Observability

Red Hat OpenShift Serverless 1.28

Observability features including administrator and developer metrics, cluster logging, and tracing.

Red Hat OpenShift Documentation Team

Abstract

This document provides details on how to monitor the performance of Knative services. It also details how to use OpenShift Logging and OpenShift distributed tracing with OpenShift Serverless.

Chapter 1. Administrator metrics

1.1. Serverless administrator metrics

Metrics enable cluster administrators to monitor how OpenShift Serverless cluster components and workloads are performing.

You can view different metrics for OpenShift Serverless by navigating to Dashboards in the web console Administrator perspective.

1.1.1. Prerequisites

  • See the OpenShift Container Platform documentation on Managing metrics for information about enabling metrics for your cluster.
  • You have access to an account with cluster administrator access (or dedicated administrator access for OpenShift Dedicated or Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS).
  • You have access to the Administrator perspective in the web console.
Warning

If Service Mesh is enabled with mTLS, metrics for Knative Serving are disabled by default because Service Mesh prevents Prometheus from scraping metrics.

For information about resolving this issue, see Enabling Knative Serving metrics when using Service Mesh with mTLS.

Scraping the metrics does not affect autoscaling of a Knative service, because scraping requests do not go through the activator. Consequently, no scraping takes place if no pods are running.

1.2. Serverless controller metrics

The following metrics are emitted by any component that implements a controller logic. These metrics show details about reconciliation operations and the work queue behavior upon which reconciliation requests are added to the work queue.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

work_queue_depth

The depth of the work queue.

Gauge

reconciler

Integer (no units)

reconcile_count

The number of reconcile operations.

Counter

reconciler, success

Integer (no units)

reconcile_latency

The latency of reconcile operations.

Histogram

reconciler, success

Milliseconds

workqueue_adds_total

The total number of add actions handled by the work queue.

Counter

name

Integer (no units)

workqueue_queue_latency_seconds

The length of time an item stays in the work queue before being requested.

Histogram

name

Seconds

workqueue_retries_total

The total number of retries that have been handled by the work queue.

Counter

name

Integer (no units)

workqueue_work_duration_seconds

The length of time it takes to process and item from the work queue.

Histogram

name

Seconds

workqueue_unfinished_work_seconds

The length of time that outstanding work queue items have been in progress.

Histogram

name

Seconds

workqueue_longest_running_processor_seconds

The length of time that the longest outstanding work queue items has been in progress.

Histogram

name

Seconds

1.3. Webhook metrics

Webhook metrics report useful information about operations. For example, if a large number of operations fail, this might indicate an issue with a user-created resource.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

request_count

The number of requests that are routed to the webhook.

Counter

admission_allowed, kind_group, kind_kind, kind_version, request_operation, resource_group, resource_namespace, resource_resource, resource_version

Integer (no units)

request_latencies

The response time for a webhook request.

Histogram

admission_allowed, kind_group, kind_kind, kind_version, request_operation, resource_group, resource_namespace, resource_resource, resource_version

Milliseconds

1.4. Knative Eventing metrics

Cluster administrators can view the following metrics for Knative Eventing components.

By aggregating the metrics from HTTP code, events can be separated into two categories; successful events (2xx) and failed events (5xx).

1.4.1. Broker ingress metrics

You can use the following metrics to debug the broker ingress, see how it is performing, and see which events are being dispatched by the ingress component.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

event_count

Number of events received by a broker.

Counter

broker_name, event_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, unique_name

Integer (no units)

event_dispatch_latencies

The time taken to dispatch an event to a channel.

Histogram

broker_name, event_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, unique_name

Milliseconds

1.4.2. Broker filter metrics

You can use the following metrics to debug broker filters, see how they are performing, and see which events are being dispatched by the filters. You can also measure the latency of the filtering action on an event.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

event_count

Number of events received by a broker.

Counter

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, trigger_name, unique_name

Integer (no units)

event_dispatch_latencies

The time taken to dispatch an event to a channel.

Histogram

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, trigger_name, unique_name

Milliseconds

event_processing_latencies

The time it takes to process an event before it is dispatched to a trigger subscriber.

