.sysdigcloud.com.

Note

The sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml file can be edited either locally or using the edit command in Kubernetes. refer to the section above for more information.

To configure the collector IP in a Kubernetes SaaS instance:

  1. Open sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml in a text editor.

  2. Uncomment the following lines:

    • collector:

    • collector_port

  3. Set the collector: value to collector-static.sysdigcloud.com

    See SaaS Regions and IP Ranges and identify the correct URL associated with your Sysdig collector and region.

  4. Set the collector_port: value to 6443

  5. Save the file.

The example file below shows how the sysdig-agent-configmap.yaml file should look after configuration:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: sysdig-agent
data:
  dragent.yaml: |
    ### Agent tags
    # tags: linux:ubuntu,dept:dev,local:nyc

    #### Sysdig Software related config ####

    # Sysdig collector address
    collector: collector-static.sysdigcloud.com

    # Collector TCP port
    collector_port: 6443

    # Whether collector accepts ssl/TLS
    ssl: true

    # collector certificate validation
    ssl_verify_certificate: true

    # Sysdig Secure
    security:
                enabled: true

    #######################################
    # new_k8s: true
    # k8s_cluster_name: production

Verify Metrics in Sysdig Monitor UI

Log in to Sysdig Monitor to verify that the agent deployed and the metrics are detected and collected appropriately.

The steps below give one way to do the check.

  1. Access Sysdig Monitor:

    SaaS: See SaaS Regions and IP Ranges and identify the correct domain URL associated with your Sysdig application and region. For example, for US East, the URL is https://app.sysdigcloud.com.

    For other regions, the format is https://<region>.app.sysdig.com. Replace <region> with the region where your Sysidig application is hosted. For example, for Sysdig Monitor in the EU, you use https://eu1.app.sysdig.com.

    Log in with your Sysdig user name and password.

  2. Select the Explore tab to see if metrics are displayed.

  3. (Once you have enabled new_k8s:true): To verify that kube state metrics and cluster name are working correctly: Select the Explore tab and create a grouping by kubernetes.cluster.name and kubernetes.pod.name.

    As of agent 9.6.0, new_k8s is enabled by default.

    373574807.png

  4. Select an individual container or pod to see details.

    373574813.png

Note

Kubernetes metadata (pods, deployments etc.) appear a minute or two later than the nodes/containers themselves; if pod names do not appear immediately, wait and retry the Explore view.

If agents are disconnecting, there could be an issue with your MAC addresses. See Troubleshooting Agent Installation for tips.