Netdata Helm chart for Kubernetes deployments

Based on the work of varyumin (https://github.com/varyumin/netdata).

Introduction

This chart bootstraps a Netdata deployment on a Kubernetes cluster using the Helm package manager.

By default, the chart installs:

• A Netdata child pod on each node of a cluster, using a Daemonset
• A Netdata k8s state monitoring pod on one node, using a Deployment. This virtual node is called netdata-k8s-state.
• A Netdata parent pod on one node, using a Deployment. This virtual node is called netdata-parent.

Disabled by default:

• A Netdata restarter CronJob. Its main purpose is to automatically update Netdata when using nightly releases.

The child pods and the state pod function as headless collectors that collect and forward all the metrics to the parent pod. The parent pod uses persistent volumes to store metrics and alarms, handle alarm notifications, and provide the Netdata UI to view metrics using an ingress controller.

Please validate that the settings are suitable for your cluster before using them in production.

Prerequisites

• A working cluster running Kubernetes v1.9 or newer.
• The kubectl command line tool, within one minor version difference of your cluster, on an administrative system.
• The Helm package manager v3.8.0 or newer on the same administrative system.

Installing the Helm chart

You can install the Helm chart via our Helm repository, or by cloning this repository.

Installing via our Helm repository (recommended)

To use Netdata's Helm repository, run the following commands:

helm repo add netdata https://netdata.github.io/helmchart/
helm install netdata netdata/netdata

See our install Netdata on Kubernetes documentation for detailed installation and configuration instructions. The remainder of this document assumes you installed the Helm chart by cloning this repository, and thus uses slightly different helm install/helm upgrade commands.

Install by cloning the repository

Clone the repository locally.

git clone https://github.com/netdata/helmchart.git netdata-helmchart

To install the chart with the release name netdata:

helm install netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

The command deploys ingress on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The configuration section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

Tip: List all releases using helm list.

Once the Netdata deployment is up and running, read our guide, Monitor a Kubernetes (k8s) cluster with Netdata, for a breakdown of all the collectors, metrics, and charts available for health monitoring and performance troubleshooting.

Uninstalling the Chart

To uninstall/delete the my-release deployment:

 helm delete netdata

The command removes all the Kubernetes components associated with the chart and deletes the release.

Configuration

The following table lists the configurable parameters of the netdata chart and their default values.