Histogram

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, trigger_name, unique_name

Milliseconds

1.4.3. InMemoryChannel dispatcher metrics

You can use the following metrics to debug InMemoryChannel channels, see how they are performing, and see which events are being dispatched by the channels.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

event_count

Number of events dispatched by InMemoryChannel channels.

Counter

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, trigger_name, unique_name

Integer (no units)

event_dispatch_latencies

The time taken to dispatch an event from an InMemoryChannel channel.

Histogram

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, trigger_name, unique_name

Milliseconds

1.4.4. Event source metrics

You can use the following metrics to verify that events have been delivered from the event source to the connected event sink.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

event_count

Number of events sent by the event source.

Counter

broker_name, container_name, filter_type, namespace_name, response_code, response_code_class, trigger_name, unique_name

Integer (no units)

retry_event_count

Number of retried events sent by the event source after initially failing to be delivered.

Counter

event_source, event_type, name, namespace_name, resource_group, response_code, response_code_class, response_error, response_timeout

Integer (no units)

1.5. Knative Serving metrics

Cluster administrators can view the following metrics for Knative Serving components.

1.5.1. Activator metrics

You can use the following metrics to understand how applications respond when traffic passes through the activator.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

request_concurrency

The number of concurrent requests that are routed to the activator, or average concurrency over a reporting period.

Gauge

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

request_count

The number of requests that are routed to activator. These are requests that have been fulfilled from the activator handler.

Counter

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name,

Integer (no units)

request_latencies

The response time in milliseconds for a fulfilled, routed request.

Histogram

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Milliseconds

1.5.2. Autoscaler metrics

The autoscaler component exposes a number of metrics related to autoscaler behavior for each revision. For example, at any given time, you can monitor the targeted number of pods the autoscaler tries to allocate for a service, the average number of requests per second during the stable window, or whether the autoscaler is in panic mode if you are using the Knative pod autoscaler (KPA).

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

desired_pods

The number of pods the autoscaler tries to allocate for a service.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

excess_burst_capacity

The excess burst capacity served over the stable window.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

stable_request_concurrency

The average number of requests for each observed pod over the stable window.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

panic_request_concurrency

The average number of requests for each observed pod over the panic window.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

target_concurrency_per_pod

The number of concurrent requests that the autoscaler tries to send to each pod.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

stable_requests_per_second

The average number of requests-per-second for each observed pod over the stable window.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

panic_requests_per_second

The average number of requests-per-second for each observed pod over the panic window.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

target_requests_per_second

The number of requests-per-second that the autoscaler targets for each pod.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

panic_mode

This value is 1 if the autoscaler is in panic mode, or 0 if the autoscaler is not in panic mode.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

requested_pods

The number of pods that the autoscaler has requested from the Kubernetes cluster.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

actual_pods

The number of pods that are allocated and currently have a ready state.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

not_ready_pods

The number of pods that have a not ready state.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

pending_pods

The number of pods that are currently pending.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

terminating_pods

The number of pods that are currently terminating.

Gauge

configuration_name, namespace_name, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

1.5.3. Go runtime metrics

Each Knative Serving control plane process emits a number of Go runtime memory statistics (MemStats).

Note

The name tag for each metric is an empty tag.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

go_alloc

The number of bytes of allocated heap objects. This metric is the same as heap_alloc.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_total_alloc

The cumulative bytes allocated for heap objects.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_sys

The total bytes of memory obtained from the operating system.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_lookups

The number of pointer lookups performed by the runtime.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_mallocs

The cumulative count of heap objects allocated.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_frees

The cumulative count of heap objects that have been freed.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_alloc

The number of bytes of allocated heap objects.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_sys

The number of bytes of heap memory obtained from the operating system.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_idle

The number of bytes in idle, unused spans.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_in_use

The number of bytes in spans that are currently in use.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_released

The number of bytes of physical memory returned to the operating system.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_heap_objects

The number of allocated heap objects.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_stack_in_use

The number of bytes in stack spans that are currently in use.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_stack_sys

The number of bytes of stack memory obtained from the operating system.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_mspan_in_use

The number of bytes of allocated mspan structures.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_mspan_sys

The number of bytes of memory obtained from the operating system for mspan structures.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_mcache_in_use

The number of bytes of allocated mcache structures.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_mcache_sys

The number of bytes of memory obtained from the operating system for mcache structures.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_bucket_hash_sys

The number of bytes of memory in profiling bucket hash tables.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_gc_sys

The number of bytes of memory in garbage collection metadata.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_other_sys

The number of bytes of memory in miscellaneous, off-heap runtime allocations.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_next_gc

The target heap size of the next garbage collection cycle.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_last_gc

The time that the last garbage collection was completed in Epoch or Unix time.

