IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Monitoring and Performance Management
The IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, previously known as IBM BlueMix Container Service, is a hosted Kubernetes cluster provided by IBM. Kubernetes monitoring is an important part of a comprehensive application performance management solution for orchestrated containerized applications running on IBM Cloud.
To help DevOps optimize application performance and further automate performance management workflows, Instana’s automatic IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Monitoring goes beyond the simple metrics and provides features like:
- Discovery of IBM Cloud Kubernetes (K8s) nodes and deployed services
- Automatic code instrumentation and tracing for Java, Node, .NET and 7 other languages
- Visualization of service dependency maps
- End-to-end tracing of 100% of requests across all systems and services
- Cluster, Kubernetes, application and service health monitoring
Comprehensive monitoring of the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service infrastructure requires performance visibility for the virtual host, running pods, containers and orchestration, and any applications and services deployed on the cluster.
Instana is the quickest and easiest way to monitor your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service across the stack to deliver comprehensive application insights. The Instana agent automatically discovers all Kubernetes instances, deployed service technologies, deploys the necessary monitoring sensors and begins tracing applications and requests. Instana also automatically determines the health of the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster.
Monitoring IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Performance
Once deployed, the Instana Agent automatically identifies all running Kubernetes nodes – then automatically deploys and configures Instana’s Kubernetes Monitoring sensor. Instana’s curated knowledge base already knows what performance metrics are relevant for collection and how to collect them. To monitor the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster health, additional metrics are also collected. Since Instana’s automatic configuration collects all relevant information, monitoring an hosted Kubernetes cluster couldn’t be easier.
To determine overall service health, the Instana Cloud Kubernetes Service Monitoring sensors also collect KPIs on the monitored IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster environment to determine its health status.
With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and health signatures from the curated knowledge base, Instana automatically detects issues inside the Kubernetes cluster and service incidents. Based on severity, Instana automates incident escalation and root cause identification, helping you solve issues before users are impacted.
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Configuration Monitoring
In addition to performance and health data, Instana’s Kubernetes Monitoring sensor also collects configuration data for Kubernetes, pods and containers, allowing Instana to analyze and correlate configuration data and changes with application and service performance information.
All IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service performance and configuration information is summarized in a single Monitoring Dashboard, showing all relevant information in a single place for easy problem-solving and performance optimization.
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service performance monitoring centers around service metrics and their interactions with other services or data stores. Instana automatically identifies and collects the relevant service metrics.
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Monitoring Data
The IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Monitoring metrics includes four types of data; Cluster Data, Deployment Information, Pod Measurements, Node Measurements:
| Cluster Data | Node Measurements |
| KPIs | KPIs |
| Node Count | Pod Allocation |
| Pod Allocation | Pod Capacity |
| CPU Request Allocation | CPU Request Allocation |
| CPU Limit Allocation | CPU Limit Allocation |
| Memory Request Allocation | Memory Request Allocation |
| Memory Limit Allocation | Memory Limit Allocation |
| CPU Resources | CPU Resources |
| CPU Requests | CPU Requests |
| CPU Limits | CPU Limits |
| CPU Capacity | CPU Capacity |
| Memory Resources | Memory Resources |
| Memory Requests | Memory Requests |
| Memory Limits | Memory Limits |
| Memory Capacity | Memory Capacity |
| Pods (running / allocated / pending) | Conditions |
| Pods Capacity | Labels |
| Replicas (available / desired) | Pod list |
| Node list with KPIs | |
| Deployment list with KPIs | |
| Component Status | |
| Deployment Information | Pod Measurements |
| Conditions | KPIs |
| Labels | Phase |
| CPU Resources | Restarts |
| CPU Requests | CPU Requests |
| CPU Limits | CPU Limits |
| Memory Resources | Memory Requests |
| Memory Requests | Memory Limits |
| Memory Limits | Conditions |
| Pods (available / desired) | Labels |
| Pods (pending / ready / unscheduled / unready) | Container List (state / restarts) |
| Pending Phase Duration |
Further information on the different sensor information is available in the
Instana IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Management Documentation.
Instana Agent Installation: Getting Started
Ready to start? You’ll need an Instana Trial or Account first. Already got one? The best place to begin is Instana’s Getting Started Guide.