Parameter	Description	Default
kubeVersion	Kubernetes version	Autodetected
replicaCount	Number of replicas for the parent netdata Deployment	1
imagePullSecrets	An optional list of references to secrets in the same namespace to use for pulling any of the images	[]
image.repository	Container image repo	netdata/netdata
image.tag	Container image tag	Latest stable netdata release
image.pullPolicy	Container image pull policy	Always
service.type	Parent service type	ClusterIP
service.port	Parent service port	19999
service.loadBalancerIP	Static LoadBalancer IP, only to be used with service type=LoadBalancer	""
service.loadBalancerSourceRanges	List of allowed IPs for LoadBalancer	[]
service.externalTrafficPolicy	Denotes if this Service desires to route external traffic to node-local or cluster-wide endpoints	Cluster
service.healthCheckNodePort	Specifies the health check node port	Allocated a port from your cluster's NodePort range
service.clusterIP	Specific cluster IP when service type is cluster IP. Use None for headless service	Allocated an IP from your cluster's service IP range
service.annotations	Additional annotations to add to the service	{}
ingress.enabled	Create Ingress to access the netdata web UI	true
ingress.apiVersion	apiVersion for the Ingress	Depends on Kubernetes version
ingress.annotations	Associate annotations to the Ingress	kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx and kubernetes.io/tls-acme: "true"
ingress.path	URL path for the ingress. If changed, a proxy server needs to be configured in front of netdata to translate path from a custom one to a /	/
ingress.pathType	pathType for your ingress contrller. Default value is correct for nginx. If you use yor own ingress controller, check the correct value	Prefix
ingress.hosts	URL hostnames for the ingress (they need to resolve to the external IP of the ingress controller)	netdata.k8s.local
ingress.spec	Spec section for ingress object. Everything there will be included into the object on deplyoment	{}
ingress.spec.ingressClassName	Ingress class declaration for Kubernetes version 1.19+. Annotation ingress.class should be removed if this type of declaration is used	nginx
rbac.create	if true, create & use RBAC resources	true
rbac.pspEnabled	Specifies whether a PodSecurityPolicy should be created.	true
serviceAccount.create	if true, create a service account	true
serviceAccount.name	The name of the service account to use. If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template.	netdata
clusterrole.name	Name of the cluster role linked with the service account	netdata
APIKEY	The key shared between the parent and the child netdata for streaming	11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555
restarter.enabled	Install CronJob to update Netdata Pods	false
restarter.schedule	The schedule in Cron format	00 06 * * *
restarter.image.repository	Container image repo	bitnami/kubectl
restarter.image.tag	Container image tag	1.25
restarter.image.pullPolicy	Container image pull policy	Always
restarter.image.restartPolicy	Container restart policy	Never
restarter.image.resources	Container resources	{}
restarter.concurrencyPolicy	Specifies how to treat concurrent executions of a job	Forbid
restarter.startingDeadlineSeconds	Optional deadline in seconds for starting the job if it misses scheduled time for any reason	60
restarter.successfulJobsHistoryLimit	The number of successful finished jobs to retain	3
restarter.failedJobsHistoryLimit	The number of failed finished jobs to retain	3
parent.enabled	Install parent Deployment to receive metrics from children nodes	true
parent.port	Parent's listen port	19999
parent.resources	Resources for the parent deployment	{}
parent.livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before liveness probes are initiated	0
parent.livenessProbe.failureThreshold	When a liveness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the liveness probe means restarting the container	3
parent.livenessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the liveness probe	30
parent.livenessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the liveness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
parent.livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the liveness probe times out	1
parent.readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before readiness probes are initiated	0
parent.readinessProbe.failureThreshold	When a readiness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the readiness probe means marking the Pod Unready	3
parent.readinessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the readiness probe	30
parent.readinessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the readiness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
parent.readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the readiness probe times out	1
parent.terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Duration in seconds the pod needs to terminate gracefully	300
parent.nodeSelector	Node selector for the parent deployment	{}
parent.tolerations	Tolerations settings for the parent deployment	[]
parent.affinity	Affinity settings for the parent deployment	{}
parent.priorityClassName	Pod priority class name for the parent deployment	""
parent.database.persistence	Whether the parent should use a persistent volume for the DB	true
parent.database.storageclass	The storage class for the persistent volume claim of the parent's database store, mounted to /var/cache/netdata	the default storage class
parent.database.volumesize	The storage space for the PVC of the parent database	2Gi
parent.alarms.persistence	Whether the parent should use a persistent volume for the alarms log	true
parent.alarms.storageclass	The storage class for the persistent volume claim of the parent's alarm log, mounted to /var/lib/netdata	the default storage class
parent.alarms.volumesize	The storage space for the PVC of the parent alarm log	1Gi
parent.env	Set environment parameters for the parent deployment	{}
parent.envFrom	Set environment parameters for the parent deployment from ConfigMap and/or Secrets	[]
parent.podLabels	Additional labels to add to the parent pods	{}
parent.podAnnotations	Additional annotations to add to the parent pods	{}
parent.dnsPolicy	DNS policy for pod	Default
parent.configs	Manage custom parent's configs	See Configuration files.
parent.claiming.enabled	Enable parent claiming for netdata cloud	false
parent.claiming.token	Claim token	""
parent.claiming.room	Comma separated list of claim rooms IDs	""
parent.extraVolumeMounts	Additional volumeMounts to add to the parent pods	[]
parent.extraVolumes	Additional volumes to add to the parent pods	[]
k8sState.enabled	Install this Deployment to gather data fr K8s cluster	yes
k8sState.port	Listen port	service.port (Same as parent's listen port)
k8sState.resources	Compute resources required by this Deployment	{}
k8sState.livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before liveness probes are initiated	0
k8sState.livenessProbe.failureThreshold	When a liveness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the liveness probe means restarting the container	3