Gauge

name

Nanoseconds

go_total_gc_pause_ns

The cumulative time in garbage collection stop-the-world pauses since the program started.

Gauge

name

Nanoseconds

go_num_gc

The number of completed garbage collection cycles.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_num_forced_gc

The number of garbage collection cycles that were forced due to an application calling the garbage collection function.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

go_gc_cpu_fraction

The fraction of the available CPU time of the program that has been used by the garbage collector since the program started.

Gauge

name

Integer (no units)

Chapter 2. Developer metrics

2.1. Serverless developer metrics overview

Metrics enable developers to monitor how Knative services are performing. You can use the OpenShift Container Platform monitoring stack to record and view health checks and metrics for your Knative services.

You can view different metrics for OpenShift Serverless by navigating to Dashboards in the web console Developer perspective.

Warning

If Service Mesh is enabled with mTLS, metrics for Knative Serving are disabled by default because Service Mesh prevents Prometheus from scraping metrics.

For information about resolving this issue, see Enabling Knative Serving metrics when using Service Mesh with mTLS.

Scraping the metrics does not affect autoscaling of a Knative service, because scraping requests do not go through the activator. Consequently, no scraping takes place if no pods are running.

2.1.1. Additional resources for OpenShift Container Platform

2.2. Knative service metrics exposed by default

Table 2.1. Metrics exposed by default for each Knative service on port 9090

Metric name, unit, and typeDescriptionMetric tags

queue_requests_per_second

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: gauge

Number of requests per second that hit the queue proxy.

Formula: stats.RequestCount / r.reportingPeriodSeconds

stats.RequestCount is calculated directly from the networking pkg stats for the given reporting duration.

destination_configuration="event-display", destination_namespace="pingsource1", destination_pod="event-display-00001-deployment-6b455479cb-75p6w", destination_revision="event-display-00001"

queue_proxied_operations_per_second

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: gauge

Number of proxied requests per second.

Formula: stats.ProxiedRequestCount / r.reportingPeriodSeconds

stats.ProxiedRequestCount is calculated directly from the networking pkg stats for the given reporting duration.

 

queue_average_concurrent_requests

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: gauge

Number of requests currently being handled by this pod.

Average concurrency is calculated at the networking pkg side as follows:

  • When a req change happens, the time delta between changes is calculated. Based on the result, the current concurrency number over delta is computed and added to the current computed concurrency. Additionally, a sum of the deltas is kept.

    Current concurrency over delta is computed as follows:

    global_concurrency × delta

  • Each time a reporting is done, the sum and current computed concurrency are reset.
  • When reporting the average concurrency the current computed concurrency is divided by the sum of deltas.
  • When a new request comes in, the global concurrency counter is increased. When a request is completed, the counter is decreased.

destination_configuration="event-display", destination_namespace="pingsource1", destination_pod="event-display-00001-deployment-6b455479cb-75p6w", destination_revision="event-display-00001"

queue_average_proxied_concurrent_requests

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: gauge

Number of proxied requests currently being handled by this pod:

stats.AverageProxiedConcurrency

destination_configuration="event-display", destination_namespace="pingsource1", destination_pod="event-display-00001-deployment-6b455479cb-75p6w", destination_revision="event-display-00001"

process_uptime

Metric unit: seconds

Metric type: gauge

The number of seconds that the process has been up.

destination_configuration="event-display", destination_namespace="pingsource1", destination_pod="event-display-00001-deployment-6b455479cb-75p6w", destination_revision="event-display-00001"

Table 2.2. Metrics exposed by default for each Knative service on port 9091

Metric name, unit, and typeDescriptionMetric tags

request_count

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: counter

The number of requests that are routed to queue-proxy.

