vROps Management Pack for Kubernetes

Visibility into your container environment with VMware vRealize Operations (vROps) got much more robust this past quarter with the latest release of the management pack for Kubernetes, version 1.5.1. Downloaded it here: https://marketplace.cloud.vmware.com/services/details/vrealize-operations-management-pack-for-kubernetes-1-5-1?slug=true.

VMware Technical Marketing Manager, Matt Bradford, published a great blog upon its release: https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2020/12/announcing-the-vrealize-operations-management-pack-for-kubernetes-1-5-1.html. For reference, this was previously called the management pack for Container Monitoring, version 1.4.3.

So, what's new here? In addition to what the cAdvisor exporter provides, we are now capturing metrics from four other exporters and Prometheus. The collection diagram looks like this.

In addition to Kubernetes, this management pack supports the following distributions:

1. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated (TKGI)

2. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG)

3. RedHat OpenShift

4. Kubernetes on AWS EC2, or Azure, or GCP VMs

Generally, you will create a Kubernetes adapter instance in vROps for each Kubernetes Cluster you want to monitor.

Connection Information allows you to configure your targets and provide credentials:

1. Master URL - URL of the Kubernetes Cluster API

2. Collector Service - three options to use:

   1. Prometheus Server

   2. Kubelet - collector service running as cAdvisor inside Kubelet

   3. DaemonSet - collector service deployed externally as a DaemonSet

3. cAdvisor Port - if the collector service has been deployed as a DaemonSet

4. Credential - here you will provide credentials, optional proxys, your Prometheus target and credentials, and more.

Advanced Settings provides:

1. TKGI Cluster ID - for TKGI clusters only

2. TKGI API FQDN - for TKGI clusters only

3. vCenter Server - if the Kubernetes Cluster is hosted on vSphere, the Kubernetes Node will be mapped to the vSphere VM

4. Java Process Monitoring - collection of Java processes as child objects of Kubernetes Containers.

5. Delete Non Existent objects older than - timeline for delete of objects

6. Enable cAdvisor Install Check - checks for installation of cAdvisor exporter

In addition to the adapter itself, the Kubernetes management pack contains:

1. One Dashboard

2. Seven Views

3. One Report

4. 22 Alerts

5. 49 Symptoms

6. 19 Recommendations

Explore the Kubernetes Overview dashboard for visibility into your container environment.