k8sState.livenessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the liveness probe	30
k8sState.livenessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the liveness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
k8sState.livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the liveness probe times out	1
k8sState.readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before readiness probes are initiated	0
k8sState.readinessProbe.failureThreshold	When a readiness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the readiness probe means marking the Pod Unready	3
k8sState.readinessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the readiness probe	30
k8sState.readinessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the readiness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
k8sState.readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the readiness probe times out	1
k8sState.terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Duration in seconds the pod needs to terminate gracefully	30
k8sState.terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Duration in seconds the pod needs to terminate gracefully	300
k8sState.nodeSelector	Node selector	{}
k8sState.tolerations	Tolerations settings	[]
k8sState.affinity	Affinity settings	{}
k8sState.priorityClassName	Pod priority class name	""
k8sState.podLabels	Additional labels	{}
k8sState.podAnnotations	Additional annotations	{}
k8sState.podAnnotationAppArmor.enabled	Whether or not to include the AppArmor security annotation	true
k8sState.dnsPolicy	DNS policy for pod	ClusterFirstWithHostNet
k8sState.persistence.enabled	Whether should use a persistent volume for /var/lib/netdata	true
k8sState.persistence.storageclass	The storage class for the persistent volume claim of /var/lib/netdata	the default storage class
k8sState.persistence.volumesize	The storage space for the PVC of /var/lib/netdata	1Gi
k8sState.env	Set environment parameters	{}
k8sState.envFrom	Set environment parameters from ConfigMap and/or Secrets	[]
k8sState.configs	Manage custom configs	See Configuration files.
k8sState.claiming.enabled	Enable claiming for netdata cloud	false
k8sState.claiming.token	Claim token	""
k8sState.claiming.room	Comma separated list of claim rooms IDs	""
k8sState.extraVolumeMounts	Additional volumeMounts to add to the k8sState pods	[]
k8sState.extraVolumes	Additional volumes to add to the k8sState pods	[]
child.enabled	Install child DaemonSet to gather data from nodes	true
child.port	Children's listen port	service.port (Same as parent's listen port)
child.updateStrategy	An update strategy to replace existing DaemonSet pods with new pods	{}
child.resources	Resources for the child DaemonSet	{}
child.livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before liveness probes are initiated	0
child.livenessProbe.failureThreshold	When a liveness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the liveness probe means restarting the container	3
child.livenessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the liveness probe	30
child.livenessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the liveness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
child.livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the liveness probe times out	1
child.readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Number of seconds after the container has started before readiness probes are initiated	0
child.readinessProbe.failureThreshold	When a readiness probe fails, Kubernetes will try failureThreshold times before giving up. Giving up the readiness probe means marking the Pod Unready	3
child.readinessProbe.periodSeconds	How often (in seconds) to perform the readiness probe	30
child.readinessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the readiness probe to be considered successful after having failed	1
child.readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Number of seconds after which the readiness probe times out	1
child.terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Duration in seconds the pod needs to terminate gracefully	30
child.nodeSelector	Node selector for the child daemonsets	{}
child.tolerations	Tolerations settings for the child daemonsets	- operator: Exists with effect: NoSchedule
child.affinity	Affinity settings for the child daemonsets	{}
child.priorityClassName	Pod priority class name for the child daemonsets	""
child.env	Set environment parameters for the child daemonset	{}
child.envFrom	Set environment parameters for the child daemonset from ConfigMap and/or Secrets	[]
child.podLabels	Additional labels to add to the child pods	{}
child.podAnnotations	Additional annotations to add to the child pods	{}
child.hostNetwork	Usage of host networking and ports	true
child.dnsPolicy	DNS policy for pod. Should be ClusterFirstWithHostNet if child.hostNetwork = true	ClusterFirstWithHostNet
child.podAnnotationAppArmor.enabled	Whether or not to include the AppArmor security annotation	true
child.persistence.hostPath	Host node directory for storing child instance data	/var/lib/netdata-k8s-child
child.persistence.enabled	Whether or not to persist /var/lib/netdata in the child.persistence.hostPath.	true
child.podsMetadata.useKubelet	Send requests to the Kubelet /pods endpoint instead of Kubernetes API server to get pod metadata	false
child.podsMetadata.kubeletUrl	Kubelet URL	https://localhost:10250
child.configs	Manage custom child's configs	See Configuration files.
child.claiming.enabled	Enable child claiming for netdata cloud	false
child.claiming.token	Claim token	""
child.claiming.room	Comma separated list of claim rooms IDs	""
child.extraVolumeMounts	Additional volumeMounts to add to the child pods	[]
child.extraVolumes	Additional volumes to add to the child pods	[]
notifications.slack.webhook_url	Slack webhook URL	""
notifications.slack.recipient	Slack recipient list	""
initContainersImage.repository	Init containers' image repository	alpine
initContainersImage.tag	Init containers' image tag	latest
initContainersImage.pullPolicy	Init containers' image pull policy	Always
sysctlInitContainer.enabled	Enable an init container to modify Kernel settings	false
sysctlInitContainer.command	sysctl init container command to execute	[]
sysctlInitContainer.resources	sysctl Init container CPU/Memory resource requests/limits	{}
sd.image.repository	Service-discovery image repo	netdata/agent-sd
sd.image.tag	Service-discovery image tag	Latest stable release (e.g. v0.2.2)
sd.image.pullPolicy	Service-discovery image pull policy	Always
sd.child.enabled	Add service-discovery sidecar container to the netdata child pod definition	true
sd.child.resources	Child service-discovery container CPU/Memory resource requests/limits	{resources: {limits: {cpu: 50m, memory: 150Mi}, requests: {cpu: 50m, memory: 100Mi}}}
sd.child.configmap.name	Child service-discovery ConfigMap name	netdata-child-sd-config-map
sd.child.configmap.key	Child service-discovery ConfigMap key	config.yml
sd.child.configmap.from.file	File to use for child service-discovery configuration generation	sdconfig/sd-child.yml
sd.child.configmap.from.value	Value to use for child service-discovery configuration generation	{}