configuration_name="event-display", container_name="queue-proxy", namespace_name="apiserversource1", pod_name="event-display-00001-deployment-658fd4f9cf-qcnr5", response_code="200", response_code_class="2xx", revision_name="event-display-00001", service_name="event-display"

request_latencies

Metric unit: milliseconds

Metric type: histogram

The response time in milliseconds.

configuration_name="event-display", container_name="queue-proxy", namespace_name="apiserversource1", pod_name="event-display-00001-deployment-658fd4f9cf-qcnr5", response_code="200", response_code_class="2xx", revision_name="event-display-00001", service_name="event-display"

app_request_count

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: counter

The number of requests that are routed to user-container.

configuration_name="event-display", container_name="queue-proxy", namespace_name="apiserversource1", pod_name="event-display-00001-deployment-658fd4f9cf-qcnr5", response_code="200", response_code_class="2xx", revision_name="event-display-00001", service_name="event-display"

app_request_latencies

Metric unit: milliseconds

Metric type: histogram

The response time in milliseconds.

configuration_name="event-display", container_name="queue-proxy", namespace_name="apiserversource1", pod_name="event-display-00001-deployment-658fd4f9cf-qcnr5", response_code="200", response_code_class="2xx", revision_name="event-display-00001", service_name="event-display"

queue_depth

Metric unit: dimensionless

Metric type: gauge

The current number of items in the serving and waiting queue, or not reported if unlimited concurrency. breaker.inFlight is used.

configuration_name="event-display", container_name="queue-proxy", namespace_name="apiserversource1", pod_name="event-display-00001-deployment-658fd4f9cf-qcnr5", response_code="200", response_code_class="2xx", revision_name="event-display-00001", service_name="event-display"

2.3. Knative service with custom application metrics

You can extend the set of metrics exported by a Knative service. The exact implementation depends on your application and the language used.

The following listing implements a sample Go application that exports the count of processed events custom metric.

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "log"
  "net/http"
  "os"

  "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus" 1
  "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promauto"
  "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
)

var (
  opsProcessed = promauto.NewCounter(prometheus.CounterOpts{ 2
     Name: "myapp_processed_ops_total",
     Help: "The total number of processed events",
  })
)


func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  log.Print("helloworld: received a request")
  target := os.Getenv("TARGET")
  if target == "" {
     target = "World"
  }
  fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello %s!\n", target)
  opsProcessed.Inc() 3
}

func main() {
  log.Print("helloworld: starting server...")

  port := os.Getenv("PORT")
  if port == "" {
     port = "8080"
  }

  http.HandleFunc("/", handler)

  // Separate server for metrics requests
  go func() { 4
     mux := http.NewServeMux()
     server := &http.Server{
        Addr: fmt.Sprintf(":%s", "9095"),
        Handler: mux,
     }
     mux.Handle("/metrics", promhttp.Handler())
     log.Printf("prometheus: listening on port %s", 9095)
     log.Fatal(server.ListenAndServe())
  }()

   // Use same port as normal requests for metrics
  //http.Handle("/metrics", promhttp.Handler()) 5
  log.Printf("helloworld: listening on port %s", port)
  log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(fmt.Sprintf(":%s", port), nil))
}
1
Including the Prometheus packages.
2
Defining the opsProcessed metric.
3
Incrementing the opsProcessed metric.
4
Configuring to use a separate server for metrics requests.
5
Configuring to use the same port as normal requests for metrics and the metrics subpath.

2.4. Configuration for scraping custom metrics

Custom metrics scraping is performed by an instance of Prometheus purposed for user workload monitoring. After you enable user workload monitoring and create the application, you need a configuration that defines how the monitoring stack will scrape the metrics.

The following sample configuration defines the ksvc for your application and configures the service monitor. The exact configuration depends on your application and how it exports the metrics.

apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1 1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: helloworld-go
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: helloworld-go
      annotations:
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: docker.io/skonto/helloworld-go:metrics
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: "200m"
        env:
        - name: TARGET
          value: "Go Sample v1"
---
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1 2
kind: ServiceMonitor
metadata:
  labels:
  name: helloworld-go-sm
spec:
  endpoints:
  - port: queue-proxy-metrics
    scheme: http
  - port: app-metrics
    scheme: http
  namespaceSelector: {}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
       name:  helloworld-go-sm
---
apiVersion: v1 3
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    name:  helloworld-go-sm
  name:  helloworld-go-sm
spec:
  ports:
  - name: queue-proxy-metrics
    port: 9091
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 9091
  - name: app-metrics
    port: 9095
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 9095
  selector:
    serving.knative.dev/service: helloworld-go
  type: ClusterIP
1
Application specification.
2
Configuration of which application’s metrics are scraped.
3
Configuration of the way metrics are scraped.

2.5. Examining metrics of a service

After you have configured the application to export the metrics and the monitoring stack to scrape them, you can examine the metrics in the web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving.

Procedure

  1. Optional: Run requests against your application that you will be able to see in the metrics:

    $ hello_route=$(oc get ksvc helloworld-go -n ns1 -o jsonpath='{.status.url}') && \
        curl $hello_route

    Example output

    Hello Go Sample v1!

  2. In the web console, navigate to the ObserveMetrics interface.
  3. In the input field, enter the query for the metric you want to observe, for example:

    revision_app_request_count{namespace="ns1", job="helloworld-go-sm"}

    Another example:

    myapp_processed_ops_total{namespace="ns1", job="helloworld-go-sm"}
  4. Observe the visualized metrics:

    Observing metrics of a service
    Observing metrics of a service

2.5.1. Queue proxy metrics

Each Knative service has a proxy container that proxies the connections to the application container. A number of metrics are reported for the queue proxy performance.

You can use the following metrics to measure if requests are queued at the proxy side and the actual delay in serving requests at the application side.

Metric nameDescriptionTypeTagsUnit

revision_request_count

The number of requests that are routed to queue-proxy pod.

Counter

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

revision_request_latencies

The response time of revision requests.

Histogram

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Milliseconds

revision_app_request_count

The number of requests that are routed to the user-container pod.

Counter

configuration_name, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

revision_app_request_latencies

The response time of revision app requests.

Histogram

configuration_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Milliseconds

revision_queue_depth

The current number of items in the serving and waiting queues. This metric is not reported if unlimited concurrency is configured.

Gauge

configuration_name, event-display, container_name, namespace_name, pod_name, response_code_class, revision_name, service_name

Integer (no units)

2.6. Dashboard for service metrics

You can examine the metrics using a dedicated dashboard that aggregates queue proxy metrics by namespace.

2.6.1. Examining metrics of a service in the dashboard

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving.

Procedure

  1. In the web console, navigate to the ObserveMetrics interface.
  2. Select the Knative User Services (Queue Proxy metrics) dashboard.
  3. Select the Namespace, Configuration, and Revision that correspond to your application.
  4. Observe the visualized metrics:

    Observing metrics of a service using a dashboard

Chapter 3. Cluster logging

3.1. Using OpenShift Logging with OpenShift Serverless

3.1.1. About deploying the logging subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift Container Platform cluster administrators can deploy the logging subsystem using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or CLI to install the OpenShift Elasticsearch Operator and Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator. When the Operators are installed, you create a ClusterLogging custom resource (CR) to schedule logging subsystem pods and other resources necessary to support the logging subsystem. The Operators are responsible for deploying, upgrading, and maintaining the logging subsystem.

The ClusterLogging CR defines a complete logging subsystem environment that includes all the components of the logging stack to collect, store and visualize logs. The Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator watches the logging subsystem CR and adjusts the logging deployment accordingly.

Administrators and application developers can view the logs of the projects for which they have view access.

3.1.2. About deploying and configuring the logging subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift

The logging subsystem is designed to be used with the default configuration, which is tuned for small to medium sized OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

The installation instructions that follow include a sample ClusterLogging custom resource (CR), which you can use to create a logging subsystem instance and configure your logging subsystem environment.

If you want to use the default logging subsystem install, you can use the sample CR directly.

If you want to customize your deployment, make changes to the sample CR as needed. The following describes the configurations you can make when installing your OpenShift Logging instance or modify after installation. See the Configuring sections for more information on working with each component, including modifications you can make outside of the ClusterLogging custom resource.

3.1.2.1. Configuring and Tuning the logging subsystem

You can configure your logging subsystem by modifying the ClusterLogging custom resource deployed in the openshift-logging project.