Example to set the parameters from the command line:

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release \
    --set notifications.slack.webhook_url=MySlackAPIURL \
    --set notifications.slack.recipient="@MyUser MyChannel"

Another example, to set a different ingress controller.

By default kubernetes.io/ingress.class set to use nginx as an ingress controller, but you can set Traefik as your ingress controller by setting ingress.annotations.

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release \
    --set ingress.annotations=kubernetes.io/ingress.class: traefik

Alternatively to passing each variable in the command line, a YAML file that specifies the values for the parameters can be provided while installing the chart. For example,

$ helm install ./netdata --name my-release -f values.yaml

Tip: You can use the default values.yaml

Note:: To opt out of anonymous statistics, set the DO_NOT_TRACK environment variable to non-zero or non-empty value in parent.env / child.env configuration (e.g: DO_NOT_TRACK: 1) or uncomment the line in values.yml.

Configuration files

Parameter	Description	Default
parent.configs.netdata	Contents of the parent's netdata.conf	memory mode = dbengine
parent.configs.stream	Contents of the parent's stream.conf	Store child data, accept all connections, and issue alarms for child data.
parent.configs.health	Contents of health_alarm_notify.conf	Email disabled, a sample of the required settings for Slack notifications
parent.configs.exporting	Contents of exporting.conf	Disabled
k8sState.configs.netdata	Contents of netdata.conf	No persistent storage, no alarms
k8sState.configs.stream	Contents of stream.conf	Send metrics to the parent at netdata:{{ service.port }}
k8sState.configs.exporting	Contents of exporting.conf	Disabled
k8sState.configs.go.d	Contents of go.d.conf	Only k8s_state enabled
k8sState.configs.go.d-k8s_state	Contents of go.d/k8s_state.conf	k8s_state configuration
child.configs.netdata	Contents of the child's netdata.conf	No persistent storage, no alarms, no UI
child.configs.stream	Contents of the child's stream.conf	Send metrics to the parent at netdata:{{ service.port }}
child.configs.exporting	Contents of the child's exporting.conf	Disabled
child.configs.kubelet	Contents of the child's go.d/k8s_kubelet.conf that drives the kubelet collector	Update metrics every sec, do not retry to detect the endpoint, look for the kubelet metrics at http://127.0.0.1:10255/metrics
child.configs.kubeproxy	Contents of the child's go.d/k8s_kubeproxy.conf that drives the kubeproxy collector	Update metrics every sec, do not retry to detect the endpoint, look for the coredns metrics at http://127.0.0.1:10249/metrics

To deploy additional netdata user configuration files, you will need to add similar entries to either the parent.configs or the child.configs arrays. Regardless of whether you add config files that reside directly under /etc/netdata or in a subdirectory such as /etc/netdata/go.d, you can use the already provided configurations as reference. For reference, the parent.configs the array includes an example alarm that would get triggered if the python.d example module was enabled. Whenever you pass the sensitive data to your configuration like the database credential you can take an option to put it into the Kubernetes Secret by specifying storedType: secret in the selected configuration. Default all the configuration will be placed in the Kubernetes configmap.