You can modify any of the following components upon install or after install:

Memory and CPU
You can adjust both the CPU and memory limits for each component by modifying the resources block with valid memory and CPU values:
spec:
  logStore:
    elasticsearch:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu:
          memory: 16Gi
        requests:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 16Gi
      type: "elasticsearch"
  collection:
    logs:
      fluentd:
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu:
            memory:
          requests:
            cpu:
            memory:
        type: "fluentd"
  visualization:
    kibana:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu:
          memory:
        requests:
          cpu:
          memory:
      type: kibana
Elasticsearch storage
You can configure a persistent storage class and size for the Elasticsearch cluster using the storageClass name and size parameters. The Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator creates a persistent volume claim (PVC) for each data node in the Elasticsearch cluster based on these parameters.
  spec:
    logStore:
      type: "elasticsearch"
      elasticsearch:
        nodeCount: 3
        storage:
          storageClassName: "gp2"
          size: "200G"

This example specifies each data node in the cluster will be bound to a PVC that requests "200G" of "gp2" storage. Each primary shard will be backed by a single replica.

Note

Omitting the storage block results in a deployment that includes ephemeral storage only.

  spec:
    logStore:
      type: "elasticsearch"
      elasticsearch:
        nodeCount: 3
        storage: {}
Elasticsearch replication policy

You can set the policy that defines how Elasticsearch shards are replicated across data nodes in the cluster:

  • FullRedundancy. The shards for each index are fully replicated to every data node.
  • MultipleRedundancy. The shards for each index are spread over half of the data nodes.
  • SingleRedundancy. A single copy of each shard. Logs are always available and recoverable as long as at least two data nodes exist.
  • ZeroRedundancy. No copies of any shards. Logs may be unavailable (or lost) in the event a node is down or fails.

3.1.2.2. Sample modified ClusterLogging custom resource

The following is an example of a ClusterLogging custom resource modified using the options previously described.

Sample modified ClusterLogging custom resource

apiVersion: "logging.openshift.io/v1"
kind: "ClusterLogging"
metadata:
  name: "instance"
  namespace: "openshift-logging"
spec:
  managementState: "Managed"
  logStore:
    type: "elasticsearch"
    retentionPolicy:
      application:
        maxAge: 1d
      infra:
        maxAge: 7d
      audit:
        maxAge: 7d
    elasticsearch:
      nodeCount: 3
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: 200m
          memory: 16Gi
        requests:
          cpu: 200m
          memory: 16Gi
        storage:
          storageClassName: "gp2"
          size: "200G"
      redundancyPolicy: "SingleRedundancy"
  visualization:
    type: "kibana"
    kibana:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 1Gi
        requests:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1Gi
      replicas: 1
  collection:
    logs:
      type: "fluentd"
      fluentd:
        resources:
          limits:
            memory: 1Gi
          requests:
            cpu: 200m
            memory: 1Gi

3.2. Finding logs for Knative Serving components

You can find the logs for Knative Serving components using the following procedure.

3.2.1. Using OpenShift Logging to find logs for Knative Serving components

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Get the Kibana route:

    $ oc -n openshift-logging get route kibana
  2. Use the route’s URL to navigate to the Kibana dashboard and log in.
  3. Check that the index is set to .all. If the index is not set to .all, only the OpenShift Container Platform system logs will be listed.
  4. Filter the logs by using the knative-serving namespace. Enter kubernetes.namespace_name:knative-serving in the search box to filter results.
Note

Knative Serving uses structured logging by default. You can enable the parsing of these logs by customizing the OpenShift Logging Fluentd settings. This makes the logs more searchable and enables filtering on the log level to quickly identify issues.

3.3. Finding logs for Knative Serving services

You can find the logs for Knative Serving services using the following procedure.

3.3.1. Using OpenShift Logging to find logs for services deployed with Knative Serving

With OpenShift Logging, the logs that your applications write to the console are collected in Elasticsearch. The following procedure outlines how to apply these capabilities to applications deployed by using Knative Serving.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Get the Kibana route:

    $ oc -n openshift-logging get route kibana
  2. Use the route’s URL to navigate to the Kibana dashboard and log in.
  3. Check that the index is set to .all. If the index is not set to .all, only the OpenShift system logs will be listed.
  4. Filter the logs by using the knative-serving namespace. Enter a filter for the service in the search box to filter results.