Note that with the default configuration of this chart, the parent does the health checks and triggers alarms, but does not collect much data. As a result, the only other configuration files that might make sense to add to the parent are the alarm and alarm template definitions, under /etc/netdata/health.d.

Tip: Do pay attention to the indentation of the config file contents, as it matters for the parsing of the yaml file. Note that the first line under var: | must be indented with two more spaces relative to the preceding line:

  data: |-
    config line 1 #Need those two spaces
        config line 2 #No problem indenting more here

Persistent volumes

There are two different persistent volumes on parent node by design (not counting any Configmap/Secret mounts). Both can be used, but they don't have to be. Keep in mind that whenever persistent volumes for parent are not used, all the data for specific PV is lost in case of pod removal.

1. database (/var/cache/netdata) - all metrics data is stored here. Performance of this volume affects query timings.
2. alarms (/var/lib/netdata) - alarm log, if not persistent pod recreation will result in parent appearing as a new node in netdata.cloud (due to ./registry/ and ./cloud.d/ being removed).

In case of child instance it is a bit simpler. By default, hostPath: /var/lib/netdata-k8s-child is mounted on child in: /var/lib/netdata. You can disable it but this option is pretty much required in a real life scenario, as without it each pod deletion will result in new replication node for a parent.

Service discovery and supported services

Netdata's service discovery, which is installed as part of the Helm chart installation, finds what services are running on a cluster's pods, converts that into configuration files, and exports them, so they can be monitored.

Applications

Service discovery currently supports the following applications via their associated collector:

• ActiveMQ
• Apache
• Bind
• CockroachDB
• Consul
• CoreDNS
• Elasticsearch
• Fluentd
• FreeRADIUS
• HDFS
• Lighttpd
• Logstash
• MySQL
• NGINX
• OpenVPN
• PHP-FPM
• RabbitMQ
• Solr
• Tengine
• Unbound
• VerneMQ
• ZooKeeper

Prometheus endpoints

Service discovery supports Prometheus endpoints via the Prometheus collector.

Annotations on pods allow a fine control of the scraping process:

• prometheus.io/scrape: The default configuration will scrape all pods and, if set to false, this annotation excludes the pod from the scraping process.
• prometheus.io/path: If the metrics path is not /metrics, define it with this annotation.
• prometheus.io/port: Scrape the pod on the indicated port instead of the pod’s declared ports.

Configure service discovery

If your cluster runs services on non-default ports or uses non-default names, you may need to configure service discovery to start collecting metrics from your services. You have to edit the default ConfigMap that is shipped with the Helmchart and deploy that to your cluster.

First, copy netdata-helmchart/sdconfig/child.yml to a new location outside the netdata-helmchart directory. The destination can be anywhere you like, but the following examples assume it resides next to the netdata-helmchart directory.

cp netdata-helmchart/sdconfig/child.yml .

Edit the new child.yml file according to your needs. See the Helm chart configuration and the file itself for details. You can then run helm install/helm upgrade with the --set-file argument to use your configured child.yml file instead of the default, changing the path if you copied it elsewhere.

helm install --set-file sd.child.configmap.from.value=./child.yml netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata
helm upgrade --set-file sd.child.configmap.from.value=./child.yml netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

Now that you pushed an edited ConfigMap to your cluster, service discovery should find and set up metrics collection from your non-default service.

Custom pod labels and annotations

Occasionally, you will want to add specific labels and annotations to the parent and/or child pods. You might want to do this to tell other applications on the cluster how to treat your pods, or simply to categorize applications on your cluster. You can label and annotate the parent and child pods by using the podLabels and podAnnotations dictionaries under the parent and child objects, respectively.

For example, suppose you're installing Netdata on all your database nodes, and you'd like the child pods to be labeled with workload: database so that you're able to recognize this.

At the same time, say you've configured chaoskube to kill all pods annotated with chaoskube.io/enabled: true, and you'd like chaoskube to be enabled for the parent pod but not the childs.

You would do this by installing as:

$ helm install \
  --set child.podLabels.workload=database \
  --set 'child.podAnnotations.chaoskube\.io/enabled=false' \
  --set 'parent.podAnnotations.chaoskube\.io/enabled=true' \
  netdata ./netdata-helmchart/charts/netdata

Contributing

If you want to contribute, we are humbled!

• Take a look at our Contributing Guidelines.
• This repository is under the Netdata Code Of Conduct.
• Chat about your contribution and let us help you in our forum!