    Example filter

    kubernetes.namespace_name:default AND kubernetes.labels.serving_knative_dev\/service:{service_name}

    You can also filter by using /configuration or /revision.

  5. Narrow your search by using kubernetes.container_name:<user_container> to only display the logs generated by your application. Otherwise, you will see logs from the queue-proxy.
Note

Use JSON-based structured logging in your application to allow for the quick filtering of these logs in production environments.

Chapter 4. Tracing

4.1. Tracing requests

Distributed tracing records the path of a request through the various services that make up an application. It is used to tie information about different units of work together, to understand a whole chain of events in a distributed transaction. The units of work might be executed in different processes or hosts.

4.1.1. Distributed tracing overview

As a service owner, you can use distributed tracing to instrument your services to gather insights into your service architecture. You can use distributed tracing for monitoring, network profiling, and troubleshooting the interaction between components in modern, cloud-native, microservices-based applications.

With distributed tracing you can perform the following functions:

  • Monitor distributed transactions
  • Optimize performance and latency
  • Perform root cause analysis

Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing consists of two main components:

  • Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform - This component is based on the open source Jaeger project.
  • Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing data collection - This component is based on the open source OpenTelemetry project.

Both of these components are based on the vendor-neutral OpenTracing APIs and instrumentation.

4.1.2. Additional resources for OpenShift Container Platform

4.2. Using Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing

You can use Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing with OpenShift Serverless to monitor and troubleshoot serverless applications.

4.2.1. Using Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing to enable distributed tracing

Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing is made up of several components that work together to collect, store, and display tracing data.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform account with cluster administrator access.
  • You have not yet installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator, Knative Serving, and Knative Eventing. These must be installed after the Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing installation.
  • You have installed Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing by following the OpenShift Container Platform "Installing distributed tracing" documentation.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have created a project or have access to a project with the appropriate roles and permissions to create applications and other workloads in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. Create an OpenTelemetryCollector custom resource (CR):

    Example OpenTelemetryCollector CR

    apiVersion: opentelemetry.io/v1alpha1
    kind: OpenTelemetryCollector
    metadata:
      name: cluster-collector
      namespace: <namespace>
    spec:
      mode: deployment
      config: |
        receivers:
          zipkin:
        processors:
        exporters:
          jaeger:
            endpoint: jaeger-all-in-one-inmemory-collector-headless.tracing-system.svc:14250
            tls:
              ca_file: "/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt"
          logging:
        service:
          pipelines:
            traces:
              receivers: [zipkin]
              processors: []
              exporters: [jaeger, logging]

  2. Verify that you have two pods running in the namespace where Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing is installed:

    $ oc get pods -n <namespace>

    Example output

    NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    cluster-collector-collector-85c766b5c-b5g99   1/1     Running   0          5m56s
    jaeger-all-in-one-inmemory-ccbc9df4b-ndkl5    2/2     Running   0          15m

  3. Verify that the following headless services have been created:

    $ oc get svc -n <namespace> | grep headless

    Example output

    cluster-collector-collector-headless            ClusterIP   None             <none>        9411/TCP                                 7m28s
    jaeger-all-in-one-inmemory-collector-headless   ClusterIP   None             <none>        9411/TCP,14250/TCP,14267/TCP,14268/TCP   16m

    These services are used to configure Jaeger, Knative Serving, and Knative Eventing. The name of the Jaeger service may vary.

  4. Install the OpenShift Serverless Operator by following the "Installing the OpenShift Serverless Operator" documentation.
  5. Install Knative Serving by creating the following KnativeServing CR:

    Example KnativeServing CR

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
        name: knative-serving
        namespace: knative-serving
    spec:
      config:
        tracing:
          backend: "zipkin"
          zipkin-endpoint: "http://cluster-collector-collector-headless.tracing-system.svc:9411/api/v2/spans"
          debug: "false"
          sample-rate: "0.1" 1

    1
    The sample-rate defines sampling probability. Using sample-rate: "0.1" means that 1 in 10 traces are sampled.
  6. Install Knative Eventing by creating the following KnativeEventing CR:

    Example KnativeEventing CR

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeEventing
    metadata:
        name: knative-eventing
        namespace: knative-eventing
    spec:
      config:
        tracing:
          backend: "zipkin"
          zipkin-endpoint: "http://cluster-collector-collector-headless.tracing-system.svc:9411/api/v2/spans"
          debug: "false"
          sample-rate: "0.1" 1

    1
    The sample-rate defines sampling probability. Using sample-rate: "0.1" means that 1 in 10 traces are sampled.
  7. Create a Knative service:

    Example service

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: helloworld-go
    spec:
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: helloworld-go
          annotations:
            autoscaling.knative.dev/minScale: "1"
            autoscaling.knative.dev/target: "1"
        spec:
          containers:
          - image: quay.io/openshift-knative/helloworld:v1.2
            imagePullPolicy: Always
            resources:
              requests:
                cpu: "200m"
            env:
            - name: TARGET
              value: "Go Sample v1"

  8. Make some requests to the service:

    Example HTTPS request

    $ curl https://helloworld-go.example.com

  9. Get the URL for the Jaeger web console:

    Example command

    $ oc get route jaeger-all-in-one-inmemory  -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}' -n <namespace>

    You can now examine traces by using the Jaeger console.

4.3. Using Jaeger distributed tracing

If you do not want to install all of the components of Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing, you can still use distributed tracing on OpenShift Container Platform with OpenShift Serverless.

4.3.1. Configuring Jaeger to enable distributed tracing

To enable distributed tracing using Jaeger, you must install and configure Jaeger as a standalone integration.

Prerequisites

  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or you have cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.
  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator, Knative Serving, and Knative Eventing.
  • You have installed the Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing platform Operator.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have created a project or have access to a project with the appropriate roles and permissions to create applications and other workloads.

Procedure

  1. Create and apply a Jaeger custom resource (CR) that contains the following:

    Jaeger CR

    apiVersion: jaegertracing.io/v1
    kind: Jaeger
    metadata:
      name: jaeger
      namespace: default

  2. Enable tracing for Knative Serving, by editing the KnativeServing CR and adding a YAML configuration for tracing:

    Tracing YAML example for Serving

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
      name: knative-serving
      namespace: knative-serving
    spec:
      config:
        tracing:
          sample-rate: "0.1" 1
          backend: zipkin 2
          zipkin-endpoint: "http://jaeger-collector.default.svc.cluster.local:9411/api/v2/spans" 3
          debug: "false" 4

    1
    The sample-rate defines sampling probability. Using sample-rate: "0.1" means that 1 in 10 traces are sampled.
    2
    backend must be set to zipkin.
    3
    The zipkin-endpoint must point to your jaeger-collector service endpoint. To get this endpoint, substitute the namespace where the Jaeger CR is applied.
    4
    Debugging should be set to false. Enabling debug mode by setting debug: "true" allows all spans to be sent to the server, bypassing sampling.
  3. Enable tracing for Knative Eventing by editing the KnativeEventing CR:

    Tracing YAML example for Eventing

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeEventing
    metadata:
      name: knative-eventing
      namespace: knative-eventing
    spec:
      config:
        tracing:
          sample-rate: "0.1" 1
          backend: zipkin 2
          zipkin-endpoint: "http://jaeger-collector.default.svc.cluster.local:9411/api/v2/spans" 3
          debug: "false" 4

    1
    The sample-rate defines sampling probability. Using sample-rate: "0.1" means that 1 in 10 traces are sampled.
    2
    Set backend to zipkin.
    3
    Point the zipkin-endpoint to your jaeger-collector service endpoint. To get this endpoint, substitute the namespace where the Jaeger CR is applied.
    4
    Debugging should be set to false. Enabling debug mode by setting debug: "true" allows all spans to be sent to the server, bypassing sampling.

Verification

You can access the Jaeger web console to see tracing data, by using the jaeger route.

  1. Get the jaeger route’s hostname by entering the following command:

    $ oc get route jaeger -n default

    Example output

    NAME     HOST/PORT                         PATH   SERVICES       PORT    TERMINATION   WILDCARD
    jaeger   jaeger-default.apps.example.com          jaeger-query   <all>   reencrypt     None

  2. Open the endpoint address in your browser to view the console.

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